Thursday, August 25, 2011

Raising Klout Score 4 Points in One Day


August 25th, 2011


Before we begin, I have to say, I do not put that much stock in Klout Scores.  At least I didn't before I set out to raise my own.  On this trek I realised that my goal made me a better social media manager, I got better at Tweeting, I posted higher quality content, and I buckled down with discipline.



I had to change my frame of reference.  Because Klout was not important to me, I was missing the point:  Klout is important to others, and it is an indication of online influence.  Another personal reason was that some of my clients had a higher influence than I had!  I was doing such a great job of helping them, that I was overlooking my own influence online. 

You CAN raise your score, and doing so will probably mean that you are a better manager of your online profile.



What actions should we take to increase our score?

1. Activate Klout with your LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter Accounts.

2. Start Tweeting Links that people want to read, and open, and ReTweet.

3. Tweet more frequently, but with quality mentions, and dialogue aimed at influential accounts who will respond.

4. Follow new people regularly, who will mention you and include you in tweets; this is often overlooked, or outright ignored.

   A quote from Joe Fernandez, the CEO of Klout:   It really boils down to what the likelihood of the content you create on social networks is being acted upon; people commenting, clicking links, liking, retweeting, whatever it might be. And then we look at how influential the people are who do that. Ultimately, when we think about influence, it’s really about the ability to drive others to action.

 So when I follow new people regularly, and they mention me in a simple: "Thanks Lonny for the Follow"  my profile is influenced by their tweet.   It's really as simple as that, yet largely overlooked.





Much of the one day bump was predictable.  Over the course of about two weeks, I started following more new people regularly, going from 45,000 followers to about 47,000 followers.  I started upping my game with Tech tweets, science, the environment, news, and I stopped tweeting just general interest or humor tweets. 


Much like making a life change, I had to transform what I was doing.  I had to do something differently if I was to expect different results.  In short, I stopped being lazy, and I did something about my influence online.






Am I going to light the world on fire with my tweets? I don't think so.  But trying to improve my score made me a better person, a better Tweeter, a better account manager.  And I also have a better appreciation for Klout. 





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Editor/Author Lonny Dunn has followed Telephony Infastructure Stocks since the Mid 90's.  He currently manages over 150k followers over various accounts, and manages business and celebrity accounts online. 

http://facebook.com/LonDunn

Saturday, August 20, 2011

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Yesterday, Hewlett Packard announced that it was going out of the PC business, leaving only Dell and Apple as "boxers" or desktop manufacturers. ( Source: Press Releases, See article: Barron's Analysis, http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424052702304658004576510362441767864.html?mod=BOL_twm_col )



Now, I am a big proponent of Mobile Technology, having covered Mobile Infastructure stocks from 1995 to 2001 for The Thesaurus News, an online stockpicking newsletter, and freelance writer for financial publications.  I believe the world is going mobile in a huge way.  More people access the internet with mobile phones than with computers, so don't think I am doing an about face with this piece.

But might some of these companies be rushing it a bit?  I thought of an allegory here, by John Donne, one of the metaphysical poets: 

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manner of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee. 
     by John Donne

  


I've always fancied John Donne, as my ancestors dropped the "e" from our surname a few centuries ago.  His famous line "For Whom the Bell Tolls"  entered the lexicon when used as the title for a novel by Ernest Hemingway in 1940.   But do you know what it means?

In it's simplest context, it might be translated thus:

Don't ask me for whom the death bell is ringing, when it rings, a part of humanity has just passed away, and when one of us dies, a part of all us dies.  So don't ask me for whom it tolls, it might as well be tolling for you ( or me ). 

As we see the "dying off" of PC's, and a rush to go mobile, are we possibly all losing a valuable resource?  Is not a part of mankind dying off, and should we all be feeling the pain?  Is this rage to go mobile just promotion and hype by Madison Ave. Marketing firms to sell us another product which won't do all that we want it to do?

For someone as hooked as I am on the idea that society is changing with handheld mobile devices, there are limitations.

We probably won't see for instance:

     - The folks at Disney or Dreamworks doing the next big animated feature on a Tablet or Mobile Phone.  They will need much more powerful machines than a handheld to do their work.

    - The Comptroller of your company doing her/his payroll numbers on a Tablet while having their lunch on a park bench.

    - Even mundane tasks: A friend in Arizona said she could not set up her Google + account without a desktop, and it would have to wait till she returned from her vacation.  

    - Demographic limitations like the over 55 crowd, such a huge part of social media growth in the last 12 months, they are barely learning to master desktops, are they now expected to learn tablet technology, and should mobile devices be their only access to the Internet? 

     - A writer typing out the next great "For Whom the Bell Tolls"  on her/his Android or Android Tablet with 5 inch screen.

Are we victims of Corporate profits, slick marketing, and visionary dreamers like Steve Jobs, who predicted that we were entering a Tablet Age?  A self serving prediction indeed, considering when he made it 18 months ago, he was unveiling his latest gadget, the iPad. 

Innovation is such that a company must be constantly reinventing itself to stay ahead of the consumer and the competition.  In the case of mobility products, it takes no genius or snake oil salesman like Steve Jobs to have seen this coming.  Many of us who have followed the industry for more than a decade know that the market was held captive in the United States by the U.S. Congress.   Instead of giving away the broadband spectrum in the late 90's, some brilliant politicians decided to auction it off, which literally took years, and the U.S. is behind the EU and Japan in the arena of 3G and 4G broadband communications.  

