Zuckerberg may be an unlikely CEO but his business decisions show all the characteristics of many other successful entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, James Dyson, Richard Branson, or Oprah Winfrey. While they may have very different personalities, they all share two key traits: Passion and Purpose, while making the right decisions when it comes to People, Products and Partnerships. Or so says Ekaterina Walter in her book “Think Like Zuck: The Five Business Secrets of Facebook’s Improbably Brilliant CEO Mark Zuckerberg”.

In her book she explores the qualities of great leaders, what it means to have a “Think Like Zuck” type of mentality, and how to build successful companies. Packed with examples of Facebook’s success principles in action—as well as those of Zappos, TOMS, Threadless, Dyson, and other companies—the book gives you the inspiration, knowledge, and insight to make your own mark in the world, to build a business that makes a difference, and to lead your organization to long-term profitability and growth.

Below are just some of the insights.

Passion and Purpose

What’s the difference between Passion and Purpose? Passion is what drives you, what makes you keep going despite all the setbacks. In the words of Steve Jobs (during his 1995 interview with the Smithsonian Institute): “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” The most successful entrepreneurs never give up.

Purpose, on the other hand, is the reason your company exists. The letter which accompanied Facebook’s IPO prospectus opens by declaring: “Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission – to make the world more open and connected.” Facebook’s success can be attributed to the fact that even as the company grew it remained true to its purpose of trying to connect people in the simplest way possible. All of its most important innovations, such as the Wall, the News Feed, photo tagging and Groups, have come out of this sense of purpose.

People, Products and Partnerships

A company’s purpose drives its decisions about the people it hires, the products it makes and the partnerships it forges. The clearer the sense of purpose, the more focused these decisions will be. Companies such as Facebook and Zappos have a rigorous screening process for new employees: they don’t just want the right skills, they want people who will contribute to the company’s strong culture. In his book, Delivering Happiness, Zappos CEO and founder Tony Hsieh says his employees: “are the only competitive advantages that we will have in the long run. Everything else can and will eventually be copied.”

Hiring the right people, having a strong sense of purpose, and infusing the company with his passion have all shaped Zuckerberg’s hugely successful product. Facebook’s design and its business model are aligned with Mark’s purpose of connecting the world. He has put the user experience at the center of his vision even to the extent of attracting criticism from his investors: his pursuit of growth over money has not always been seen as sound business management.

Zuckerberg would be the first to admit that he is not a born business leader, but one of the strengths of successful entrepreneurs is to know your weaknesses and create the right partnerships to balance this out. At Facebook, Zuckerberg brought in Sheryl Sandberg to be his COO, and her business strategies have been responsible for much of Facebook’s prosperity. Partnerships might be with an individual, a company, or with the right investors: the best business leaders know that success is a team sport.

The company has firm control over its strategy through the Intel Social Media Center of Excellence. They’ve set down Social Media Guidelines so employees understand their rules of engagement – disclose, protect and use common sense. If you’re interested in learning more about the Center, Forrester Group has a case study “Intel’s Social Media Center Of Excellence Responds In Real Time – A Social Computing Report” that is available for $499.

The company is everywhere - blogs, Facebook (over 10 million likes!), Twitter (over a quarter million followers!), YouTube (35 million video views!), Google+ and LinkedIn – but brings it together in their Online Newsroom, Free Press. Here fans can follow Intel in all of its social media glory or download a mobile app to keep in touch wherever they go.

Aware of the need to reach out to the next generation, Intel recently launched a beta version for a digital magazine, iQ by Intel. Optimized for mobile reading, iQ mixes original content with content from other sites and lets users vote on items to feature on the front page, or move up by sharing in a social media platform.

Social Media Thought Leader and Friend – Intel’s Ekaterina Walter

I’d like to introduce you to a personal friend of mine, and one reason behind this success, Intel’s global social media strategist, Ekaterina Walter. Under her leadership, Intel has seen an astonishing 10% to 12% monthly fan base growth. Her principles for Facebook engagement include original content, not just automated, and original videos, not just YouTube links.

In a two part Forbes magazine interview with Shel Israel, she is described as “the personification of a new Intel,” a “bridge builder,” and a person “whose goal is to connect all people and by so doing empower them.” Israel chose her as a social media thought leader based on his belief (and mine) that those with the most influence are those who share the most interesting and useful information.

Not only is Ekaterina one of the foremost social media thinkers, she also wins minds and speaks broadly on social media matters as well as the role of women in leadership and technology. She recently shared her personal journey at a TEDx conference in a speech entitled “Perceptions are Reality. Or Are They? An Immigrant’s Journey.”

She writes on social engagement for publications like Mashable, Huffington Post, and Fast Company. Her measurements for success include who is reached, how often and unique impressions. She encourages companies to understand their audience and provide content that resonates. I believe she will be a great addition to your writer roster because she is so open to sharing what she knows.

I see her as a second Scott Monty, the global head of social media for Ford Motor Company, who shares his personal perspectives on social media in his own blog. I think it’s a great idea when companies allow their people to make connections, like Ford did with Scott and Intel is doing with Ekaterina. Certainly food for thought as you develop your own social media strategy.

The first place to find someone who has the credibility and the intent to influence others to change their behavior is in your own network. Going back to The YOU MATTER Manifesto, you already have the power and ability within your means to be an influencer. If you have credibility within a topic and ask those with whom you have strong ties to repeat information about something you like, they will do it because of their belief in you. If you did not like a product or service, and suddenly find something nice to say about it, your circle will sit up and take notice. I strongly believe that consistent engagement on social media is the best mechanism for building your influential base.

Existing businesses can turn satisfied customers into influencers. When someone writes a testimonial or review, post it on your website or send it out through your social media network. Then let them know what you have done and suggest that they tell their friends. Those in the HR field are fortunate that HR Examiner has done the grunt work and developed a list of 175 HR influencers based on Brian Solis’ three principles of influence – reach, resonance and relevance. If you’re not in the HR, you can search for your experts, analysts and journalists, or perform your own keyword search using such phrases as “best,” “worst” or “recommended” related to your product or service, and engage in conversation with them.

The Leadership Learning Community published an article, “Applying Social Network Analysis to Online Communications Networks.” Although directed at healthcare, the principles of focusing on pertinent keywords and linking them with other related topics can help identify top influencers and communication hubs. To test the relevancy of their keywords they used Social Mention, a real-time search platform which gathers user generated content from across the social universe into a single stream of information to help identify key individuals. Factors in their analysis include strength, sentiment, passion and reach.

Tools like Klout and Kred can be used for discovering influencers, but I still maintain that Klout lacks transparency and scores based on popularity, not influence. Klout is limited to social media, compared to a contextual measurement tool like Appinions which measures influence beyond social media. It provides scores based on preference, imitation and trend-setters, and can help define who said what on a particular topic. For example, if I share a Warren Buffett quote and get 1000 retweets, likes, or comments, then Klout assign me a high influencer score based on my popularity, even though I was not the original author. Appinions, though, ignores my shares, retweets, and comments and instead properly awards Warren Buffett with the influence.

A newer entrant to the contextual influence measurement field is Traackr, which promises to find relevant influencers based on all public internet activity, manage engagement, and measure results. Their rankings are keyword based and can help identify influencers around specific topics based on reach, resonance and relevance. In addition to user-defined searches, they also offer lower cost alpha‑Lists, where influencers define topics they feel passionate about and then create and maintain their own Traackr influencer lists. A new feature is Traackr One which they are billing as “iTunes for influencer lists.” Although I basically like the algorithm they use, something about this is getting too money-based when the influencers start maintaining their own lists. This seems like a conflict of interest at the least and calls their impartiality into question.

Unfortunately the art of finding one key influencer is not yet an exact science. That’s why I’m agreeing even more with the philosophy of targeting large numbers of ordinary influencers.

They report several strong reasons why marketers should seek social media influence:

• 90% of purchases are subject to social influence
• 90% of consumers rely on recommendations from people they know
• 67% of shoppers are willing to spend more money online after seeing recommendations from friends

So, the theory goes, if we identify the main social influencers, we should be able to effect change or motivate action. That’s where the debate begins…who are the influencers and how do we find them? The Awareness Report then lists elements of influence as authority, reputation, rank, and status. While some of this makes sense, I believe they put too much emphasis on rank.

They say rank is the key to identifying an initial set of influencers and suggest using a Klout score as a good way of identifying rank. But a recent Forbes article, “Don’t Fall for this Sneaky Klout Trick Designed to Suck You In,” highlighted the lengths Klout goes to in order to motivate users to artificially increase their rankings. The article shows how Klout tries to make users feel bad about themselves by assigning an initial low score of only 10. They then offer suggestions on how you can go about increasing that score – they are not ranking you based on what you are doing; they are ranking you based on your willingness to do what they want you to do! By taking this approach I believe Klout and other influence measurement tools are misleading the brand with regards to influence.

Although the idea of influencers goes back as far as marketing itself, this most recent strategy of finding a few key influencers can be traced back to Malcolm Gladwell and “The Tipping Point.” His theory is that there are a few people with a significant reach. If you want to create a movement or promote a product you need to reach and influence these people. However, I believe that trying to find highly influential people is a risky and expensive strategy.

In fact, another thought process points in just the opposite direction. Duncan Watts has authored a book called, “Everything is Obvious – Once You Know The Answer.” He points out that social marketers have a great deal of difficulty identifying influencers in advance. Although it seems obvious after a marketing campaign is completed that one person may have had more influence than others, he states that predicting the next major influencer is fraught with danger.

Watts was part of a research team that published a report called “Everyone’s an Influencer: Quantifying Influence on Twitter.” In it, they came to two dramatic conclusions:

• “Word-of-mouth diffusion can only be harnessed reliably by targeting large number of potential influencers.”
• “The most cost-effective performance can be realized using ‘ordinary influencers’ – individuals who exert average or even less-than-average influence.”

In his book “Grouped” author Paul Adams summarizes this by saying that, “The loudest, most visible people are not correlated with influence.” He also advances the theory that instead of looking for overly influential people, businesses should look for regular people who are likely to be interested in what they have to say.

