I commend this instructor for bringing real time to the classroom. The issue with universities today in our niche is they are teaching yesterday's lessons. Marketing today happens in real time and changing algorithm's are a part of our lives. See Yelp. The bottom line, in our business (real world) we are implementing Klout scores as part of our performance evaluations of our STARS or Social Trending Assessment Representatives. This performance is tied to pay- whether you like Klout or not, one thing is not mistakable, in order to grow your scores anywhere on the internet, you need to engage.
Not sure what Klout is? Read more here http://klout.com/corp/kscore.
Wanna connect with me on Twitter? https://twitter.com/bryanbruce
4 comments:
Klout demonstrates something very fundamental, the ability to engage. We use it two ways. #1 find out if someone has the ability to create their very own person brand presence and then can that same person manage a brand and grow influence. In my experience, if you can't build your own brand, you have a tough time doing it for big brands. For us, Klout is a Twitter metric. On the FB side we use the percentage of users actively engaged with a brand as a metric to measure performance. We don't hire someone based on their Klout score, but it is part of the conversation. if you agree that some agencies such as ours uses Klout as one factor in considering a person's overal ability to manage a community or a brand, and you also agree that Universities, especially public as in the case with FSU, are behind in teaching the real time nature of our digital marketing world....that this professor should be given a pat on the back, because what he is doing is showing his students that what we learn in this classroom will be relevant when you graduate. Klout is NOT the end all be all, but it is a measurement that cannot be denied or overlooked. These students are going to be looking for jobs and although you may not think using Klout is a good metric, the fact that one business in America is using it for something shows this instructor at FSU has a pulse. You may not agree, but I like it. Our interns tell us all the time- we are not learning anything that applies to the real world. One thing I know about digital is you better be light on your feet. What happens today, may not be around tomorrow. Klout might be a tool today, that we don't use tomorrow. We are not a slow moving corporation with our head in the sand. I can tell you in all seriousness- when handed a stack of resumes- we review them first and foremost for personal social presence and Klout is a very good simple metric that gets us started. Let me be clear, we are not hiring people solely due to the fact that have Klout- but I might rule out someone for a social engagement job requirement with no Klout.
You're totally right, Bryan. To the others on the thread who clearly seem to be terrified of measurement (maybe with good reason?) and unable to read/process the article and your coherent, intelligent comments, I would recast the class -- let's imagine it's a marketing class. And 10% of your grade is how many cupcakes you sell at a bake sale on campus that you design, market, and run. Does that sound fair? It sure does to me. (Also, did everyone miss that students may choose *not* to participate in the Klout scoring and write a paper instead?)
Like marketing, social media is an *action* with a purpose -- sales. A lot of social media "experts" may not want to admit that. Heck, they might not even *believe* it. They'll say it's not about the numbers -- it's about relationships and positive energy. Yeah, ok. But why are businesses paying for it? Because good relationships and positive energy = MONEY. That is just a fact of the world, and anybody trying to make a career of social media should accept it ASAP or soon be ready to find a new calling.
As to Mark's comment, "Grading on a 'score' from a for-profit entity that does not explain its algorithm AND changes it from time to time is just wrong" -- well, Mark, that's how these kids are going to be graded in real life by their employers. ALL social media (not just Klout) by nature "does not explain its algorithm." AND it's *always* changing. The whole medium is constantly in flux. There's no one-size-fits-all formula for success. So to grade kids on how well they can learn to work a legitimate, real-time system like Klout is *entirely* appropriate and a smart way to teach (and learn) a real-world lesson. NOBODY -- not the professor, not Bryan -- is saying the end-all-be-all of this class is learning to use Klout. The end result is learning to adapt to a real-world social media metric. If you can succeed on Klout, guess what? You can figure out how to succeed on stuff that comes along after it. Stuff we can't even predict.
Bryan - Good luck trying to educate your peers in Social Media Club Orlando. Seems you have at least one colossal brick wall to bust through -- it's probably not worth the energy. I gave up trying to read the ridiculous hashtags. Also, publicly calling out people for typos and finishing off biting comments with smily faces doesn't make those things any less caustic or relationship-damaging. Writing in a professional manner seems like it should be a given on a group like this -- you're doing awesome. Sorry we can't say the same for the other guy.
Thanks for the comments and compliments, Michelle and Bryan. That is a terrific "cup cake sale" comparison!
What I find intriguing about this entire pro-versus-anti-Klout debate is how quickly the Klout-haters point to the metric as being flawed. Using a flawed metric is wrong, according to some. However, isn't the business world and higher education filled with flawed metrics?
A couple of examples: first, in the business world we have stock prices to help identify the value and success of a company. How has that metric worked for Facebook, in addition to thousands of other companies? Second, in higher education a popular classroom project in business classes is simulation software. Students are presented with a series of business decisions to employ for a fictional business. The decisions are then scored by an unknown metric, which ultimately produces a grade. In summary, life is filled with unknown and imperfect metrics that many people use in their everyday lives. At least in my class Klout project students have an opportunity to build social media engagement skills, even if the metric in use is not 100% known or 100% accurate (according to some). In other words, it's like every other metric in use today!
So cool to get your comment Todd. Keep doing your thing. We love it.
Post a Comment