How (not) to increase your Klout score

 

 

It might just be me, but trying to increase my Klout score has proved to be a tough and ultimately frustrating task.

 

I’ve been on Klout for a while now, having posted previously with Klout – the Social Media Enigma?, but with @PaulBromford recently posting on Twitter the ‘Klout top 50 power players’, I had to have a go at increasing my score.

 

So, what have I done to try and increase my Klout score? On Twitter I’ve increased my level of tweeting, I’ve interacted more and I’ve generally been much more involved. On LinkedIn I posted onto a group to see what reaction I’d get and on Google+ I posted a few links and increased my groups.

 

The results? After all of that work (and I do mean quite a lot of work!) I managed to increase my score by 1, to 45. When I look back at the amount of work it took, it was pretty relentless and I really don’t think it was worth the effort. Mind you, some of my findings might be quite interesting to some of you.

 

I found that there aren’t many people on Google+ as yet, meaning that any message I had just didn’t get very far. I did manage to get a G+1 from someone (which goes towards my Klout score), but that’s about it. Google+ is often hailed as the next big social media platform, but at present, hardly anyone is on it. It’s like how I found LinkedIn when I joined 10 years ago – hardly anyone I knew was on there at that point.

 

On Twitter, I increased my number of followers and managed to get some really interesting conversations going. My Klout interaction list has certainly never looked busier.

 

On LinkedIn, despite my post being liked by 5 people, these don’t seem to have transferred on to my Klout score. I can only assume that group conversations don’t count.

 

So, overall, what have I learnt? To have a clear focus on what I’m aiming to get and to work on specific, chosen platforms, rather than ‘thinly spreading the jam over many’. I still check my Klout score regularly (I’ve now put a Klout add-on to my Google Chrome so when I’m on Twitter it shows everyone’s Klout score as well – as below screen grab shows):

 

I have to agree that Klout does seem a little sensitive at times. If I have some time off, my Klout score always reduces and sometimes, despite seeming to have loads of interactions, my Klout score goes down, which is pretty frustrating. I know there is a method to the Klout scoring, but it just doesn’t seem to make sense in my opinion.

 

Saying all of that though, despite my best intentions, I’ll still be trying to increase my Klout score. Whether I’ll consciously try and raise my score or just hope it happens by increasing my Twitter or Google+ use, only time will tell.

 

Still, it gives my something to do in my (ahem) spare time!!

 

LinkedIn Maps – a really cool tool!

I recently attended a social media masterclass session with Bangor University. It was run by two guys from Ireland who were unbelievably knowledgeable about social media. Amongst the many tips and insights they gave us, they introduced the LinkedIn Maps tool.

Basically the tool maps out your LinkedIn networks. It does it in a very colourful way (yes, it looks very cool in my eyes) as it groups your network contacts together into similar groups.

For one guy who was running the workshop, his network map (which had something like 1500 links) had three main colours, which associated with the different areas that he has worked in. He’d worked overseas and in a few different fields of business. As soon as I saw his network map, I knew I had to have a go!

Later that night at home I typed the weblink into the search bar and clicked ‘authorise app’. It then proceeded to start mapping my network. After some 20 minutes of waiting, I decided to click on the ‘Email me once completed’ link.

The next morning, I opened my Email to find the attached:

Apart from it looking quite messy, I noticed I had eight colours! What did that mean? I figured it was a bad thing, seeing as I have just over 150 links in my network.

That morning I was on the second day of my training, so at the first opportunity, I asked one of the guys running the workshop about my network. Essentially he told me that my network was good. He asked me if I’d worked in lots of different places (to account for some of the different colours), but I haven’t. Either way, he seemed impressed enough with my map.

I’ve since done a bit of research into ‘network theory’ which states that:

‘A network that bridges structural holes will provide network benefits that are in some degree additive, rather than overlapping.’