This all supports the substance of what I have been saying all along – popularity is not influence and influence is not popularity. I believe that the strategy of finding influential people is an old marketing tactic. With the web, we should focus on established connections and not simply on influential people. These people may not be as visible as the celebrities, and they may not have the highest Klout rankings, but they have the right attributes to produce the positive results you need.

In my April 17 blog, “The Most Remarkable People on Social Media Today,” I listed out some people who are using today’s social media tools to change the world for the better, and proving along the way that one person does matter and one person can be significant.

Marketers who can find and motivate large numbers of people with this type of clout will fare better than those who rely on celebrities with Klout.

FreeBeeCards

I’ve watched with a bit of dismay as marketers have tried to figure out the social media environment, working to get consumers to buy products and services purely based on electronic communication. The opportunity is huge, especially given the worldwide potential for the company that gets it right, but it also offers the possibility of failing splendidly, as witnessed by the recent Groupon missteps. It seems that there are new players coming on the “daily deals” market every day, but there is one launching on May 15 in Iowa that has caught my attention – FreebeeCards.

FreebeeCards bills itself as “the next generation of daily offers.” One of the problems with pay-to-play sites like Groupon and LivingSocial is that consumers have to pay in advance for their purchases. In April Groupon settled a lawsuit for $8.5 million after it was accused of setting illegal expiration dates on its certificates. With LivingSocial consumers purchase a voucher and have to wait until the next business day before they can even print or download it. They are then urged to tell all their friends about the deal and if three buy using their link, their deal is free. Many vouchers go unused.

With FreebeeCards shoppers have the opportunity to save money without paying anything upfront. Their premise is based on an electronic gift card approach. After registering on the site, shoppers can reserve up to six offers at a time. They receive a virtual promotional card at no charge, but won’t know its value until they visit the merchant’s location or website. If they go to the store they can print out their card or redeem it with their phone. It reminds me a little of going to Penneys when they would hand you a chocolate candy bar at the door. Open it up, enjoy the candy, and the wrapper had a coupon offering 10, 20 or 30% off your purchases that day.

Who wouldn’t go back again and again for an offer like that?

Good for Customers, Great for Marketers

FreebeeCards says it offers four value propositions for shoppers:

- Save money on purchases

- Nearly zero barrier to entry

- Electronic punch card loyalty programs

- Fun and somewhat addictive shopping experiences

But it’s great for merchants, too:

More Control: The merchant decides how many customers to attract. In his ebook, Groupon: Why Deep Discounts are Bad for Business, Bob Phibbs (“The Retail Doctor”) relates stories of Groupon disasters. Retailers might offer an $80 product or service for $40 but after their cut with Groupon they receive $20 for an $80 value. The more “success” they realize the more they lose. With FreebeeCards merchants know exactly how much they are risking.

Repeat Business: Worse yet, many of the daily deal customers don’t come back. In fact, there is even something called the “Yelp Effect” where bad reviews end up driving customers away. FreebeeCards is all about the customer loyalty. They work to help merchants drive traffic during specific times and collect feedback outside of the public’s view.

Empowerment: While Groupon is having trouble keeping merchants, FreebeeCards merchants receive a digital tablet in their startup kit that provides anytime access so they can gain further insights into their customers’ behaviors. FreebeeCards is working to open communication while others seem to be shutting it down.

The latest class action lawsuit against Groupon would seem to indicate that there are plenty of problems with their business model. Groupon and LivingSocial may be powerful because they were out of the gate quickly with their business models, but I think they are rapidly losing their influence.

I like the looks of this company that has taken the time to study what it means to use influence for business marketing purposes, and I think FreebeeCards can be a honey of an opportunity for consumers and merchants alike.

Do today’s media stars really get, or understand, the power of social media. Do they get the power of engagement that they have at their fingertips? Are they using the relationship they have with those who follow them to change beliefs or effect change? If they are not, then I stand by my belief that they are not social influencers, despite what their rankings might say on Klout or other measurement tools.

As I’ve always maintained, the web is or should be built around people, and not brands. People matter, YOU matter, but brands don’t. Marketers and companies are most successful when they use the web to build relationships because people want to do business with people, not with companies.

Yet it seems that some celebrities are not getting the power and core meaning of the social web. In fact, some of them appear to be marketing themselves as a brand instead of building on the fact that they are a real living, breathing person who is capable of engaging with those who follow them and buy their product. Today’s stars are “selling” themselves as a brand in order to get their “customers” to attend movies, listen to music, watch TV shows, or buy products emblazoned with their name.

Would you buy a product when there is no relationship? Being social means listening and engaging with your followers. But when it comes to some media stars, so many appear to ignore the rules of the social web.

Yes, they try to be popular but they want to do this while still being untouchable and unreachable. They will only engage when they need something from their fans or followers, but not in the sense of true engagement. They are not engaged in a conversation, there are no replies to questions, and there is definitely no relationship.

In an attempt to be helpful, I’m providing a list of top social media rules of engagement for celebrities who just don’t get it:

1. People might actually listen to you, so watch what you say: I’m talking to you, Spike Lee. Yes, I know the Trayvon Martin case has attracted a lot of national attention and it is has certainly raised a lot of issues that need to be discussed. But what were you trying to accomplish by sending the address of his alleged shooter, George Zimmerman, to your 250,000 Twitter followers? Even if it hadn’t turned out that this was the wrong address, what was your intent with that Tweet? Were you hoping that thousands of people would go to George Zimmerman’s house? Wouldn’t it have been better if you had used your power to urge your followers to speak up and be counted and  in turn engender a discussion?

2.  Use your power for good: This one is for you, Kim Kardashian. With over thirteen million followers you have the ability to effect real change. But what do you choose to do instead? Keep your brother from getting voted off “Dancing With The Stars.” You have a real following and a real chance to be remarkable but instead, you’re using the social network to further galvanize your own fame.

 3. Get involved: Oh, Justin, you give me “Bieber Fever,” but not for a good reason. I get all hot and bothered that you have millions of  fans and you don’t even tweet yourself – your publicist does it for you. Legions of “Beliebers” want to follow you and you can’t even be bothered to engage with them? I know you can’t build a relationship with each and every fan, but would it hurt to let some of them know their devotion means something to you?

4.  Practice what you preach: Oprah, Oprah, Oprah…your OWN TV network premiered the film “Miss Representation” and you’ve been prodding viewers to take the pledge:

“I pledge to use my voice to spread the message of Miss Representation and challenge the media’s limiting portrayal of women and girls”

The movie talks about how women have no power in media and you want them to believe that no one can tell you that you need to lose weight or that you are not significant. But your very own “O” magazine is full of weight loss programs, and articles about getting noticed.

5.  Just because you’re popular doesn’t mean you are influential: Ashton Kutcher, keep your opinions to yourself. One “little” Tweet about your personal feelings regarding the sex abuse scandal at Penn State and you thought nobody would notice? Yes, you may be popular but that doesn’t mean people like what you have to say. I hope your media consultants enjoy doing your Tweets from now on.

And a Few Who do “Get It”

Ricki Lake: Your engagement in Social Media Girlfriends has inspired you to create your own online community. Congratulations on creating your social community, Friends of Ricki. You’re on the right path for building engagement with your followers. Now follow your own tips and “be inspiring” and “be generous.”

Alyssa Milano: You rock girl! You mobilized a campaign to raise money to support the My Charity: Water clean water project in Ethiopia by asking your Twitter followers to make a donation and spread the word through Twitter and Facebook. You raised $92,568 to help bring clean water to 4,628 people and 928 families in 19 communities. I definitely call you a social influencer because of your ability to effect change for those nineteen communities.

Beverly Johnson: You are a prime example of being a great social network citizen. You actually engage with your followers on Twitter and reply if someone asks a question or simply just wants to talk. You have broken barriers, broken rules and now you are taking on the world of Twitter one follower at a time.  Your willingness to be who you are without apology on and offline has been noted and should be emulated by all who are lucky enough to have realized fame.

Seriously, celebrities  harness a great deal of  social popularity and in turn must use that power carefully.  My advice?  Learn from their success and mishaps. Engage, involve, validate and show your followers that they matter to you and you will create loyalty that will bring you success and true recognition.

YOU!

I have said before that I firmly believe that influence is the power to affect someone’s beliefs or to cause an action. And I also believe that everyone can have influence and has the ability to be influential – that includes YOU.

With the social media tools at our disposal today, you have the power to form a message, motivate an action, and become an online influencer. Don’t rely on any of the measurement tools to tell you whether you are or are not influential. You may not have a million followers and you might not rank high on Klout but, as my list of remarkable people shows, YOU can have influence and do have the power to make a difference in the lives of those who trust you, and possibly even in the world.

I feel that some people are confused about the difference between being powerful and being influential. There are certain people who you would definitely consider powerful – the president, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Warren Buffett. But would you consider Kait Brand or Ellen Bremen powerful? They might not be powerful, but these two and the others on my list are certainly influential.

These people are influential because they have the ability to change someone’s beliefs. In order to change belief you need to establish trust. A powerful person doesn’t necessarily have to establish trust to change something – the powerful politician can change the law or the powerful businessman can build an empire. But that still doesn’t mean they have my trust. For me to say a person has an influence on me, I need to trust him or her first.

Regardless of your status, job, or age YOU have the power and the ability to influence someone. Perhaps you only start with a small circle of those who trust you – YOU MATTER to them. They know and like you, and trust what you have to say. If your message is strong, they will share it with others who matter to them. Based on something you started, somebody will take action or change a belief – and suddenly YOU are the influence that started it all.

As I’ve said before, and as Angela Maiers so brilliantly points out in the You Matter Manifesto, mattering matters. Mattering is the belief that just one person can make a difference in the lives of those around them or in the world. You have the tools you need to matter, and can spread your influence through the social universe.

To some people, the thought that you  might matter can actually be a little bit difficult to accept. But everyone has the ability to have influence – you just need to use it.

In an essay titled, “Does Anything Really Matter, and Does it Really Matter if it Does?” David Banach of St. Anselm College has quite the take on what it means to matter. It gets a little hard to follow but I really like where he ends up:

“Not only is the old saying that you don’t matter till you matter to somebody true, it is also even more true that you don’t really matter till something real really matters to you.”

