Contemporary Business Solutions Blog

Is Klout Your Twitter’s Credit Score?

by "Get it Done Girl" on May 26, 2011 · 0 comments

Two clients in the same week asked me what “Klout” means as it relates to their Twitter account. Let’s dig in:

Klout.com defines Klout as:

“…the measurement of your overall online influence. The scores range from 1 to 100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Klout uses over 35 variables on Facebook and Twitter to measure True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score.”

On Twitter specifically, Klout’s influence score is based on a user’s ability to drive action through tweets, retweets, comments and clicks. The factors that Klout considers to create your score:

True Reach

Reach
- Are your tweets interesting and informative enough to build an audience?
- How far has your content been spread across Twitter?
- Are people adding you to lists and are those lists being followed?
Demand
- How many people did you have to follow to build your count of followers?
- How often are your follows reciprocated?

Factors measured: Followers, Mutual Follows, Friends, Total Retweets, Unique Commenters, Unique Likers, Follower/Follow Ratio, Followed Back %, @ Mention Count, List Count, List Followers Count.

Amplification Probability

Engagement
- How diverse is the group that @ messages you?
- Are you broadcasting or participating in conversations?
Velocity
- How likely are you to be retweeted?
- Do a lot of people retweet you or is it always the same few followers?
Activity
- Are you tweeting too little or too much for your audience?
- Are your tweets effective in generating new followers, retweets and @ replies?

Factors measured: Unique Retweeters, Unique Messages Retweeted, Likes Per Post, Comments Per Post Follower Retweet %, Unique @ Senders, Follower Mention %, Inbound Messages Per Outbound Message, Update Count.

Network Influence

How influential are the people who @ message you?
How influential are the people who retweet you?
How influential are the people who follow you?
How influential are the people who list you?
How influential are the people who follow the lists you are on?

Factors measured: List inclusions, Follower/Follow Ratio, Followed Back %, Unique Senders, Unique Retweeters, Unique Commenters, Unique Likers, Influence of Followers, Influence of Retweeters and Mentioners, Influence of Friends, Influence of Likers and Commenters

How do I find out what my Klout score is? Klout.com will generate it for you; otherwise if you’re using Hootsuite to manage your social media accounts, simply click on your own profile and your Klout score will be on the “Bio” tab.

What is your Klout score? Based upon the factors that Klout uses to create it, how will you alter your Twitter practices in order to raise the score?

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Book Review – A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger von Oech

by "Get it Done Girl" on May 17, 2011 · 0 comments

in Book Review,Free Agency,small biz

First published in 1983 Whack lists ten “locks” which limit creative thinking:

The Right Answer
That’s Not Logical
Follow the Rules
Be Practical
Play is Frivolous
That’s Not My Area
Avoid Ambiguity
Don’t Be Foolish
To Err is Wrong
I’m Not Creative

Von Oech continues to explain how each can be “unlocked” in separate chapters. He also includes various exercises to support his explanations. The book gives you the tools to apply its ideas to your problems in order to find creative solutions.

I know some of you out there don’t enjoy living in the creative space (myself included), but I’ve realized that to continue to offer something new and innovative to clients, we all need to jump on the “creative train”.

I recently read the War of Art by Steven Pressfield and found this book to be more enjoyable from a narrative standpoint. Pressfield weaves his personal struggles with creativity throughout the book which I found completely entertaining. Whack approaches creativity by clearly defining possible barriers and how to break those barriers down.

Whichever book you choose to read, just read one and start confronting your lack of creative juices so you can continue to offer new and fresh ideas to your clients/customers.

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#140confDM Debrief

by "Get it Done Girl" on May 14, 2011 · 2 comments

in small biz,Social Media,Super Tools

I was “out of the office” all day Monday attending the 140 Characters Conference – the first one in Des Moines.

“The key focus of the conference is on how real time technology (twitter, Facebook are two examples) is changing business, agriculture, media, education, sports, celebrity – everything. Speakers present in 10 to 20 minute segments. The #140conf events provide a platform for the worldwide twitter community to: listen, connect, share and engage with each other, while collectively exploring the effects of the emerging real-time internet on business.”