So, the upshot is that I’ve decided to take it that I’ve got a good LinkedIn network!! Not sure how true that is, but it’s not like I can suddenly change my network contacts…..

I’d highly recommend that you give it a go. For me it really is a very cool addition to LinkedIn. It certainly doesn’t fit with the ‘straight down the line’ kind of approach that LinkedIn seem to offer most of the time.

So, go on, give it a go. Let me know what your network map looks like and if you can beat 8 different colours??

The Rise of Social Media

social media platforms

We live in an instant world with an ever increasing number of social media platforms. It seems we could spend our day many times over just keeping up to speed with them all, but is this rise in social media all good?

Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook, Google+…………..there are quite literally hundreds of social media platforms today. Can anyone really be on them all? I must confess that I’m on a handful of these and one of the reasons I’m not on more is that social media already takes up a lot of my time.

Of course, one of the advantages of social media is the immediacy of information and response. I can tweet something of interest or a query and within minutes get a reply back from someone. I’ve lost count of the interesting information I’ve picked up from twitter which is quite literally hot off the press. But I’d argue it takes a change in mindset to talk in such an instant manner like on Twitter. It certainly took me some time to get used to.

There’s also the other side of the coin, on whether it is actually better to speak to people face to face, to be able to converse in more than 140 characters? There are certainly times when I can’t say what I want to on Twitter, for risk of it going over more than 1 tweet. I’ve always considered myself good at keeping to the point and not rambling, but Twitter has been a whole new ballgame, and if you work to the optimum number of characters in Twitter – around 80 – this is even tougher. LinkedIn isn’t really designed for interaction, although its noticeable of late that they have been pushing this more and more.

If we look a while back at the introduction of Email, some of these concerns were being raised then. I can recall when Email first became mainstream in a work setting and hearing comments like ‘you can’t beat good old face to face conversation’. I remember the Council I was working for at the time only letting certain people have Email – ‘the jobs who will need it’ (i.e. not every job). I’m also yet to meet anyone who wholeheartedly agrees that Email is the best business tool ever and should never be replaced. Which one of us hasn’t complained about the volume of Email at some stage or another? As with most things in life it seems, it has its positives and negatives.

For my money, there is a balance to be made. I’ve been using Twitter regularly now for over a year and I’ve got a lot from it – loads of useful contacts and information. But for me it’s one of many forms of social media. I’ve also been on LinkedIn since about 2003, well before most people in the UK. I remember signing up to LinkedIn and looking for other people to contact and there just not being anyone I knew of at all. How things have moved on since then! For those who are wondering, I’m also not a big user of Facebook anymore – I personally prefer to stick with the more ‘business’ related social media platforms.

I think I’ll be sticking with Twitter and LinkedIn for the foreseeable future, as well as Kred and Klout (see my earlier posts on these). I’m as interested really in seeing where the journey on these platforms will take me and as I’ve said previously, I am always interested in learning.

So, what have your experiences been of using Social Media? Good, bad or indifferent? I guess the debate just might rage on……………

My ASB Prezi

I thought I’d put up a link to my latest ASB Prezi. I gave this at a recent TPAS Cymru Network meeting with tenant representatives from various housing organisations.

As I tweeted just after the event: ‘If I gauge my @prezi ASB presentation on the number of questions received during and afterwards, then it was a definite success!!’

Let me know what you think!!

Five tips for using Prezi

I first heard of Prezi on Twitter. I must confess, the first few times I saw the word Prezi it didn’t really register with me. But then Nick Atkin, CEO of Halton Housing Trust, tweeted a link to a Prezi he was giving later that day at a conference. I clicked on it from my iPad, not really being sure what to expect. I duly downloaded the iPad Prezi viewer, but alas, I couldn’t really work out what the Prezi was really about. I now know that I had made the mistake of trying to manually zoom around the Prezi, meaning that I was looking at large areas of blank space. It still wasn’t clear what Prezi was for, although in face value it did seem interesting and different, and I do have a habit of needing to investigate new and innovative ways of communicating.