Mattering matters, and you don’t matter until you do matter. Sounds like double-speak I know but, whether you accept it or not, you have the ability to matter and to be the influencer for somebody. How much you matter or who you influence might be up to you at the start. But, if your message is strong and you have trust, your influence can grow exponentially.

When you add intent to make change, then you become quite powerful. The young teenager who I called remarkable yesterday had the intent to stop just one more person from becoming so depressed that the only option was suicide. Because her intent was true and her trust was strong, her influence became high.

As human beings, we need to matter – to know that people see us, value us, and trust us. There is no better way to matter than by influencing others and effecting positive change.

I believe we all have it, inside of us, to influence others and so, YOU are the influence.

In my speech I reinforced my blog assertions that popularity is not influence and influence is not popularity. But then I added a new twist when it comes to measurement:

As marketers, we need to start focusing on measuring intent instead of just measuring online influence.

I believe it’s not just how popular somebody is online or how much influence they have, but whether they are intending to use that influence to effect change.

And that brought me back to an idea I’ve been tossing around for a few months. Usually at the end of a year or beginning of a new one you see a lot of “Top 10” or “Best of” lists. Sure enough, there were lists of who were the greatest online influencers in 2011.

I believe influence is the power to affect someone’s beliefs or to cause an action. To simplify my theory, a person has influenced you when you think in a way you wouldn’t otherwise think, or when you take an action you otherwise would not have taken.

But when you look at these lists of supposed influencers, what you get is mostly online popularity. They are based on number of followers, or number of retweets or “likes” that person received. Once again, my friends, links or retweets are not indicators or influence. Since I couldn’t find any lists that suited my taste, I decided to start my own…

“The Most Remarkable People on Social Media Today”

My own social media hall of fame, so to speak. I did not take into account the number of followers or the number of retweets but selected my list purely based on how much these people changed my beliefs or motivated my actions. I believe we should highlight people who are doing remarkable work in the social universe and not only those who are just social celebrities.

Why this focus on being remarkable? I believe it goes back to intent. Seth Godin’s book, Purple Cow, is about transforming your business by being remarkable but I believe these same principles apply to transforming the social universe by being remarkable as well. To quote Seth,

“Cows, after you’ve seen one, or two, or ten, are boring. A Purple Cow, though…now that would be something. Purple Cow describes something phenomenal, something counterintuitive and exciting and flat out unbelievable.”

 Godin urges his readers to put a Purple Cow into everything they do and I think my nominees are definitely Purple Cows. The challenge we face as marketers is that our product or service may become insignificant. According to Angela Maiers, “the challenge we are facing today is the challenge of believing we are insignificant.” I’ve talked about Angela and her influential work, the You Matter Manifesto, before. Her passion is changing the world with two simple words:

YOU MATTER

The lists you might have seen probably have the same names on them. Now I’m not saying it’s not an honor to be on one of those lists. I’m just saying those lists are created solely based on popularity. My list might have names you’ve never seen before, but they are truly based on being remarkable.

People are joining the social universe for a reason – to be social, to be heard and to be noticed. My criteria might not be as “tough” as those other lists but I think the people on my list have achieved something even more significant than number of followers – they have expressed mattering in order to become influential.

These people are using today’s social media tools to change the world for the better, and proving along the way that one person does matter and one person can be significant. I have met so many incredible people on the web, but only a small fragment of them are getting noticed by these list makers or measurement companies. They are not stars of the social web, but they are people who made changes, people who noticed others and people who will make you feel significant every step of the way.

KAIT BRAND: My first nominee for most remarkable people on social media is Kait Brand and her “My Secrets” video. In October, at the tender age of 15, this Grand Rapids MI tenth grader posted a YouTube video about her experience of finding her mother hanging in the woods. The mother had committed suicide because she suffered from depression. Without any special effects, Kait simply held up handwritten messages to the screen while playing the song “If I Die Young” by The Band Perry. Her plaintive call to action? “If you are thinking of committing suicide, get help.”

By November WZZM TV reported that her video had gone viral and had been picked up by online publications across the globe including the Huffington Post and Radar Online, as well as The Daily Mail and The Sun in the United Kingdom. At that point her video had been watched over 79,000 times; most recently it is up to almost 700,000. People have commented on the video from as far away as India and Finland. Now 16, I’d say Kait Brand is more influential than anyone else on the web today.

 ANGELA MAIERS her introduction in 140 characters tells us all: “I believe these 2 words can change the world – #YouMatter – I’m an Educator, Author, Speaker passionate about literacy, learning, and power of social media”.

 ELLEN BREMEN is an award-winning educator at Highline Community College in Seattle, WA. She stops at nothing to help students strengthen their communication skills: peanut butter and jelly to illustrate problematic messages, pipe cleaners to teach communication models, and Post-It notes to reduce speaking anxiety. Ellen is always taking care that our kids will stay geniuses. I say “thank you Ellen” for making changes every day in one of the most difficult industries that exist in the world.

ANNI BRICCA is a founder of www.BreastHealthOnline.org, a non-profit organization which promotes healthy recoveries for women through all types of breast surgery. Billing itself as being “Dedicated to bringing women better care through knowledge and support,” BreastHealthOnline has used Facebook, Twitter, blogs and forums to help women around the world.

DABNEY PORTE LOVE helping women claim their magnificence. She brings Social to Big brands. Founder of #SMmanners & #SlumberParty & Co-Founder of #SMgirlfriends #FriendsofRicki.

BRITT MICHAELIAN Community builder, radio host, author, entrepreneur & mom who loves to help you succeed in business & life. Co-Founder #smgirlfriends #FriendsofRicki.

 JANET CALLAWAY Networker who loves life, social media, personal development, reading, helping others, good friends, red wine & champagne!

LIZ STRAUSS Founder of SOBCon, social business strategist. It’s only fun when it’s brilliant strategy, high return, AND connects customers in a meaningful way.

DANNY BROWN VP, Product Intelligence at Jugnoo, Inc. Award-winning marketer and social media blogger. Author of The Parables of Business.

OLIVIER BLANCHARD Pray that I never become your competitor’s secret weapon. Author of ‘Social Media R.O.I.’

JOSHUA M. ESTRIN WTB! What’s The Buzzz? #Celebrity #gossip or #celebrity #news? Joshua doesn’t DO #gossip and he leaves that to the OTHERS. Keepin’ it real and real fun is Joshua motto.

AARON LEE Small business owner with a huge vision, Average Joe who loves social media more than his coffee (He really loves coffee!!), Social Media Consultant to pay bills.

PETE BRAND Father, husband, entrepreneur. Internet marketer.

MARJORIE CLAYMAN Director of Client Dev. @ Clayman Advertising.  (3rd gen!) And Margie is the reason that I will never leave social space.

JODI OKUN Loves helping parents find the financial resources to cover the cost of College. She takes the stress out of the process and empower you with info and support!

PEGGY FITZPATRICK aka Social Sparkle! Rockin’ a positive attitude, Coming at you in 140, Twitterati, Brand Sparker™ w/ re:DESIGN #MyBookClub & Partner @12Most.

AARON KILBY SVP of Marketing & Creative Services at @FE_Agency, Founder and Host of #mediachat and major coffee addict!

SUSAN BORST Director,Industry Initiatives w/ IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau.) Social Media & B2B. Half Icelandic, but love Swedish Fish. Big edu fan.

KELLY KIM Co-founder of Twylah — Twitter Brand Pages for celebrities, brands, personal brands. Tweets on content creation, content marketing.

PATRICIA WILSON President BrandCottage. Marketer, media strategist, social media, advertising. 20 years marketing veteran. Top 75 Twitter BadAss Woman.

JOHN J. NOSTA John is a leader, innovator and futurist in marketing who specializes in healthcare, branding, new media and taking your breath away!

ANDY BALDWIN U.S. Navy Doctor, Fitness Advocate, TV Personality, Ironman Triathlete, Marathon Runner, support charities @OrangeLaces @GotYourBackNet.

GABRIELLE LAINE PETERS Connector, 9/11 Survivor, Social Media Savvy(for hire) Politics, News, F1- Mine’s a Dirty-Vodka-Martini-3-olives! #STS135 #NASA #TwitterPowerhouses #Kred Leader

DINO DOGAN Founder of TRIBERR, Lousy Martial Artist & recovering Engineer. Pretty good songwriter, dog trainer & a biz blogger. And, global force for badassery.

MARK SCHAEFER Chieftain of the social web’s most unique blog, {grow}. Consultant, college professor, author of Return On Influence and Tao of Twitter. Social Media Bouncer.

REBEL BROWN Marketing consultant to B2B businesses, author & speaker. Thriving on the Other Side of Life, helping kids of all ages to know that we are ALL Unstoppable!

LAVINA GAUCHER Welcome to RawforMe! Networking for women. Real estate. Design. Building. Green. Finance. Staging. We’re here to assist and foster growth for women in business.

BARBARA DUKE Twitter Professional Encourager, Coach Author,NANA, LION, GFWC, Blogger, Artist BreastCancer Survivor-RA Patient, #SweetTweets, #TL2U-TweetLove2U.

SAUL FLEISCHMAN Fun, innovative Social Web Apps ideation. Get me out of wireframes with a SKYPE call anytime.

LEO WID Co-founder of @bufferapp, a smarter way to post on Social Media. Leo blog Social Media tips Bufferapp Blog.

SHELLY KRAMER Marketing/brand strategist, idea generator, digital content magician, scribbler, information junkie. Luv MilkDuds+Beer. Member of Oversharers Anonymous.

DEDE WATSON Demystifying Social Media ! Twitter and Social Media Coach. FORBES Social Media Power Influencer. Helping businesses reach their full potential!

ALAN K’NECHT Author of The Last Original Idea. Public Speaker & Founding partner at Digital Always Media and President of K’nechtology.

LOUISE DICARLO Social Media Confidante. Certified Life Coach. Master Storyteller. Crazy 4 family, gadgets, music, Yanks, Isles, Giants. Owns comjinc.com Partner in @socialisle.

LORI MORENO Lori is the Angel of Social Media. Miracles Empower Connect Inspire Trends, Social Media PR Represnets the Best.

