Social Media Analytics – Klout
With the rise of social media, there comes a demand for the data associated with it. This data can be used to strengthen a campaign or a web site, and the lack of this data can also ruin it just as fast. Data analytics for social media is an important tool in making business decisions and there is so much a user can do with this retrieved data. As taught in MIS 2502, in determining which steps to take to make a business decision using social media analytics, the user must arrange a decision tree. First, the user must determine which decision they want to make with the data and what goals the company can achieve with this. Then the company will be able to decide what Key Performance Indicators will be looked for in the data to determine the answer for the business question or goal. This will help the company expect certain outcomes.
A popular social media analytics tool lately with the social media craze has been Klout. Klout measures the influence a Twitter or Facebook, or even Google Plus, LinkedIn, and Wikipedia page, has on society based on a score. On a scale from 1-100, Klout grades the account on 30 different variables to determine how well your page is driving conversations and inspiring shares, likes, and retweets. The uniqueness of Klout is that it analyzes the conversation, reach ability, and interactions rather than the number of posts from the account. Using Klout, companies, or online campaigns, determine important factors in order to achieve its business goals. For example, the Barack Obama political campaign could use Klout to determine how well its twitter account is reaching certain parts of the country. This can help them solve the business decision of where they should be campaigning more or less to promote Barack Obama.
Recently in Australia, Senator Mathias Cormann realized his outreach potential using Klout. His component, Tony Abbott, was a more popular household name however Klout revealed that Cormann was the most influential, inspiring more tweets and conversations than any other politician. Likewise, the Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, has found that even though preceding Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has four times as many followers on Twitter as her, she has the most influence on the social media community. From this she could determine how many potential supporters she would have. This tool has become an important tool to the government as well as businesses. With this tool, candidates for these positions have a new way to analyze the effectiveness of their campaigns and what the reactions of society are determining. This advancement in data analytics will be extremely helpful to so many different entities.
- Klout, Inc., . “Klout Score.” Klout. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov 2012. <http://klout.com/corp/klout_score>.
- Butt, Craig. “The Politics of Twitter, More than just a numbers game.” Sydney Morning Herald [Sydney, Australia] 02 Dec 2012, n. pag. Web. 2 Dec. 2012. <http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/the-politics-of-twitter-more-than-a-numbers-game-20121201-2anz0.html>.