First tip – ‘don’t try outwitting a Prezi – it will only end in tears’.

Due to my first experience, I left it untouched and unresearched for a while, but then with more and more tweets referring to being such a great thing, I had to look into it further. On signing in to Prezi and checking out a few of the recommended Prezi’s, I was hooked! It was amazing what could be done – words within words, whole scenes, zooming in and out – the possibilities seemed endless.

Then I was asked to give a 5 minute presentation at #tai2013cymru – Wales’ Chartered Institute of Housing Conference. This seemed like the ideal opportunity for me to have a go at using Prezi.

Second tip – ‘find an excuse to try using Prezi’.

Of course, it wasn’t that easy at first. If I was basing the final Prezi on the time it took me to produce, it would have been the most expensive presentation I’ve ever designed. I’d also have to say that one of my first Prezi’s, which at the time I was particularly proud of, in the light of another day just made no sense………and here’s why.

Third tip – ‘unless you have a reason to zoom in and out, it’s just annoying’.

My earlier Prezi zoomed in and out all over the place. I was really pleased with it at the time as I thought it was really creative, but when I looked at it the following the day, it just gave me a headache, which is a criticism levelled at Prezi from quite a few quarters. I decided to persevere, so started a completely fresh one off and this time, I didn’t use a template at all. I tried to work out the outline of my Prezi slides before worrying too much about the detail.

Fourth tip –‘keep it simple (stupid) – KISS’.

By the time I had spent a long time playing around with the content of my Prezi, I was actually pretty pleased with the result. I’d worked out how to add a decent background (for mine it was a blue sky – positive all the way) and how to ‘tell a story’, even if it was a short one.

Fifth tip – ‘use Prezi to tell a story’.

In speaking to Nick, he also suggested I tweet out my Prezi as a sneak preview beforehand (the day before the conference), which I did, and I duly had some nice positive comments back from some of my Twitter followers.

I turned up on the day of my conference presentation and panic set in – I needed an internet connection to make my Prezi work (as I hadn’t downloaded it beforehand) and I’ve not had much luck in the past with technology. But thankfully, after a few heart-stopping moments, it worked.

In the end I gave my first ever conference Prezi (one of the first at Tai I think?) and it was a great feeling. I even tweeted a link to my Prezi after the event again and on last check, I’d had 38 views (To view my Prezi click here). But of course, now that I’ve used it once successfully, I’m looking to use it again.

Thankfully, I’ve now been asked to give a short talk about Anti-Social Behaviour by TPAS Cymru and as I was asked the question, I’ve said I’ll use Prezi. Another challenge!

On another note, it also seems I’ve encouraged a few other people to give Prezi a try, including my CEO Paul Diggory, which I am really pleased about.

I have to say, in my humble opinion, Prezi will take over Powerpoint in the years to come and it seems that the number of Prezi converts is constantly on the rise. The flexibility it allows is so much better and it can certainly make for a more inclusive, interesting presentation.

Let me know your experiences of using Prezi by leaving a comment below!!

Going ‘Back to the Floor’

Over the past few weeks, I’ve started going ‘Back to the Floor’ within my staff teams.

In truth, I’ve been waiting for the ideal opportunity to do this for some years. I’ve now got quite a large team of over 70 staff within several different teams and based in different locations. This seemed the ideal opportunity and to be honest, from the moment I was offered my new post, I knew it was something I wanted to do early on in my new role, within a new organisation.

Of course, going ‘back to the floor’ is nothing new.

I remember watching the ‘back to the floor’ TV series back in early 2000 and being fascinated by it. I couldn’t believe that a boss could be so far removed from what the front line staff did in a typical day. Of course, the higher up the ladder I’ve got, the more I’ve realised how easy it is to become removed from the front line!