STEPHEN DIMMICK Dishing a daily dose of gorgeous w/ Aussie attitude and N.Y style. If you ain’t a nice person makeup won’t help after all True Beauty Only Comes From Experience.

TONIA RIES Media addict. Founder and rabble-rouser, @RealtimeReport; and founder, marketing, event and brand expert at Modern Media. Honorary Belgian.

KERI JAEHNIG CMO: Idea Girl Media. Social Media Manager, Marketer & Trainer; Nonprofiteer; Non-fat lattes, travel & quick wit make me smile.

BRYAN MOORE Social Media Manager @RickiLakeShow Loves: People, Connecting, Sharing, Social Media, Entertainment and meeting YOU! Ideas become realities ;-) #FriendsofRicki

BRUCE SALLAN Dad, writer, radio host, founder of #DadChat

RUHANI RABIN Senior Vice President of Product (Friendster Inc), Web Tech Enthusiast, Social Media Researcher and a Total fun Geek! Right!?

MICHAEL Q TODD Author & speaker. Recovering Kiwi lawyer & fossil fuel user. Juggling addict.

LISA PETRILLI CEO C-Level Strategies, CEO Connection Chief Relnsh’p Officer, Passion: Visionary Leadership! Author The Introvert’s Guide to Success, #LeadershipChat co-Host.

NEAL SCHAFFER Social Media Agency Executive, Author, Maximizing LinkedIn for Sales & Social Media Marketing, Social Media Speaker.

TONY BENNETT Putting a spotlight on the #SoGenius stories in #SocialMedia & recognizing top influencers with our #SociallyGenius awards.

BRANDIE McCALLUM Community Manager Sensei Marketing, Mom & twitter addict…sprinkling the world with sparkle and sass!

PAUL BIEDERMANN Creative Director, Brand Innovator, Designer, Writer, Entrepreneur, Community Builder, Good Friend and Great Fun! Partner @12Most  & Co-host #MyBookClub

CHERYL K. BURGESS @BlueFocus Co-Founder, CMO, B2B Social Brand Strategist, AT&T Social Media Blogger, Wharton FOA MVP,  Huffington Passionista, 3x Twitter Shorty Award Winner.

SEAN GARDNER Social Media Adviser,Contributor @SocialMediaWeek @Smedio @HuffingtonPost, Co-Creator #TwitterPowerhouses Series,Do-Gooder, #Kred, Surfer!

MELISSA STEWART Purveyor of Possibility, Passionista, MavHERick, Entrepreneur & Coffee Addict. Behind every successful woman is her story. What’s your story?

CHARLES YAP Global brand social media director at IHG. Loves travel, food, tea, photography, hotels. #FriFotos, #TTOT co-host.

Once you start believing that people on the web just want to be noticed, you’ve got a winning combination in your personal life or the business world. Start noticing the people around you and let them know “You Matter.”

I’ll be adding more names to my list in upcoming blogs, but this list is open and everyone can add people to it. My goal is to create the longest list of remarkable people on the web – the people who are more than just influential, they are simply remarkable.

“Once upon there was a brand. This brand came to us like the Pied Piper sprinkling us with scores that told us and the world that we had influence.  That we had power. That we rocked the world of social media. This brand built us up and made us feel good.  Just as the children followed the Pied Piper, we followed the brand. We thought we knew him. We thought we liked him. We thought we trusted him.

Then, one day the Pied Piper started to act odd. He started to lure us in with games such as perks and popularity voting. Some of us were impressed and like to be rewarded with free products and popularity votes. Others, many of us, started to become uncomfortable. We started asking the brand questions. The brand that used to be so nice to us, showering us with attention, praise and free products, suddenly started to care less about who we were and what we thought.

The brand seemed to be using us. The brand started to lies to us. This brand that we once thought we knew, liked and trusted as one who could help us define our success, suddenly became a complete stranger. The Pied Piper of Social Media had revealed himself. He had tricked us to believe he was leading us to a better place, when in fact he lured us right into his dark world. He was after the very things we felt valued for. Our influence and power of Global Reach.”  ~ Dabney Porte

Our need for affirmation allowed the Pied Piper to lure us into his dark world

I just loved Dabney Porte’s story of the Pied Piper and felt is so appropriate to share here as it is very relevant to how many of us feel we have been manipulated by Klout.

As I emerge from the fairytale state that the brand we now know as Klout, has lured many of us into, I have made a decision to wake up. I, like many have decided to opt out of the Klout scoring and marketing game. Millions including myself, have chosen to shut the door on the Pied Piper of Social Media. We are no longer enchanted by their words, we only feel deceived by them.

It is time to share the rest of the Klout fairytale with you. In my opinion, it is a fairytale fractured beyond repair and today I will share many reasons why. These reasons are based on valid research I have spent hours compiling. This is not an emotional piece, where I will vent and complain, yet one based on much fact and clear evidence that needs to be shared with the public. I feel strongly that to not share this information would be unfair to many businesses and brand.

If you missed the first part of my Klout Fariytale series, please go here Once Upon a Time, I Believed in Fairytale of Klout.

MORE LEGAL ISSUES

One word often used by Klout is Glitch.  When things go wrong Klout will tell us, “Sorry, We have a Glitch.”

In the post Is Klout doing more then Using Facebook to inflate their numbers? the author Daniel Agee reveals disturbing findings. What Agee tells us in his work, is that he found clear evidence of embedded codes on the Klout Website that were shocking; Klout has in put in place coding that enables the collection of data on the household income, race, gender, household size and so on via Klout profiles.

Is Collecting Data on our Income, Race, Gender a Klout Glitch too?

Clearly, Klout’s  business model has less or nothing to do, with measuring the influence of profiles, but applying traditional marketing approaches including the selling of profile data to potential advertisers.

Household income and size is not public information available across social media platforms and the gathering and selling of such to advertisers, requires the consent from the individuals profiled. At the time of this writing, I am not aware of Klout requesting said information to access and sell our private information. In fact, many individual do not even know they have a Klout profile. Such acts are gross breaches of guidelines regulated by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) with regards to Data Collection and Direct Marketing.

KLOUT AND SPAM ACCOUNTS

I have requested several times that Klout inform me on how they identify and manage spam profiles across the web. Please see the conversation below with myself and Klout’s Senior Marketing Manager Megan Berry.

Klout  has yet to identify SPAM in his lab of so called Scientific Research

Note that I am not given an answer. I am simply told that “the Science team” detects and penalizes such profiles. However, I am not told how this “science team” either detect or penalizes spam profiles.

In my opinion, and according to my research, it is clear that the Klout “science team” fails when it comes to penalizing spam profiles. This is evidenced by the known spam profile found across the Social Media platforms that receive the title of “celebrity” via the Klout “Standard”.  Please see the spam account below with a score of 84.

Klout tells us that they “believe” that online influence is seen via the profile’s ability to drive action.  According to Klout the content created by the above well known spam profile is among one that drives the most action. It appears that SPAM is content that Klout values.  If you want a  score of 84 perhaps all you need to do it send out this information repeatedly:

“RETWEET this if you are online and want more followers.”

THE SCORING SYSTEM THAT FAILS

In the Blog Post, Understanding the Klout Score Joe Fernandez explains the new scoring system. Below is an extract of his post:

Interactions must be taken in context

Likes, Re-tweets, and other interactions have always played a prominent role in the Klout algorithm. We believe these are valuable signals of influence. What we found though is that some people are extremely generous with these interactions. People should Like and Retweet to their heart’s content, but we believe that interactions need to be measured in the context of the person interacting. This was the most prominent reason why some scores dropped.

Example: Consider two users who Re-tweet my Tweet. User A Re-tweets me but she also Re-tweets 100 others in the same day. User B Re-tweets me and only me. We now consider these ratios in our algorithm and consider the singular Re-tweet as a greater sign of influence. Similarly, if you selectively only give out one Facebook Like a week and you choose to do so for my content, that is much more meaningful than if you Like 50 times a day. “

One may interpreted that Klout is telling users and brands that the more generous one is and the more one engages via Social Media platforms, the less influential one is. How can a person who re-tweets others content often throughout the day, be less influential then a person who re-tweets a post only once a day or even as seldom as once in a week?

Klout clearly does not understand the core strength of  Social Media which is Community. There are many communities on Twitter, Facebook, G+, etc.  These communities are a gathering of individuals who together, make millions of impressions on Social Media as they organize chats, hangouts and other forms of large group discussions. It is important to note that  any discussion via Social Media communities such as those mentioned above, bring hundreds of  messages/mentions and rebroadcasting of such messages/mentions during a short period of time. These messages/mentions are reaching millions as such broadcasting occurs and they have a greater influence to the users of Social Media then do links messages or mentions that are shared only once per day or week. Simply put, if a user states something only once, this does not make such statements more valuable. It may only indicate that this user has nothing to say or is not using Social Media often.

If Klout would educate themselves on Social Media engagement, paying close attention to the significance regarding Social Media relationships and the value they bring to online influence, they would see that their “scoring” system is poor at best. In fact, Klout’s “methodology” is punishing the people participating in community discussions and making millions of track-able impressions on Social Media platforms.

It is my opinion that Klout is using metrics and variables that have lead to a extremely inaccurate “scoring” system which holds no value to users or brands seeking to find users of influence.

KLOUT THE ”STANDARD FOR INFLUENCE”

Klout claims that they are the Standard for Influence.” In the past Klout’s tag line and branding stated: “Klout – Measurement of your overall online influence.”

This change in the brand’s mission is interesting at best. Klout is now saying they are not simply the standard of online influence and how this is measured. Instead, they are now the “Standard for Influence.” In my opinion this is making a strong inference to users and brands that Klout is now “The Standard”  and therefore the “Expert” at knowing and measuring who is Influential  online, offline etc.

In my previous post Is Klout On The Way Out? I discussed my concerns of how Klout calls themselves the “Standard” for Influence.

Just because you believe you are, does not make it so

Before claiming that they are the “Standard” of influence, Klout should clearly define their definition of what influence is. Klout has only stated :

“We believe influence is the ability to drive action.”  

Since when did the premise that simply “believing” something give one the ability to define anything as true? If I believe that chocolate makes one hungry, is that the “Standard” of hunger?

