We’re now in our third week of running #mycleverchat, a weekly chat about social media and its platforms. Each week we talk about a specific topic, usually focusing on one platform although this changes from week to week. Below is a list of the highlights from our chat on Wednesday (07/11/12) – the topic this week was ‘social influence’. This week we were fortunate enough to be joined by Ferenc Huszar, a senior data scientist from PeerIndex, who was able to give everyone insight into how influence is sometimes measured.
Don’t forget to join us every week on Wednesdays between 1 – 2pm to get involved. If you want to see more of the conversation make sure you check out the hashtag #mycleverchat. We’re always open to suggestions about topics and questions so feel free to comment below to let us know.
Q1 – Do you use social influence sites? If so, which one & why this platform in particular?
It’s 1pm, let’s get started! Q1: Do you use social influence sites? If so, which one & why this platform in particular? #mycleverchat
— mycleveragency (@mycleveragency) November 7, 2012
@mycleveragency use all 3: Klout, Kred & PeerIndex – all useful & different for finding a users influence. #mycleverchat
— Tim Grimes (@digitim) November 7, 2012
@mycleveragency All of them for me, mainly for perks though
— Shane Jones (@shanejones) November 7, 2012
@mycleveragency Yes. Still a it sceptical about Klout in particular, but then I can’t say I’ve used them enough to offer fair judgement.
— Ralph du Plessis (@Red_Mud_Rookie) November 7, 2012
@mycleveragency primarily use Klout and PeerIndex – Klout very useful for finding influential people around certain topics #mycleverchat
— Will Scott (@willpscott) November 7, 2012
Q2 - Is there room in the ‘social influence’ space for another influence system/platform? Is so, why?
@mycleveragency possibly not, although it’d be interesting to understand more about how the top 3 sites measure influence. #mycleverchat
— Tim Grimes (@digitim) November 7, 2012
@mycleveragency Room for someone to do it well at enterprise level -real time, niche-targeting, rather than broad gamification #MyCleverChat
— Matt Owen (@lexx2099) November 7, 2012
@lexx2099 @mycleveragency What exactly do you mean by real-time? Real-time in what way?
— Ferenc Huszar (@fhuszar) November 7, 2012
@fhuszar @mycleveragency I mean optimisable in realtime -updating lists with current updates in one dashboard would be handy.
— Matt Owen (@lexx2099) November 7, 2012
@fhuszar are you able to select your own topic on @peerindex? I’ve noticed nearly all sites unable to get topics 100% right? #mycleverchat
— Tim Grimes (@digitim) November 7, 2012
@digitim @peerindex Honest data like that would be invaluable to the data team, and we’re thinking about how to make this work in the UX.
— Ferenc Huszar (@fhuszar) November 7, 2012
@fhuszar there’s a growing interest around network science/visualisation, any plans to integrate in the future?#mycleverchat
— Andrew Allsop (@AndrewAllsop) November 7, 2012
@andrewallsop we have prototypes in the lab,yes. One tricky challenge is, facebook is bidirectional, twitter is not. #mycleverchat
— Ferenc Huszar (@fhuszar) November 7, 2012
Q3: What metrics should be used to measure a users social influence?
Q3: What metrics should be used to measure a users social influence? #mycleverchat
— mycleveragency (@mycleveragency) November 7, 2012
@mycleveragency a variety need to be used, but it should be made more clear what is taken into account for each platform… #mycleverchat
— Will Scott (@willpscott) November 7, 2012
@mycleveragency Metrics surely come down to things like reach, reshares and CTR…
— Ralph du Plessis (@Red_Mud_Rookie) November 7, 2012
@mycleveragency …Facebook, for example seems to dramatically increase scores (particularly on Klout) – would be nice to know exactly why.
— Will Scott (@willpscott) November 7, 2012
Q4 – Does a quantified influence system risk corrupting the values of social?
Q4: Does a quantified influence system risk corrupting the values of social? #mycleverchat
— mycleveragency (@mycleveragency) November 7, 2012
@mycleveragency too an extent, people now becoming obsessed with scores & how they can be manipulated. #mycleverchat
— Tim Grimes (@digitim) November 7, 2012
@digitim and when people become obsessed with an algorithm, everything becomes the same, there’s no room forserendipity. #mycleverchat
— Andrew Allsop (@AndrewAllsop) November 7, 2012
@mycleveragency There’s definitely a risk. The best way to mitigate the risk to work on one of these platforms and stay honest
— Ferenc Huszar (@fhuszar) November 7, 2012
@mycleveragency #mycleverchat I think there’s an element. It could be gamed, but what could that least to?
— Rhys Wynne (@rhyswynne) November 7, 2012
Q5: How can you distinguish between people who say they are influential vs. those who really are?
Q5: How can you distinguish between people who say they are influential vs. those who really are? #mycleverchat
— mycleveragency (@mycleveragency) November 7, 2012
#mycleverchat Q5 Their ability to blog opinionated, innovative content which is not just pulled from mashable or similar
— Ed Raine (@Tehcobra) November 7, 2012
#mycleverchat @mycleveragency It’s not what you say, but how other people interact with you and behave that is most indicative of influence
— Ferenc Huszar (@fhuszar) November 7, 2012
@mycleveragency “Read” their profiles, interactions, responses etc. I think the naked eye is still the most accurate measure. #mycleverchat
— Ralph du Plessis (@Red_Mud_Rookie) November 7, 2012
@mycleveragency look at how people interact with them, which influentials they converse with, who endorses them, what content #mycleverchat
— Caliber i (@Caliberi) November 7, 2012
@mycleveragency Q5: A quick google search/browse around will help you. Tools need to somehow factor that in to their metrics #mycleverchat
— Shane Jones (@shanejones) November 7, 2012
@mycleveragency “Read” their profiles, interactions, responses etc. I think the naked eye is still the most accurate measure. #mycleverchat
— Red Mud Media (@RedMudMedia) November 7, 2012
Q6: Do users only interact with people who have a certain influence score? If so, why? #mycleverchat
— mycleveragency (@mycleveragency) November 7, 2012
@mycleveragency not ONLY, but it certainly helps if an influencial person online helps your own exposure #mycleverchat
— Alex Moss (@alexmoss) November 7, 2012
@mycleveragency #mycleverchat A6 sadly yh. Some people join chats just for scores. Like holdin a fone to your ear to look cool…
— Ed Raine (@Tehcobra) November 7, 2012
@mycleveragency social media gives you the opportunity to communicate with those who otherwise wouldn’t be reachable. #mycleverchat
— Arj (@ArjNaik) November 7, 2012
