social scoring

Why MyPeerIndex is a Major Step Forward for Social Scoring

When we were writing?Influence Marketing, both?Sam Fiorella?and I spoke to several tech vendors in the social scoring and influence marketing space. This included?Ferenc Huszar, lead data scientist at?PeerIndex.

When asked about the future of social scoring and where it sits within the bigger influence marketing picture, Ferenc advised,

Currently, influence platforms calculate their scores and metrics based largely on social media interactions simply due to the fact that this data is most widely available. [However], I agree that one of the main goals of influence marketing should be to close the gap between social influence and actual sales figures or profit. This is certainly the long-term vision, and we have already taken steps to deliver on this vision.

PeerIndex?s recent unveiling of?MyPeerIndex?not only shows what these steps are, but opens up social scoring to be far more transparent to the consumer side of measurement.

What is MyPeerIndex and Why Does It Matter?

The biggest criticisms both Sam and I have had when it comes to social scoring as a real measure of influence can be boiled down to two main reservations:

Social influence has less authority because of the lack of transparency in how scores are measured (previously it was only?Kred?that publicly shared data on this);
Social influence was ego-centric versus customer-centric, because of their use of public scoring systems, leading to gaming of the algorithms and changing natural conversations on social platforms.

With the release of MyPeerIndex, PeerIndex has removed both of these barriers, leading to an easier understanding of scoring for both consumers and brands alike. From?the PeerIndex blog announcing the release,

As a data provider we feel that the most responsible way to handle our business is to be transparent with social media users. We strongly believe in the power of data to make your interactions with brands more helpful and relevant, but at the same time, we are firmly of the opinion that you, the customer, has to have the final say in whether brands get to see your data or not.
MyPeerIndex.com?is our new consumer transparency page where every user can see, download and remove the data we hold on them and provide to our partners through?our API?and?audience insights tool PiQ.

It?s that last sentence that stands out ? now it?s not only the clients using PeerIndex to gather data on consumers and social media users that can see what information is held, but also the consumers themselves.

This is a huge announcement and leaves Klout as the only platform of the ?Big Three? ? Klout, Kred and PeerIndex ? that keeps their algorithm secret.

MyPeerIndex and Earning the Trust of Social Media Users

From a personal point of view, my biggest gripe with social influence platforms has been the Opt-Out mentality they employ ? they create a viewable profile of you if you have a public Twitter account, whether you know about their platform(s) or not.

This has led to various invasion of privacy concerns, as well as impacting professional lives (prospective job candidates have been turned down based on their previously unaware of scores).

While MyPeerIndex still creates a profile of you, it now allows you much more control of, and access to, that data.

Access to your information

When you access your own MyPeerIndex, you have the option of downloading a JSON file of the data PeerIndex provides to brands about you. This simple addition will let you see exactly why you?re being profiled and, in the longer run, help you protect your privacy better.

Removal of data, as opposed to deleting your profile

While social scoring platforms allow you to delete your account, there have been instances where people have still been tracked or appear to have not been fully removed. MyPeerIndex counters this by allowing you to remove you data.

Removing the Search option

As mentioned earlier, publicly available scores have led to the bastardization of influence as people try and grow their scores, compete with friends, and attract brands to receive freebies. MyPeerIndex removes the ability to look at anyone else?s score, thus removing the ego-centric use by savvy consumers.

Why MyPeerindex Is a Smart Move

By both opening up their platform data to consumers, and moving away from ego-based influence to more contextual topic influence, MyPeerIndex is moving towards what brands really need from influence marketing solutions ? real data, real people, real results.

Additionally, being transparent about what data they use enhances the trust factor already enjoyed by Kred, who have always been open about how their algorithm works.

It?s a major step in removing the criticisms of scoring platforms in general, and leaves Klout increasingly marginalized when it comes to their data, especially given?the problems Klout is currently experiencing.

Kudos to PeerIndex for this step ? here?s to the continued maturation of the influence marketing space.

This post originally appeared on the Influence Marketing book blog.

Influence Marketing Survey for Marketing and PR Pros

Social media has opened many opportunities for businesses, such as direct communications with customers and prospects, peer-to-peer support groups, improved customer service channels and real-time reputation management.

This new communication channel has proven valuable to the sales, marketing, customer service and PR functions of businesses large and small.

Yet, as more consumers grow their social graphs, access social networks through mobile devices and engage in more brand discussions online, the increased noise has also added many new challenges.

Influence Marketing Today

Among the social media marketing tools created to better manage and drive greater value from this over-populated communication channel are social influence scoring applications.

They?re designed to collect and analyze a person?s social media activity in order to determine the influence he/she has over others on various topics, and then use that person as a conduit to deliver a recommendation or brand advertisement to prospective customers.

As the public?s penchant for social media communications grows, these tools have become more popular with new start-ups joining the fray every few months.

Yet this growth has not been without a fair amount of criticism regarding the accuracy, methodology and ethics of those providing the service and those who participate in their scoring programs.

However, both advocates and pundits agree that we?re just at the beginning of this growing marketing practice. A lot of growth is still expected and required among software providers and marketers alike.? Still, the question remains: in what direction will it go?

The Next Wave of Influence Marketing

Sensei Marketing and ArCompany have partnered on an initiative that seeks to better understand the attitudes and forecasts of surrounding this hot topic.

The first part of this effort is survey of international marketers and public relations professionals, which will provide additional data for a planned whitepaper on the future of influence marketing.

If you work in marketing or PR ? as a consultant, for an agency or employed by a brand directly ? we invite you to participate in this short online survey.

It?s completely confidential and takes less than 5 minutes to complete. The data collected and the subsequent analysis will be shared publicly in a whitepaper to be released this spring.