What I’ve found when going ‘back to the floor’ is that staff are looking forward to meeting me and are more than happy to engage with me on a wide range of issues. I make it clear beforehand that I want the day I experience to be ‘as normal as possible’. This means that I also get some quality time speaking to some of my staff and I’ve already picked up a lot.

I’ve found some hidden talent – individuals who I probably wouldn’t have met properly otherwise, but after having met them going ‘back to the floor’, I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for them. I’ve been able to quiz staff about some of the ideas I’ve got or some of the issues as I see them and their honesty (and challenge!) in particular about what they feel will and won’t work is very refreshing. More than anything though I’d say going ‘back to the floor’ has enabled me to get to know in much more detail what front line staff do day-to-day, the issues they face and what things I can tackle or address to make their roles easier.

Of course there are a few acid tests in the process:

-          Whether the staff are happy with me going ‘back to the floor’ – from what I’ve been told, they do seem to appreciate it;

-          Whether I am actually able to use the experiences and information I’ve gained to make a positive difference – I guess only time will tell whether I’m able to deliver on this but I’m looking to make this a reality;

-          Whether I’ll keep on going ‘back to the floor’ – I’ve already booked in more ‘back to the floor’ sessions over the coming months and I hope to make this into an annual thing.

A further bonus to come out of the process to date is that I also seem to have convinced some of my other colleagues to do a similar ‘back to the floor’ exercise, which they have now firmly booked in their diaries as well.

I’m also an avid watcher of ‘Undercover Boss’ and ‘Secret Millionaire’, although I couldn’t get away with going undercover in my current organisation (it’s just not big enough!) and as I’m not a millionaire (in any shape or form!) that’s a no go as well.

Still, never say never………….

Has Twitter seen its best days?

Firstly, let me get a disclaimer out of the way…..

I’ve been using Twitter now for nearly 12 months and I use it almost every day. I’ve convinced lots of colleagues to sign up to Twitter and I use it regularly to keep up-to-the-minute with news from the Housing sector and beyond. But I have been asking myself more and more recently whether Twitter has seen its best days?

There are a few signs (for me)…..

The rise and (fairly recent) stumble of Facebook is one. Reports came out in 2011 that Facebook lost nearly 6million users in the US alone and I certainly haven’t read of any resurgence in the use of Facebook since. I know this is a tiny percentage of the overall Facebook users, but who would have forseen this at Facebook’s hayday? Combine this with the not so successful flotation of Facebook on the stock market in 2012, which again was seen by many as a successful forgone conclusion beforehand and all is not so well with Facebook.

By comparison, I’m not reading of any alarm bells regarding Twitter…..

But then, I am wondering how long it might be before we start to hear reports of this nature. For me on a personal level, I’ve noticed less traffic from some people using Twitter. Granted this might just be some of the people I’m following, but as with any innovation, there is always a new one around the corner. The Social Media market is getting more and more competitive, with even more platforms being released every day. You’ve only got to look at some of the daily newspaper websites to see the vast number of social media options available for you to share stories and pictures with others.

I have also read in the past queries about whether 140 characters for a tweet really is enough to keep people engaged? I’ve got used to the 140 characters, but there are times when I have to lose some of my intended message due to the character limit. I realise that this is probably a fault of mine, but I’m still not willing to abbreviate every word in a sentence just to try and get a point across.

So, I realise that the subject of my post can’t be answered here, I realise I might be in the minority with my comments and I’m quite prepared to be wrong on this. But there it is!

I’d love to know what you think…..

Please leave your comments below

So what exactly is Kred??

Have you ever heard of Kred ? The first time I heard the name was in The Visceral Business Connected Housing Report. Being the inquisitive type, I had to find out what this was about.

The recently published Visceral Business Connected Housing Report is a very interesting report, not only because it focused specifically on social media and housing, but it also used Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Kred to ‘track performance (of housing associations) on key platforms and measures of digital service availability’. The document itself looks impressive enough – it even had a league table at the back. But what prompted the use of Kred along with the more obvious and expected social media platforms?