How can we trust our reputations and our own brands to a company who simply “believes” they are the standard measurement in which only their “belief” defines what it is that they measure? Be very careful. Klout is playing a very dangerous game with our brands.

Of great concern and significant importance is that the public must be made aware that the Klout “Standard” and the manner in which they “measure” is not regulated by any valid legal regulation or recognized institution. The very public statements made several times by the CEO of Klout Joe Fernandez are ridiculous. Most disturbing is this comment:

“We (Klout) are the same as the credit bureau with the difference being we score people based on Social Media Influence”

Klout must be reminded, as should the public, that Credit Bureaus are regulated by the FTC and are audited on a regular bases. Consumers and brands should be aware that Klout is not regulated by the FTC and neither their data or scoring system is audited by any outside institution.

It is misleading and unethical that Klout compares their scoring system of our online behavior to the credit scores we receive via companies monitored, audited and regulated by governmental institutions such as the Federal Trade Commission.

The CEO of Klout claimed in a recent blog comment that Klout is however, audited every day by their users. However, whenever Klout is confronted or questioned on their Scoring System and Algorithm, the pubic is not served with the answer. Furthermore, the users of Klout are not a government regulated agency nor can a comparison be made with what users find in auditing to that of the Federal Trade Commission which has served as the government’s defender of fair commerce since 1914, when the FTC Act was passed.

The CEO of Klout also compares what they do with Google, when the public requests transparency of their said algorithms.

“Google doesn’t revel their algorithm why should we make ours public?”

Google places our information in search engines. They do not distort it, or give us labels and scores. They simply help our information that we have on the web be found. The two cannot be compared at all. Period.

Yet another interesting and in my opinion ludicrous comparison Joe Fernandez the CEO of Klout makes is the one he makes with the Neilson Report and Comscore. Mr. Fernandez tells us that Klout is better for the consumer because it is free and everyone can browse the profile of any users, where Neilson or Comscore reports are only accessible to people who are willing  to pay high subscription fee.

What he does not tell us is that neither Neilson or Comscore reports can’t be compared with the so called “data” you may see on a Klout profile.

Both the Neilson and Comscore companies are two of most recognized researched based and trend forecasting companies worldwide. Their “standards” are public knowledge and their data is shown in reports that are free of bugs and glitches.

What Joe Fernandez also fails to mention is that Klout will not always be free. It is well stated in their Terms Of Service:

“Klout grants you a limited license to access the Site and use the Services in accordance with these Terms and the instructions and guidelines posted on the Site. Klout reserves the rights to terminate your license to use the Site and Services at any time and for any reason or in the future charge for commercial usage.”

In my opinion, the comparisons Klout makes to the public discussed above are meant to mislead us, similar to a political campaign spin.

Regardless of this said spin, one thing is certain: Klout must have a research/factual based definition for the variable they are measuring (influence) and the Klout algorithm should be public in order for Klout to claim their s measurements hold any validity.

KLOUT SELLS DATA

Klout maintains their claim that they are not selling our data. However, I will make a case today that will show you that Klout not only sells our data but also engages in activity that is a direct breach of the terms and conditions of Twitter’s public API.

If you are not yet aware, please know that Klout topics are generated based on our Tweets that we share on Twitter which was confirmed by Klout. Hence, users who do not have a Twitter account will not find any topics of influence.

Now it gets interesting. Klout Perks is a paid advertising program offered by Klout. The eligibility to receive Klout Perk gifts from brands is  based on three factors: location, Klout score and your Klout defined influential topics.

Given these eligibility requirements, regardless of how Klout spins their story, it is clear; Klout does sell our data which will be explained below.   I have contacted Twitter for a comment on the following but at the time of this writing, am still awaiting a response.

In the Twitter API Terms Section 1, subsection 4 a it is stated:

“4. You will not attempt or encourage others to:

• sell, rent, lease, sublicense, redistribute, or syndicate access to the Twitter API or Twitter Content to any third party without prior written approval from Twitter.
• If you provide an API that returns Twitter data, you may only return IDs (including tweet IDs and user IDs).
• You may export or extract non-programmatic, GUI-driven Twitter Content as a PDF or spreadsheet by using “save as” or similar functionality. Exporting Twitter Content to a datastore as a service or other cloud based service, however, is not permitted.”

As can be seen by the aforementioned information, Klout does sell Twitter content. Topics are determined and extracted from Tweets, which are part of all Twitter Content. This clearly shows that Klout does not abide by the rules and conditions set forth by the Twitter API agreement.

This could lead Klout and Twitter to a possible A class action law suite if, Twitter does not take correct actions against this breach. Ultimately we the users are having our rights infringed upon on the Twitter platform via Klout’s non compliance.

KLOUT ILLEGALLY OPERATES THEIR BUSINESS

Klout is a USA based company and should comply within guidelines of FTC Fair Information Practice whose principles are the result of the commission’s inquiry into the manner in which online entities collect and use personal information and safeguards to assure that practice is fair and provides adequate information privacy protection. In my research I found that Klout fails to comply with 5 core principals outlined in FTC Fair Information Practice Principles. For purpose of this post I will only outline first two and most important principals that Klout simply ignores.  The following information is taken directly from the FTC guidelines.

1. Awareness / Notice: Consumers should be given notice of an entity’s information practices before any personal information is collected from them. This requires that companies explicitly notify of some or all of the following:

• identification of the entity collecting the data;
• identification of the uses to which the data will be put
• identification of any potential recipients of the data;
• the nature of the data collected and the means by which it is collected;
• whether the provision of the requested data is voluntary or required;
• the steps taken by the data collector to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and quality of the data.

2. Choice/Consent: Choice and consent in an online information-gathering sense means giving consumers options to control how their data is used. Specifically, choice relates to secondary uses of information beyond the immediate needs of the information collector to complete the consumer’s transaction. The two typical types of choice models are ‘opt-in’ or ‘opt-out.’

At this point Klout does offer opt-out system but knowingly ignore to implements the complete opt-in request for the many profiles that are created without the request or permission of users.

In a recent post Evil Social Networks, Charlie Stross describes in detail to how Klout breaches eight Principals of the 1998 UK Data Protection Act. He describes Klout as “flagrantly in violation of UK data protection law” and Klout business as “flat-out illegal in the UK and, I believe, throught the EU’’.

It is illegal in USA for a company to change the Terms of Privacy without of notice or to backdate their new terms. Klout did this recently in fact, in November 2011. When Klout implemented the option of opt-out, the Privacy officer of Klout updated their Privacy Terms on their website on that very day. In my opinion, dates were manipulated to avoid any legal consequence. Klout back dated their Terms Effective as of June 6 2011, when in fact the update occurred in November, 2011. This is an illegal act that could possibly carry criminal charges. Please note the screen capture below:

ETHICAL & LEGALLY QUESTIONED PERKS

Klout has recently announced a new perk campaign for Wahooly. This perk campaign will offer users company stock of start up businesses in return for Promotion. Of concern is that  this model presented to the media, contradicts the principals of guides concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising regulated by Federal Trade Commission.  Section 255.5 of the FTC guidelines clearly dictates the needs of fully disclosure by anyone who participate in business model that Klout – Wahooly are offering.

Interestingly, my research leads me to believe that Klout may have partnered with Wahooly in more then just a Perk program. According to a reputable source, Klout and some of the employees are silent partners with the Wahooly company. At the time of this writing, this is a theory only, but a very interesting one.

After a great deal of research and deeper look into the Wahooly website, the information and hence, theory my source provided me with seem to hold some validity, in my opinion. There appears to be a bigger relationship between Klout and Wahooly.

Many of us, who were users of the original Klout website may recall how Klout looked then. It is interesting that Wahooly mirrors the original look of Klout.

TIME TO SAY GOODBYE KLOUT

Yes, I have said goodbye to Klout and chosen to opt out of the platform and game entirely. I was an early adopter of Klout and for quite sometime a very big supporter of Klout’s vision.

Klout used to be fun, but is not anymore. Klout has and continues to ignore our questions and concerns. We who questioned the new algorithm introduced by Klout have been said to have ego issue, by the CEO Joe Fernandez. The truth is, we were only asking and looking for answers.  What we are given instead are lies and distortions.

I have witnessed damage to brands and heard of many business meetings taking place where high level Social Media professionals have been discredited and lost bids for big jobs, due to the recent Klout score drop. In one instance when the person explained that Klout changed the algorithm the answer received were rolling eyes. There is a misunderstanding of Klout, and a large amount of misrepresentation taking place where in my opinion, Klout could and should be held liable. There are many, many stories of brand damages occurring as a direct result of Klout’s “glitches.” I will not put my brand at risk any longer.

I personally do believe Social Media is in need for a tool that would measure online influence. I also believe that Klout is not the company to do so.  For me, it,is much more easier to explain to clients why they should not trust/use Klout as a tool for discovering influential users, then to attempt to explain why their Klout Score drops and to explain the details of a scoring system I no longer consider credible or valuable.

Many ask me if ever change my mind and start using Klout again. This is difficult to answer. Klout has destroyed all credibility in my opinion.  There is far to much evidence of lies, deceit and simply extreme poor consumer and public relations. For a company attempting to define who is influential online, they do not even appear to know the basics of how to engage on Social Media and they are on no level influential to me.

A brand must build an audience to find success by increasing the know, like and trust components of basic marketing. I do not KNOW who Klout is. I do not LIKE who Klout is. I do not TRUST who Klout is.

In this moment I believe…..

Klout has become “The Standard”  for WTF.

Many are left feeling as if Klout was one Fairytale Gone Bad

For a few weeks, the  Klout team cloaked themselves in a barricade of silence. They did not answer the many concerns, questions or open debates in regard to many issues being asked of them on all Social Media forums.  The very people whom they call and define “influential” are asking intelligent questions, yet Klout ignores most it seems and answers very little.

Recently however in direct response to the larger outcry from many online communities, news outlets and many bloggers, Klout finally start talking.

Is Klout Answering Questions, or Simply Playing Politician and Spinning all Facts?

Joe Fernandez, the CEO of Klout has published and commented on several blog posts in which he appears to show attempts to explain the new changes, but somehow fails to succeed.

