In her article “Finding a Haystack’s
Most Influential Needles,” Olga Kharif brings to light start-up companies who
are challenging current heavy-hitters in the area of social media analytics;
these newcomers are using unique methods to identify social media influencers
who are likely to affect their clients’ sales.
One such newcomer is Tellagence. Tellagence focuses on the qualitative
value of relationships, while its much larger and well-established rival Klout
focuses instead on the quantitative.
Klout puts great value on “popularity,” focusing on data like the number
of friends an influencer has. While
Klout can meet business needs of companies who wish to broadcast their message
far and wide with no particular focus, it does not allow for targeted influence
as Tellagence does. Klout points its
clients toward influencers who reach only one big circle of people, while Tellagence
is creating big upward movement in sales for its clients by pointing them instead
toward “a network of relationships that care, and [that] will move content
forward exponentially” (Jones).
This article illustrates the fact that businesses
can no longer afford to ignore the priceless data piling up about their
customers, and a huge wealth of information lies in social media cites such as
Facebook and Twitter. With the recognition that resources need to be diverted
toward puzzling out this data, who should companies turn to? The methods companies
like Klout employ are limited by the fact that influence (in their eyes) rests
on popularity and vast amounts of social media activity. Klout scores are the same for an individual
regardless of which client is asking. Tellagence
offers something new to the market, a narrowly focused approach to data that
could result in much higher sales for clients.
I believe much more in Tellagence’s approach, as it is more tailored and
fitted to individual client’s needs.
Businesses must keep in mind, though,
that social media analytics is only one piece of big data that must be focused
on. Becoming wrapped up in this one
facet of big data could easily be detrimental to a company, regardless of
whether they use Klout, Tellagence, or some other group. The easiest way to explain this is through
Ron Conway. Ron Conway, a hugely
respected angel investor, has a Klout score of 48 out of 100. To say that the man is not influential online
or in the business world is absurd, but Klout and other social media analytics
break down when the influence of a person is not recognizable through such
sites as Twitter and Facebook. Ron
Conway is a busy man and tweets two or three times a month at most and can’t be
posting on his Facebook page at every hour of the day; therefore his influence
(though vast) cannot be recognized by social media analytics. Big data crunchers like Tellagence and Klout
are an intriguing and important resource for companies who wish to beat out
their competition, but these companies must keep in mind the limitations of the
specific tool they choose to boost sales as well as the overall limitations of
social media analytics.
Sources:
Bloomberg Businessweek October 22-October 28, 2012
pg. 46-7
http://jimsmarketingblog.com/2012/05/12/the-klout-problem-why-multimillionaire-investor-ron-conway-has-a-lower-score-than-you/
http://www.wired.com/business/2012/04/ff_klout/2/
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/hessie-jones/startups_b_2032155.html
http://www.tellagence.com/the-science
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/10/ron-conway-sv-angel/
Erica, your article raises an interesting topic that is relevant to the future of business strategies. Many companies rely on advertisements to get their message out to the general public. To do so, they use popular celebrities, dominant athletes, and anyone else who influences and appeals to a large audience. In today’s world, social media allows anyone to stay connected through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or other social media sites with any celebrity.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Erica’s critique and the article, Klout and Tellagence are the top dogs in the big data world searching for the best way to reach their desired audience. Klout and Tellagence focus on different demographics. Klout analyzes a person influence based on their popularity (Twitter followers or Facebook likes). Tellagence approaches the big data world to advertise a precise message to a specific desired audience. Both companies aim their strategies to produce more sales and raise profits after reaching out to new markets and costumers through their strategies.
Both companies have flawed approaches in my opinion. From one aspect, Klout is doing it right by trying to reach the largest demographic by advertising through the masses. However, Klout has no idea what percentage of response they will receive. Will Klout see an increase in their profitability? Tellagence aims to reach a desired demographic of costumers. The concept probably is effective, but it sells them short. If they sent the same advertising to new customers, could they retain new costumers?
In my opinion, Klout and Tellagence should combine companies or strategies, and if not, someone should simply meet in the middle. I believe that the most effective way to reach the most people is to identify their goal, create a simple and informative advertising campaign, and send it out to the masses. The idea incorporates Klout’s send it out to everyone strategy and Tellagence’s focus on specifics.
It is true that social media is creating more data to the Big Data and a new era for advertising and communication. Companies need to realize the importance to adapt and incorporate business strategies revolving social media. The article was informative and the critique was a pleasure to read. Well done, Erica.