The current rush to innovate and change the world is Johnny Come Lately to the party, as the United States was set back by legislation and infighting which could be equated to the Mobile Dark Ages.    Nobody who is touting their product can even take credit for any innovations, as they are attempting to do.  Had the U.S. gone mobile in a big way in the Mid 90's, we would probably be at 5G or 6G by now, and this entire revolution would be undertaken by an entirely different group of people. 

So remember, when the you read stories about the death of the PC,  it's probably best to smile, and take it all in stride.  We know who wants to make these predictions:  Those who'd like to sell us a Tablet.  

There is something to be said about sitting down to a full sized keyboard and tapping out an article, that I just don't get from an Android, or iPad.  
 
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The Most Important Decision Any Small Business Owver Will Make: http://pronetworkbuild.com/the-most-important-decision-any-small-business-owner-will-make/


Use Twitter to Get 1,000 Local Connections Per Week: http://pronetworkbuild.com/use-twitter-to-get-local-followers-and-clients/
________________________________________________

Lonny can be found on Facebook at  http://facebook.com/londunn

   
Lon Dunn writes on Evan Carmichael as a productivity and efficiency expert. He wrote and edited The Thesaurus News from 1995 to 2001 with a specialty in Telephony Infastructure Stocks. With over 20 years following the Mobile Industry, Lon helps Companies, Professionals and Organizations develop Mobile Marketing Strategies combined with Social Media Strategies to strategically target specific markets and demographics to rapidly increase revenues. His most recent book available on Amazon is “How to Use Twitter for Local Business” with Tips and Mobile Marketing Strategies that anyone can do themselves. You can download the free “Kindle App for PC to download the book to your Desktop available on the Kindle Site:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Twitter-Local-Business-ebook/dp/B007VSR6Y2
     

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Replenishing the Conversation Pool

Dennis Coble remarked yesterday on Twitter in a Tweet:

Giving away brings returns, usually multiplied.Not everyone wants a huge following, though.

We were discussing the fact that #followfriday is not about GETTING followers, but giving back, and promoting others. 

Some don't want a huge following this is true, but who are they conversing with?
Tweepi Configured for "Last Tweet"
Even if you dont care about having a large account, your timeline is losing active followers even as you read this. 


ABF Always Be Following.
We have to be adding to our conversation pool, at a regular, consistant, disciplined pace.  We do this by following new people, and giving them an opportunity to follow back.  If you think your content alone is going to grow a following, you are sadly mistaken.  I participated in a conversation on LinkedIn, and was quite surprised at this passive notion that we should grow our Twitter accounts "organically" as many people expressed the term.   This could take literally years.  

I give new followers sometimes a week, sometimes a few days, but I follow consistently 1,000 new followers when I follow any at all.  This also happens to be Twitter's daily follow limit.  I might follow 200 from a business profile, 200 from a writing profile, and so on, and at other times, I follow the entire 1,000 followers all from one large list. 

Some people ask, what is a good list to follow?  Right on your timeline!!  There are active people, they are talking to someone, find a profile, click FOLLOWERS, and start following.  I prefer people who have tweeted within the last hour, and at other times, I follow people who have tweeted within the last 24 hours.  Either way, I never follow anyone who hasn't tweeted within the last 24 hours, because they are simply not active tweeters, and if they haven't tweeted in 24 hours, they also might not follow back.

If 100 people follow back, that is sufficient.  If 250 follow back, that is even better.  Sometimes as many as half follow me back. 

I use http://tweepi.com/  to sort through the followers, because it gives me statistics like you see above, where I have configured it for "Last Tweet"  .....  if someone hasn't tweeted in 8 days, I don't bother with them regardless of how wonderful their profile is.

There are many reasons to Always Be Following ( new tweeps ) and I cover them in various articles.  Probably the most important is that we need to get out of our comfort zone.  We have our regular retweeters, readers or audience already.  Unless we go out and enlarge our audience, we stagnate, we have no growth.  When we expand our audience, we energize them, as well as ourselves.  Networks that are not growing, are dying.  Help others enlarge their networks by retweeting their articles and links, and they will reciprocate.  Remember to Plant and Sow.

Have a great week!

____________________________________________

Follow Lonny Dunn on Facebook at  http://facebook.com/londunn

Read A Series of Articles on Evan Carmichael for Entrepreneurs By Lonny Dunn at: http://www.evancarmichael.com/Productivity/5630/summary.php

Ninja Tip: Sometimes I find a small, new account, and follow the entire list thereto.  Why?  Because if it's new, there is a high probability the entire list is active, and will follow back.  This is efficient, as I don't have as many to cull later, and get a high follow back ratio.


SEO Packages from ProNetworkBuild: http://pronetworkbuild.com/seo-packages-from-pronetworkbuild/

Adword vs Organic Search: http://pronetworkbuild.com/adwords-vs-organic-search/

SEO Packages from ProNetworkBuild: http://pronetworkbuild.com/seo-packages-from-pronetworkbuild/


_____________________________________________

Lon Dunn writes on Evan Carmichael as a productivity and efficiency expert. He wrote and edited The Thesaurus News from 1995 to 2001 with a specialty in Telephony Infastructure Stocks. With over 20 years following the Mobile Industry, Lon helps Companies, Professionals and Organizations develop Mobile Marketing Strategies combined with Social Media Strategies to strategically target specific markets and demographics to rapidly increase revenues. His most recent book available on Amazon is “How to Use Twitter for Local Business” with Tips and Mobile Marketing Strategies that anyone can do themselves. You can download the free “Kindle App for PC to download the book to your Desktop available on the Kindle Site:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Twitter-Local-Business-ebook/dp/B007VSR6Y2