Go to the survey >>

Note: No personal information collected during the completion this survey will be sold, shared or made public at any time.

The Fallacy of the Democratization of Influence

When we currently think of influence, we probably think of social scoring platforms like Klout, Kred and PeerIndex. These are the early adopters to the social influence space and, as such, have built an impressive level of awareness around their platforms and definition of influence.

Proponents of social scoring have praised Klout, as the most popular platform, for democratizing influence – allowing anyone to be an influencer regardless of audience size, social standing and location.

While it’s true that social scoring can start the process of finding influencers, it’s not quite as clear cut when it comes to being democratic around influence itself.

Social Scoring Silos the Elite

The problem with any scoring system is that it only rewards those with a high number. Want to buy a car? Tough luck if your FICO score is under a certain amount. The same goes for social scoring in the influence space.

Want to have a new Cadillac to test drive for a weekend? You better have a score over X amount. Free flight or upgrade to first class hotel accommodation? Make sure your score is high enough.

This engenders an ” us against them” mentality. Jane Average may be a better person to drive conversation and foot traffic to a car dealership because she’s a gearhead yet Joe Average, who has no intent to buy that car brand but has a higher Klout score because he’s more active online, is the one that gets the car keys.

This elite rewards system now engenders another problem – it begins to affect the natural tone of online conversations, as those below the fold realize they can change their language online and be identified as an industry influencer because they’re speaking about a certain brand more.

As the online language changes, the algorithms are rendered ineffective because now everyone truly is an influencer – and yet, they’re clearly not.

The True Definition of Influence

Which brings us to the real crux about influence – who truly impacts how a decision is made and at what point in the purchase cycle of a customer does this decision get made? Is it as a result of a socially active broadcaster, or someone else completely? And, if it’s someone else, do social scoring platforms have the ability to identify that person?

Our belief is that social scoring is not true influence, and that’s why the democratization of influence through social scoring is a flawed, if worthy, ideal. It’s one of the reasons that an early mover like Kred is moving away from scoring as a defining metric.

There are bigger pictures and scenarios at play at every single touchpoint of a customer’s journey through an influence-led path, and the results of who actually influences their decision may surprise you.

Yet it’s these decisions that truly matter to a brand when it comes to influence marketing – because scores and amplification will only get you so far. No company can remain in business on the amount of retweets and Facebook Likes they received alone.

The conversation around the future of influence is just getting started – and it’s not about an elite partygoer trading on online noise and a grade…

Social Influence and the Shift of the Carnegie Principle

When Dale Carnegie wrote the book on influence more than 75 years ago, he probably didn?t realize the impact he was about to make on society. Just ask the 15 million people that have bought the book since 1936.

But, more than just sharing some evergreen ideas on how people and ideas can really connect with each other, Carnegie also pioneered how we ? as individuals ? are perceived by others.

Swap that to social influence today, and brands are now looking to highlight those they perceive as influential, to market their services and products for them.

Whereas Carnegie looked to show you ways on how you could make friends quickly, get you out of a rut, and make you more effective all round, today?s influence is finding uptake with brands looking to (often) bypass the legwork that Carnegie advocated, and utilizing shortcuts instead.

These shortcuts mean quicker access to the many; identification of who can spread a message; and more cost-effective approaches to outreach programs and brand advocate partnerships.

This has led to the popularity of companies like Klout, Kred and PeerIndex, as well as niche offshoots like Reppify, Connect.me and Tawkify, to name but three. Each have their benefits, and proponents of these platforms highlight the importance of their place in today?s social media-led marketplace.

However, critics of the services point to today?s influence measurement being nothing more than activity based ? the more you are online, the more you?ll be measured as influential, whether you encourage people to act on your activity or not (the dictionary standard of influence).

Perhaps the middle ground offers an insight into where Carnegie?s vision and that of social scoring metrics need to be.

Context

One of the most-discussed areas of influence in the current iteration of social scoring is that of context. As mentioned earlier, proponents of social scoring platforms point to activity being a valid metric ? if you?re online a lot, you understand the nuances of the space and how it can be influenced.

Critics point to automated social feeds with little to zero engagement that ? while enjoying a high influence score ? would be rendered useless when it came to being an influencer to partner with in a social media campaign.

This is where the context argument plays its hand. By definition, context is:

? the interrelated conditions in which something exists or occurs.

By that definition, it?s the very thing that influence looks to do. By connecting the right people with the right brand, and sharing the right message to the right audience, the results should be favourable every time.

If the context of the message is right, and the relationship between the person and the product the message is promoting fits, then there is an immediate ?belief? in the message being more than just a sales promotion.

Find the context, and the pieces of the influence bubble begin to come together.

Relevance and Readiness

If context is important, relevance is equally so (if not more so). You may trust the person/influencer sharing a brand?s message with you; you may even be the perfect audience (based on demographics and research) for that message and that product at that given time.

Until you hit the relevance angle.

Are you really in the market for this new product right now?
Are you financially available to be the customer?
Has your situation or taste changed since you last bought a product from this brand?
Are there external issues at play here?

The relevance to how ripe you are as customer is something that no influencer can bypass, no matter how much you trust them, or trust the message.

It?s why the social influence market is only just beginning to grow and mature. Activity may be an early barometer of someone?s potential to a brand and its audience ? but there are far more pieces of the jigsaw puzzle to add.

Context, relevance and readiness are three ? but even they?re just the start.

To truly mature the social influence ? and, by association, the influencer ? market, we need to remember how many aspects there were to Dale Carnegie?s seminal book and how they all had to be aligned to work their magic.

Then we can really start to move the social influence needle.