Let’s look at these changes, concerns, and more importantly the larger legal issues surrounding Klout

To me, Klout has become the Tale of the Mad Scientist

1. KLOUT TRANSPARENCY

Klout has always claimed that they in fact do provide transparency for how they score individuals. In a recent post,  Joe Fernandez tells us that Klout has become more transparent then ever.  Yet, he gives no explanation as to why he believes this and there is no public data available to indicate otherwise.

Interestingly, Klout now appears to “warn” users about whom they are engaging with who have become less influential across social media platforms. This can be seen in the screen capture taken from my live Klout profile below.

Look closely.  Notice how users are given information in regard with whom they engage. This information simply tells the user about those who have lost network influence.

I would certainty not call this transparency.  I would call this manipulation of users actions and engagement via induction of fear. Fear of what?  Fear of a dropping Klout score if a user continues to engage with users whose scores are dropping.  Remember, this so called “transparent drop” is based on nothing that we know of, no evidence we can see, no statical data that is shared.  This evidence and publicly published data is simply a score that is given to users by a team of so called “Scientists” who work for Klout.

In my world, a Scientists has data which they carefully record, trials are run and experiments are engaged to prove a hypothesis.  When a data supported and document experiment is found to support a hypothesis, the experiment must then be duplicatable or the results are deemed invalid.   No Scientist in the Science world would ever toss their hands in the air and say, “Sorry we have a glitch and we are in Beta, so just be patient with us!”

Does Klout even know what the “Scientific Method” is?  I envision a team of comical “Mad Scientists” tossing numbers out randomly as they consult with the Klout Perks Program. However, this is in my opinion of course.  I am dismayed and left saying this….

It is shocking that anyone is still buying into this Fairytale of Scientific Nonsense

In spite of the evidence above and the documented emails and statements sent to many by Klout, explaining that scores drop or rise in accordance with whom you engage, both Joe Fernandez and Megan Berry continue to deny such.  As stated previously, this spin factor is all Klout seems to say when it comes to questions and concerns by the very Influencers they use to gain financial leverage via their Klout Perks programs.

2. KLOUT IS NOT MEASURING INFLUENCE ACROSS 13 PLATFORMS

In an article that was published in the New York Times Joe Fernandez said “We analyze data from 13 different online networks and take into account all reactions to a person’s content.”

Truth to be told, Klout is NOT analyzing data from 13 platforms. In a recent blog post published on Klout.com an employee of Klout publicly acknowledge that the company was not transparent to their users when comes to networks.  In fact, they reported that Klout is measuring influence on only 4 social media platforms : Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and FourSqure.

Interestingly,  on the very day this post went live,  Senior Marketing Manager of Klout Megan Berry, was asked the same question as she participated on a panel hosted on Blog Talk Radio.  At that time, Ms. Berry confirmed that Klout IS measuring influence across 13 platforms.  Why then, does her co-worker tell us otherwise?

The Spin has Made Us Dizzy and There Seems no End in Site

It seems Klout was deceptive in their announcements with regards to networks, not just to users but to brands brands who participate in their Perks Program as well.

On August 10th 2011 Klout announced on their blog that they now measure influence across 10 networks. It was stated: “Today we take a big step forward in our goal to measure influence wherever it happens. We’re adding five new networks: Blogger, Tumblr, Flickr, Instagram and Last.fm, allowing you to connect up to 10 networks with Klout. Connecting an account will never lower your Score, but it may increase it as we can give you credit for your influence in that network.”

On September 20th 2011 Klout announced that Google+ now has Klout. In fact, GooglePlus did not have Klout untill November 22,  2011 when Klout officially announced that Klout Scores would now integrated activities on GooglePlus.

Let’s re-group and stick with me, because it gets better.  We, the users have now been told that Klout uses 13 networks to calculate our influence via Megan Berry, 4 networks according to  the Klout site and most recently we are told 10 networks are involved in the Klout scoring process.  Pick a number, any number!  YOU too can be a “Mad Scientist.”

Why all of the Lies? The Know, Like and Trust Factor is gone

3. PRIVACY & OPT-OUT MYSTERY

In the beginning of November,  Klout went through yet further public criticism when it was found that Klout was and still creates profiles for users registering and using various Social Media Platforms.  This profile creation is done without consent or disclosure.

It was discovered that Klout was creating profiles of minors using their Facebook account. The news hit the blogging communities quickly and  this “Klout privacy breach”  was the topic of many viral  discussions on the web.

In a post which quickly followed this privacy breech, Joe Fernandez posted We Value your Privacy . Mr.Fernandez tells us, “Klout respects the privacy settings of all the networks it measures. If you have a private account on a social network and you have not explicitly given Klout access to your data it will not be analyzed.”

Again, it is my opinion that we have yet another  “spin response” because it appears this is what  Joe Fernande is promising, is not taking place.  One week ago, I created another twitter profile, set the profile as private and in less then a minute my new account had a Klout profile with the score of 10.  See below.

Please note, I did nothing else.  I did not go to the Klout site, I did not connect my twitter account.  I simply created a PRIVATE twitter account.  For all Klout knows, I could be your ten year old child who does not even know Klout exists and neither do you, the parent.  Yet, as you can see, I was profiled and posted live on the Klout site.  Had I taken the time to have an actual picture, your ten year old’s face would be live as would their “score” created by the “Mad Scientist Team”.

To ascertain the validity of my own (yet fully disclosed as such) non-scientific experiment, I checked several other protected profiles on Twitter and they all have full live and very public Klout profiles.  These private Twitter accounts had scores, topics and the who they Influence and who influences them information.

Is this promise that Klout makes in regard to to the respect of user privacy  just another empty promise or is Klout really unable or unwilling to understand the value of Privacy?

Following this incident involving the privacy invasion of minors and all users, Klout implemented an option allowing users to  opt-out guaranteeing the complete removal of their Klout Profile.  As of November 3, 2011,  users are told they can delete their Klout profile via the opt-out option in the setting page of the users Klout profile.

Klout is promising users that their profile will be deleted in 48 hours. But this is not as easy as someone would think. Most will think they have deleted their profile and they walk away in the spirit of thinking their profile is gone.  I have a surprise for you.  Your profile is not deleted!

I first discovered this issue, when Pam Moore who allegedly deleted her profile from Klout.  After seven days, Pam ask Klout why her profile was not removed. Klout replied back to Pam in the following comments on their blog:

The fact is that Pam never singed back to her profile and reactivated her Klout, can be clearly seen in this image bellow. If Klout would be correct in their answer to Pam and many others with the same issue, the message to invite a person to Klout would not appear while users browse throughout Klout profiles.

However, the appearance of the users Klout profile is not the only concern, there is bigger issue then just a non deleted Klout profile.

Dabney Porte, another well recognized Social Media Professional deleted her profile 11 days ago, and she is encountering the  same issues as Pam.  However, when I looked closer into Dabney’s Klout profile (which is still not deleted at the time of writing this post) I noticed that her Klout score is still increasing or decreasing even though that she has deleted, unlinked and even revoked all  Klout access to all of her Social Media Platforms.

This clearly speaks to my claim that Klout is gathering and analyzing data of users who opt-out of their game. This also contradicts Joe Fernandez’s comments, that he made on post Lies, Damned Lies and Klout Lies.

In his comment Mr. Fernandes stated: “ When a user removes their account, we revoke their network tokens (so we couldn’t access their info even if we wanted to). We explicitly state on the final opt-out screen that users can also revoke klout’s app privileges from the networks on their end as well, which is an absolute way to ensure klout can’t access your data.  Users have full control of this process — we can’t access their private data unless they’ve explicitly given it to us. Users can always take back that permission.” Based on Joe’s answer my question to Klout is

1. How can a user, in this case Dabney,  who revoked FULL access to Klout still have a profile which displays all activities of her Klout Score?  If all access has been removed by Dabney on her end, what data is Klout using to increase/decrease her score over the last 11 days?

2. Once you remove a user from Klout, how can you then determine what thier “influential level” or weight of the user is against a registered user who is still an acive user of Klout?

If Klout has NO data available (because the user removed all access) of the removed users then the Klout data and score can in NO way be accurate.  Oddly, Klout continues to claim this:

“There is no room for error when comes to measuring influence.”

The truth is, in order to measure anything, much less online influence,  Klout needs to have data.  Furhter, this data must track the activity of every user on Social Media who has a Klout profile.  Otherwise they simply can NOT calculate a valid score or compare scores at all.

Again, I am visualizing the “Mad Klout Scientists” randomly pulling numbers out of nowhere and typing our scores in. But then, I digress.  Back to business.  Get ready, because it gets worse.

Not only is Klout measuring the influence of deleted accounts and ones that are not connected to the user, they are leading the public to believe that the accounts they are actually deleting at the users request, are not there because they don’t have enough influence to have a profile.

Once your profile is “happily removed” from Klout and potential users, potential clients, potential employers, etc, search for you on Klout,  this message will appear: 

I insist that Klout correct the message above and publically state that the user they are searching for has deleted / disabled his/ her Klout profile. Letting the public believe that a person, or brand they are looking for, has no influence or minimal “data” is known as misrepresentation and deformation of character. Klout should respect and not discredit users who don’t wish to have a Klout Profile.

It is time we demand that  Klout respect us, not Treat us as their Puppets.

Last but not least, Klout is legally obliged to respect our decision and once a user chooses to opt-out of Klout, the profile and data should be removed from all sources and databases that Klout and their 3rd party business partners keep on us.  Period.

It is strikingly odd to many that we must opt-out or request removal from a site who never asked for or received our request/permission to place our profile with their “random” score of our “online influence and success” on a public platform which encourages viral promotion of our “said scores” on social media platforms.  It would seem logical, that Klout should have a request from the consumer or user to have a profile and score placed publicly on their site in the first place.

It is my opinion that Klout believes they can do whatever they wish with “public” information.  In fact they oddly continue to compare their profiling of us to Google placing our information on their site.  Do they not see the difference?  It seems what they bank on, our ignorance.  We, the influenceres they sell scores to, are very aware of the difference between creating a Google search and using our online information for their marketing gain. What Google does is far different then what Klout is doing.  Creating profiles with “scores” that are meant to show brands, our peers and and the public are ability to be influential and successful on Social Media is simply wrong.  Especially when this company is in “Beta” and refuses to show us how our scores are calculated.