Even though you can view the entire conference on Des Moines Amplified’s Events Channel, I thought I’d share with you a few Flip videos I took of some of the presenters to give you a taste of what you can expect next year:

Running for Office in a Real Time World | Alexander Grgurich

Real-time information and the social web are not only transforming business and industry, they are also transforming the way political campaigns work to get candidates elected.

Internships are the Key to Stopping Brain Drain | Claire Celsi

Internships are crucial in anchoring college educated young people in communities all over Iowa. Internship programs introduce and root students to the community, provide businesses with valuable and affordable help, and give students a leg up.

5 Lessons on Crowdsourcing a Book | Drew McLellan

How the 3 Age of Conversation books came to be, the lessons learned and the value of the project.

Impromptu Presentation | Andrew Clark

On Exhibit: Social Media and Museums | Lindsey Smith

The growing presence of social media within the museum field and the impact it is having on both museums and their guests.

The Power of One (Hundred and Forty) | Angela Maiers

There used to be a time when only big business and big government could change the world. The voice of one was crowded out by the power, might and noise of larger systems and organizations. Twitter changed that.

Social Capital Management | Ben Stone

Business gets done because of relationships. I think organizations can strengthen and use those relationships, both inside and outside of the organization through Social Capital Management.

Small Iowa Company, Big Social Results | Derek Balsley

Through our social media efforts, we’ve completely transformed the way we interact with our customers and we’ve empowered them to tell their own success stories and share their passions with other customers who’ve had similar experiences.

Don’t Sweat | Jon Thompson

I don’t consider myself very good at social media, yet it is still an effective tool for me. Don’t worry about it so much.

Vine Me | Josh Fleming

Context is King.

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Book Review: Free Prize Inside by Seth Godin

by "Get it Done Girl" on May 3, 2011 · 0 comments

in Book Review,small biz

Seth Godin is one of my favorite authors. Tribes, the first business book I read after college, inspired me to become a leader; so I thought I’d give one of his earlier books, Free Prize Inside a try.

Free Prize Inside is divided into three sections:

Why You Need a Free Prize
Selling the Idea
Creating the Free Prize

Seth argues that organizations need to be remarkable in order to survive; innovation is cheaper than advertising. The “free prize” is a soft innovation. Everybody within an organization can be champions of soft innovations which are the “clever, insightful, useful small ideas that just about anyone in an organization can think up.”

The second section of the book is dedicated to showing us how to keep our innovations alive by championing them and winning the support of others. If you work in a large organization, it’s important to get the buy-in of several departments before you take the idea to senior-level management. If you have internal support already, it’s easier for management to entertain your innovation.

The third section is dedicated to creating free prizes by listing organizations that have successfully employed soft innovations. This was the most interesting part of the book for me. Seth talks about developing a soft innovation and then taking it to the edge. He calls this process “edgecraft”. Netflix did it with movie rentals; Krispy Kreme did it with donuts.

How are you empowering your Tribe to create soft innovations? Can you take your organization to the “edge”?

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Advantages of Being a Free Agent

by "Get it Done Girl" on April 28, 2011 · 0 comments

in Free Agency,small biz

Last week I wrote about the financial hurdles associated with being a Free Agent (independent professional). Why would anyone want to work for themselves?

Diverse Schedule – My days are never the same. I don’t get up and drive to work, stay there for 8 hours and then drive home; I may have some “work-from-home” days where I don’t have any appointments I have to go to. There are other days where I hit every coffee shop in town for appointments and networking. Some people would see this as a disadvantage, however – they may enjoy sitting in a cube for 8 hours – not me…
Freedom – To make decisions. I can choose to work today or not. I can choose if I want to reinvent a certain service offering and how. I can attend an all-day professional development conference without feeling guilty about it (or having an employer who won’t allow it). Do you have this freedom in your job?
Nimbleness – As a one-woman-show with zero overhead, I’m able to react quickly to my client’s needs and the market in general. I don’t have to get approval from anyone to make things happen – well, maybe my husband in some instances!
Location Independent – For the most part, I can do my work from anywhere in the world; today’s technology makes this possible. Take advantage of it if you can.

What are some other advantages of working for yourself? I’m sure I’ve missed some…