To find this out, I duly logged in to Kred. One of the first things I noticed is that it was very easy to sign up to, by using my Twitter account. Within seconds my screen was filled with lots of boxes showing the conversations that I’ve recently had, along with my Kred score or 544 / 4. The next obvious question – I wonder what that all of these boxes mean?? Is this a good, bad or indifferent score???? (I hope it is a good score!)

What I found out is that the 544 relates to my influence and the 4 relates to my outreach. I’ll refer to Kred’s descriptions here for what each term means:

Kred Influence – goes up when somebody mentions, retweets or replies to you

Kred Outreach – increases when you mention, retweet or reply to someone else

The above screenshot shows some of the detail you can get from Kred. As you can see, my Kred score has increased slightly to 567 influence. This was after about 3 weeks of using Kred.

Well, that seems refreshingly simple to see how it’s worked out.

Interestingly, Kred also have users grouped together in ‘communities’, meaning it’s easy to find who is the most influential or has the most outreach in any one of the identified communities, like say Social Media.

As shown in the above screenshot, my three areas are listed as Nonprofit, Golf and Health. I can understand Nonprofit and Health (in terms of welfare reform), but I’ve never mentioned Golf once in any of my tweets! (This has really got me stumped………if anyone can shed some light on this I’d be very grateful)…

What I find most interesting is that The Visceral Business Connected Housing Report used Kred amongst the more established Social Media platforms. It seems that Kred is gaining in popularity (aren’t most Social Media platforms though?) and certainly seems to lend itself really well to organisations and businesses using the tool to ensure they are getting the best influence and outreach possible, to get their message out there, in their communities.

The acid test question for me though is, will I keep on using Kred? Only time will tell, but on the evidence of the first few weeks use of Kred, I tend to think I will. Importantly for me, my Kred score has remained stable over the past several weeks of using Kred. This I like as it seems more reflective of what I am doing longer term.

Now, you’ll have to excuse me, I need to raise my Kred score……………..

Klout – the social media enigma?

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For me, Klout has an undeniable air of mystery surrounding it.

I for one have been signed up to Klout for a few months now at least. Other people on Twitter had been quoting their scores, but as I had no idea what it was or meant, I decided I had to find out what all the fuss was about. Signing up was relatively easy – I don’t use Facebook (yes, I’m one of those who’s opted out!) so I signed up to Klout using my Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. I duly got back my first score – 40, which I was pretty darn pleased with.

Over the coming weeks I checked back regularly and my score was pretty steady at 40/41. Then I decided (in my wisdom) to try and raise my score. I started using twitter more and more (more tweets, more interacting) but alas, it didn’t seem to make any difference and inevitably, when my score didn’t increase, I lost interest.

I decided to check my Klout score again a few weeks ago and was still around 39/40, despite having quite a few more Twitter followers and (seemingly) more interaction with my followers. I don’t mind telling you I was quite annoyed! I know I thought, I’ll do a search on Google and I’m sure to find out how to increase my followers. Klout even have some FAQs on their website on how to improve our score. Sure, there was lots of advice out there, but nothing that really pointed out how I could raise my score. So, I decided it was time to see for myself whether I could work it out.

I decided to deregister my LinkedIn account with Klout. My LinkedIn account was quite healthy with over 100 contacts, but there was some suggestion on Google that the number of followers makes no real difference to your Klout score and seeing as I did all of my interaction through Twitter, I decided this might improve my Klout score.

In the few days after I did this my Klout score dropped 3points down to 38. Not great. I then connected my LinkedIn account again and my score increased by 3 points and has over the weeks since increased further to 44.

The verdict? Well, for me personally the jury is still out on whether Klout is a useful gauge of my social influence……….only time will tell as to whether I continue using Klout. Next up is learning to use Kred………