This “Klout thinking” if allowed, supported and encouraged, will lead to many liability and invasion of privacy issues in the near future.  Just imagine if any company could take our Social Media interaction, statistical data etc and “score” and “label” us with public profiles without our desire, knowledge or consent.

It is my opinion that Klout appears to hide the truth from users and brands. Messages like the one shown to the public when a user who has opted out of Klout is searched for,  is a clear example.  In my opinion what it may as well say and how is makes me feel is this:

SORRY

The user that are you looking for has no influence and sucks.  They engage so little that we can’t even find enough data to pull a score. Be patient with us!  We are in Beta!  We LOVE glitches! If we missed your question, we will answer it! Simply send us an an email! That way no one will know when we ignore you!  Our Mad Scientists will keep searching for data on this person you are looking for.  Until then, come play Klout Perks with us.  You must give K+ each day and be a sucker. That way we can charge a brand BIG money by promising them that we will send just enough hair gel to cover the upper lip of the user we feel like saying is an influencer.  We think broadcasting is GREAT Social Media! Don’t forget to stay away from losers.  We don’t send free stuff to those who talk to users with LOW Klout scores! We have really good Kool-aide.  Keep drinking it!  Love, Klout, the company who lies, misleads and tricks you to think that we are the Standard Measurement of Online Influence.

Coming next….Part 2 – Many more Klout fallacy’s and ethical breeches that will shock and dismay you and why I made my final decision to Opt out of Klout.

PeopleBrowsr is a high-tech social analytics company with a passion for marketing. Founded in 2007, they providing data mining, analytics, and brand engagement.  PeopleBrowsr is a global industry leader in the social media revolution and offers many Social Media engagement services and tools to global brands, advertising and PR agencies.

The PeopleBrowsr Playground is known as one of the top Social Media engagement tools on the market today. They distinguish themselves from other influential tools with fact that they are not a marketing agency and they do not offer any services with relations to perks programs; not now and not in the future.

Recently, I had the great pleasure of attending the launch presentation of Kred via Ustream.

What is Kred?

The simplest way to describe Kred is Transparency, Relevancy & Community.

Kred is measurable Influence with 2 metrics:

Influence: Ability to drive action: reply, retweet (RT) & new
follows.

 Outreach: You’re rewarded through your generosity and interaction with others.

Influence is on a scale from 1 – 1000 and measures how you inspire others to drive action. Metrics include: retweets, @Replies, Likes, +1, Shares, new follows, list follows, connections, and follow ratio.

Outreach is infinitely increasing which measures your generosity. Generosity represents how other users inspire you to interact and engage across Social Media platforms. Metrics include: retweets, @Replies, Likes, +1, Shares, new follows, list follows, connections, and follow ratio.

As mentioned before, outreach levels increase infinitely and don’t level down.

Kred will not give you a score. Simply, Kred  doesn’t score people. Kred  produce two numeric elements that will help analytics to identify your level of action-ability and generosity.

Kred offers their users a step even further. Kred identifies communities within the greater networks. Communities are determined based on your bio, filters of lists, follow lists, and your shared content. For the best results it is recommended to update your bio with your most current career information.

You are able to narrow down your Kred  by each of the communities that you represent in Social Media. The insight gives you a deeper look into how you perform in your communities. Kred offers you recommendations on how to improve your engagement level, and with whom you can possible engage to increase your level of influence and outreach. Example of Top Community Members:

There is no influence without transparency

One of the most outstanding features of Kred  is the TRANSPARENCY factor offered to users.

It needs to be said that Kred is the only fully transparent measurement system offered on the market. Throughout your Activity Statement you are able to view records of every interaction, giving you a full view of your social presence. You are able to view every post you create and the corresponding points earned.

Share your Kred  with Kredentials

You can share your Kred profile with Kredentials, which is your official Kred Profile summary. This gives your audience a quick look at your Kred, community, most used hashtags, links, mentions and a quick overview of your influence and outreach. You can share your Kred on your blog, website, Facebook, Twitter, G+, LinkedIn via links, widgets or even export the chart.

Kred  Analytic for Analytic nerds like Me

Kred  is a stand alone platform and as well fully integrated with PeopleBrowsr Playground or through Kred API.

You can request yours by visiting the Kred website.

Imagies are property of PeopleBrowsr

Klout’s Marketing Manager, Ms. Megan Berry, commented on my post and disputed my claim that privacy might be at risk. In her reply she said that Klout gathers public information to create a Klout profile and that they don’t breach any privacy issue by doing so.

Megan stated, “If you want your Tweets to only be available to approved followers, you can set your account to protected. Tweets posted by a protected account are only visible to approved followers and not otherwise publicly available to third parties.”

This means that protected accounts cannot be read, ranked or categorized by third parties such as Klout. Is she right? Are Klout’s statements accurate? Unfortunately, they are not. Over the weekend I checked hundreds of protected Twitter accounts that also were unregistered with Klout. I was shocked to discover that all the protected, unregistered accounts had a Klout profile complete with assigned topics and Klout scores as low as 10 but also as high as 77.

My question to Klout is how can you assign topics to a protected account when you state third parties cannot analyze protected tweets?

More importantly, who gives Klout the rights to publish protected accounts, create Klout profiles and generate topics?

See below three protected twitter accounts with their respective unregistered Klout Profiles, scores and topics. Judge Klout transparency for yourself:

WesleyIporti – Twitter

Wesleyiporti – Klout

I strongly believe that this so called, “Standard for Influence”, including just how Klout determines this influence and these scores, should be public knowledge. This information should be fully disclosed to users, registered or not, as well as to the 2000+ companies accessing and using these scores.

Again, it’s my opinion that Klout may be pitting the 2000 companies accessing our data in a possible legal battle against us. This represents thousands of Twitter users worldwide, potentially every single Twitter user out there, due to their unauthorized access of our information published through the Klout website.

Perhaps we should be understanding of the shortcomings due to the fact that Klout is still in Beta. But somehow the Beta issue is never presented when it comes to selling the Klout Perks Program or when the CEO of Klout Joe Fernandez is claiming in a public interview that Klout should be used in something as real and important as the hiring practices of human resource departments everywhere.

If we’re in Beta and we’re to forgive the algorithms and lack of transparency during this time, perhaps Klout should not be forging ahead with companies as well as onto resumes and into human resource offices at this time.

It’s my opinion that Twitter’s legal department should have a closer look into the privacy breaches by Klout and how Twitter’s protected user information is being accessed, collated and distributed.

Klout – A measurement of online influence?

Klout – A Marketing company or a measurement company?

Klout. Klout.  Klout.

Since Klout indicates that I am influential on the very topic of Klout, I thought it would be appropriate to share some concerns and opinions I have on the topic. There are many concerns and questions being raised daily on social media.  Many have questions and concerns in regard to Klout and I have been contacted directly as I tend to be one of the few willing to step up and ask what many are asking.  I do not wish to attack yet to do what any good leader or reporter would do.  I wish to simply tell the story.  I wish to tell The Klout Story.  I will do so with integrity, honesty, transparency and authenticity.

The Klout Story – Part One – Are You reading Between the LInes?

I recently read the post “Does Klout Matter?”  In my option, Klout doesn’t and shouldn’t matter.  Not at least until the executive team at Klout answer some basic questions and begin to institute  some transparency with and for their users. But to many members of online and offline communities, Klout matters because they simply believe it increases the power of their influence.

Klout self proclaims themselves as “The Standard of Influence”. There are many definitions of a ‘standard’. Very generally, a standard might simply be defined as ‘a set of rules for ensuring quality’. But what is the quality standard that Klout provides to us, and how accurate is it? By their own statements, Klout is not accurate. How can they call themselves the standard of influence when they acknowledge on a daily bases that their data is not accurate?

Lets look at influence as well. According to the dictionary influence is defined as:

“ the act or power of producing an effect without apparent exertion of force or direct exercise of command”.

If I recommend to my audience a product or service and 80% of them buy it, I would be influential. But, if I had many complaints about my product or service, my influence would be close to zero. This is where I see Klout fails. Klout measures the raw action acted upon by my content shared within Social Media. They take in account the number of retweets, shares, likes, videos watched, replies and so on. Klout doesn’t take in account any variable of after effect, like negative comments and complaints. And here Klout fails. According to Klout, all actions equal the same influence, but that’s simply not true.

I was recently in a group tweet chat with Ms. Megan Berry as the guest. Megan is marketing manager and privacy officer at Klout. I asked Megan if there was any study available that would support their findings that Klout measure influence. She answered that no studies where ever made.

To be the “Standard of Influence”, Klout should have to provide official documentation to support this claim. Just like the standards certified by the Institute of Science and Technology, and other official gatekeepers for various prestigious and recognized entities, Klout should also be fully vetted before they are allowed to make as well as use such a claim. Until then, what Klout does is simply measure our online movements, reactions and actions as raw data.

Klout & Privacy Issues

There are at least three major concerns in regard to how Klout handles our privacy.  In my opinion, Klout breaches everyone’s privacy on daily basis, even if you’re not registered with Klout. When registering with Klout, you simply authorize Twitter or Facebook to connect to your own Klout account. Klout then syncs the data and calculates your Klout score. Here are the three main areas of privacy concern:

1. When connecting your Klout profile to Twitter, you agree to the Terms and Conditions of Twitter. But did you know that when you sign up for a Twitter account you are, by default, agreeing to Klout publishing a profile on your behalf? No where when signing up for Twitter does Twitter’s TOS say you agree to the actions of Klout. The same applies to Facebook.

2. When you do officially register for Klout, you only agree that Klout can read your Twitter timeline, and see who you follow. But whether or not you register, you never give them the rights to publish your full Twitter profile information, including your full name, location, picture, set up Klout label nor either publish your profile across the web.

3.  But even if you’re not registered, Klout uses your information to create a profile for you whether you know it, or agree to it, or not. It includes all your Twitter profile information, picture, influence topics, and who you influence, and they expose this to entire world completely without your permission. There are no terms of service or agreements to check, it is just done.

While you may consider your Twitter or Facebook accounts separate from your employer, for example, Klout considers them fair game to display to the entire world without your permission. Furthermore, Klout touts your Klout score as something that employers should be using to gauge your job worthiness. How would you feel if a prospective employer found your Klout score that you didn’t even know you had? What if your terms of influence weren’t what you wanted a prospective employer to discover? Worse, what if a prospective or current employer made decisions about you based partially or wholly on a Klout score you weren’t even aware existed?

Klout and Twitter both need to better define their registration processes and privacy issues. Users need to know exactly the terms of service across both platforms since they’re automatically linked whether we realize it or not. We need to know what we’re really consenting to when agreeing to their terms of service.

What is fascinating to me that my privacy on Facebook is set to high protection and my profile can’t be found in public search, but yet I can be seen on Klout with no advent of modifying that information. Additionally, Klout announced that nearly 2000 companies were accessing the Klout data base on daily bases in search of influential people across the web, but in the Terms of Service published on Klout, there is no information or clause that we agree that our data can be shared with 3rd party vendors of Klout.

Problems with Klout’s Terms of Service (TOS)

“Welcome to Klout. By accessing the Klout website (“Site”) or using the services offered by Klout (“Services”) you agree and acknowledge to be bound by these Terms of Service (“Terms”). If you do not agree to these Terms, please do not access the Site or use the Services. Klout reserves the right to change these Terms at any time. We recommend that you periodically check this Site for changes.”

This is the first Term that we must agree to. The main issue, as I stated above, is that the Klout Terms of Service are not available during the registration. There is no check box or confirmation binding me to the Terms of Service. Klout should ask users to agree to their Terms and Service directly during the registration process.

Site Content

You understand that all postings, messages, text, images or other materials (“Content”) posted or published on, uploaded to, transmitted through, or linked from (hereinafter, “post” or “posted”), the Service are the sole responsibility of the person from whom such Content originated. You understand that Klout does not control, and is not responsible for, Content made available through the Service, and that by using the Service, you may be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent, inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise objectionable. Furthermore, the Site and Content available through the Service may contain links to other websites which are completely independent of Klout. Klout makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or authenticity of the information contained in any such site. Your linking to any other websites is at your own risk. You agree that you must evaluate, and bear all risks associated with, the use of any Content, that you may not rely on said Content, and that under no circumstances will Klout be liable in any way for any Content or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted or otherwise made available via the Service. You acknowledge that Klout does not pre-screen or approve Content, but that Klout shall have the right (but not the obligation) in its sole discretion to refuse, delete or remove any Content that is available via the Service, in connection with violations of the letter or spirit of the Terms of Use or for any other reason.

Now if you take a close look at the section of TOS above, you will see that entire paragraph talks about posting, sharing, uploading and so on, on the site of Service, which in this case is Klout. But Klout is not a platform that we can post, share or upload any content to. What they need to make very clear here is that the content you post on Twitter, Facebook and anywhere else they decide to pull from, and either with or without your permission, is the content they are warning you about. Again, this TOS extends to those with unregistered or unclaimed profiles on Klout, too. This is the same ‘employer concern’ I was speaking of earlier.

There are many more of Klouts Terms of Service that don’t make sense either. The link below will take you to current their TOS and you can read it for yourself.  I’d recommend saving a copy due to their ability to change their terms on the fly.

Klout Terms of Service – Klout TOS on September 19 2011

On top of the above Klout privacy and TOS concerns, there also are no options to deactivate your account, nor to hide all or certain parts of your profile. There are no terms in their Privacy Policy that compel us to agree to disclose the entirety of this collected and collated information to the world. There is no clause that states we agree that our profiles and their data can be shared with Klout’s 3rd party vendors.

The only clause in the Privacy Policy on Klout is in regard to their Service Providers. Klout discloses that they use 3rd party data companies to help them maintain their data. Whether you’re registered or not, you’re agreeing to 3rd party data companies accessing your information.

Additionally, it’s my opinion that Klout may be pitting the 2000 companies accessing our data in a possible legal battle against us. This represents thousands of Twitter users worldwide, potentially every single Twitter user out there, due to their unauthorized access of our information published through the Klout website.

I sincerely hope that all 2000 companies who share their API and access our data are aware of the magnitude of the potential privacy breach and that Twitter and other legal entities will take a closer look at the privacy concerns and what appear to be breaches in the Klout system.

To be continued…

Are you curious how Twylah works?

Twylah examines your live Twitter stream and selects up to 20 topics that you tweet about the most. (Note that Twylah does not select your followers topics, but rather the topics you tweet about.) Twylah then selects which tweets will be published on your branded pages based on the frequency and recency of your tweets. In coming weeks Twylah will introduce new action metric feature, which will give you a great insight into engagement factors of your topics. In another words, you will soon know which tweet topics have the highest engagement factor.

Twylah is based on subject, so the more you tweet about one particular subject, the higher the possibility that the subject will be placed on your Twylah branded page.

You may select up to three topics to display on the top of your branded page, and you may hide up to five topics that you don’t want displayed. However, you cannot hide tweets within the topics that you select to be published.

You can select and arrange topics in the Manage Topics section, which is located to the right of the Send ”Power Tweet” option.

Here is the best-hidden weapon of Twylah, and many people who have branded pages are unaware of it: Over a period of time you will be able to determine which specific subjects in your topics your followers are reacting to the most. Through this, you will have the possibility of increasing your influence and engagement by concentrating on the content and subjects that work best with your followers. You will more easily increase your engagement factor, retweets and replays, thus engaging and gaining the trust of your followers. It is engagement and trust that will make your followers act.

On the topic of trust, many of us are guilty of tweeting something really stupid on a Saturday night when we’re out having fun. Of course, we discover the “drink and dial” tweet the next morning when people replay it to us. To make sure you don’t include such tweets on your Twylah page, Twylah will automatically remove any tweets that you delete from your Twitter stream if you are a premium user.

Another, perhaps better, way to be sure tweets like these don’t find their way to your Twylah page, and the way that I recommend, is to simply leave your phone at home when you go into any situation that might involve getting wild. Doing this will guarantee that any “funny tweets” won’t find a place on your Twylah page.

Twylah vs. Klout

Klout is a major player when it comes to measuring influence. But is it the best source for finding influential users on Twitter? In my opinion, it is not.  Twylah is the primary tool I use when I’m looking for potential users to follow on Twitter and when I’m looking for a topic or subject matter over which I can engage with others.

While many of you may find this surprising, the reason I do it this way is actually quite simple.

Klout’s official blog explains how they determine the topics that we are influential about:

“Klout generates this list by semantically analyzing the content you create and the resulting responses. Your most influential topics are not those topics you talk about the most, but those that you get the most engagement on.”

I strongly believe that the core of influence lies in the subject of particular topics that we talk most about, and not just a topic in general. As described above, Twylah determines not only the topic but the subject as well, and in particular, the topic that you talk about the most. This is why I use Twylah as my primary tool for determining my influence and that of others.

To give you a better understanding, here is an example of how this works for me:

Klout has determined that one of my influential topics is Social Media. I agree with this. But what does this really tell my followers? There are no additional details available on my Klout profile for my followers to determine what subjects I talk and engage on the most.  However, if you visit my Twylah page and look at the Social Media topic, you will immediately see that I talk and share mostly about various subjects related to Social Media, such as Social Media Policy, Social Media Tools, Social Media Metrics and so on. This information will help my potential followers determine which subjects they might want to engage with me about. This is what I call influence, and it is in this area that Twylah has the unbeatable power of determining your influence.

Power Tweet

Power Tweet is another great feature for reinforcing your engagement as well as driving traffic to your Twylah page. You might send tweets out directly from the page; you also can use a bookmarking button to send them from any blog or news page. When sending a tweet with a link (which will be automatically shortened for you), your followers will be directed straight to your Twylah page instead of the site from which you shared.

Pictures or video will be displayed in extract format. Tweets will be placed in the RELATED TWEET section alongside other related tweets that you sent in the past.

Other Great Features

Not only does Twylah allow you to send power tweets, but it also allows your fans and visitors to share your branded page directly via Twitter. You can “+1” and share on Google+ as well as “Like” on Facebook. Additionally, your followers can replay or retweet your tweets directly from your Twylah page.

There are branded buttons available to install on your website or blog that you can use to immediately drive traffic to your branded page.

I also strongly recommend publishing a link to your Twylah page on your Facebook, Stumbleupon and LinkedIn pages as well as on your resume, especially if you are looking for new business opportunities.

How To Use Twylah

I’ve read many posts on Twylah in the past and have attended many chats about it on Twitter, and I am convinced that Twylah is exceptional for your own branded page as well as a great tool to market your products or services. But Twylah actually offers even more than just promoting your products or services.  Instead of sending a potential new employer to your direct stream on Twitter, send him to your branded page, where he will have an instant insight into your engagement and influence.

If recruiters would use branded Twylah pages for publishing the job postings that they tweet, job seekers would find it much easier to see all the openings published. Twylah gives recruiters a great tool for standing out from the crowd.

Twylah also offers companies and celebrities a complete, custom-designed Twylah page that is consistent with their particular brand identity in the online world.

Twylah Directory

On the landing page of Twylah, you will find a directory of influential people from different industries throughout the world that have their own Twylah branded pages. Take a look in the directory that is organized by topics, and you’ll find really great leaders to follow and engage.

Here is a list of just a few Social Media leaders that I follow:

Oliver Blanchard

Guy Kawasaki

Kelly Kim

Justin Kistner

Peggy Fitzpatrick

Neal Schaffer

I had the great privilege to talk to the CEO of Twylah, Eric Kim, and the Co-Founder Kelly Kim about new features that have been added and will soon be added to Twylah branded pages in coming weeks. Here are a couple of these new features that will be added:

Topic pages are now more visually engaging to better represent your content.

The one feature that I am really excited about is Mobile Twylah. Mobile Twylah is not a phone application. Rather, Mobile Twylah will allow your branded page to easily fit onto the screens of mobile phone-type devices and to be easy to read. Now you will have the opportunity to show your very own Twylah anywhere and any time!

Do you have your own Twylah page? If not, I recommend that you do so soon!