Your Social Score Doesn’t Matter, Except When It Does
In an attempt to measure whether social media activity is actually “working,” a number of companies have developed social scoring systems. There’s Klout, Sprout Social has engagement and influence metrics and Facebook has Insights and the new “Talking about this” score. But should you really be paying attention to these social scores? There seems to be two camps when it comes to social scoring. Some believe scores are fairly worthless and not worth monitoring. Others say there is value in knowing and working to improve your score(s). In this article will look at both sides and try to help you figure out whether you should be keeping up with your social scores. Camp One: Scores Don’t Matter Social scoring algorithms are based on a number of factors – your engagement (how often you’re mentioning other people and how often other people are mentioning you), amplification (how often your messages are shared) and influence (how influential your followers are in the world of social media). Social scoring naysayers believe that social scores don’t accurately represent the effectiveness of social media campaigns because social scores take into account all social interactions, and thus are easily gamed. Anyone can set up fake Twitter accounts to boost numbers, retweet articles or choose to post messages with a high probability of shares, even if the messages aren’t valuable to the target audience. Social scores don’t take into account whether your messages are reaching the “right” people, whether your conversations are valuable in driving traffic to your website, or whether any of these messages or conversations truly translate into actual business. Camp Two: Follow Your Score Social scoring is popular because it provides actual metrics. It can be measured and analyzed. Social scoring makes it easy to quantify social media activity and say to your manager or client and say, “Yes, our social media activity is getting noticed.” Social scoring algorithms are being expanded all the time, and now factor in dozens of social media platforms and networks. Your score, thus, represents your social media activity as a whole. The algorithms aren’t perfect, but they are at least an attempt to quantify your social data. Klout is also useful as a tool for checking other people out and finding out who may be influential in your niche, and for others to see how influential you are to your followers/friends. There are browser add-ons that show Klout score in search results, and many tout their Klout score in promotional materials as a way of telling the world, “We get this. See?” So, Should I Care About Social Scores or Not? If you’re a small business owner, new to social media marketing (a Social Amateur), I believe you should be monitoring your social scores. Here’s why (with caveats): It’s a quick way to see whether you’re catching on. Social media isn’t about blasting your message to the greatest number of followers and then going way. It’s about connecting with people, passing along useful information, engaging in great conversations and providing real value. Social scores aren’t perfect, but they are one way of determining your progress in understanding how social media really works. It’s data. Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn and FourSquare and etc., all take time to manage. It’s important to be able to justify time spent with quantifiable data, and that kind of data is often difficult to find when it comes to social media. Your social score is one piece of the puzzle in determining whether your campaigns are working. Used with your web analytics, brand recognition numbers and conversion rates, you can see whether your activity is actually paying off. It’s motivation. If you follow your scores regularly, you’ll see peaks and dips in particular aspects of your score. If your engagement numbers start to go down, perhaps that is a reminder to respond to people more or engage in more tweetchats or join in more conversations. If your influence numbers start dropping, perhaps it is a call to review the types of messages you are sending to see if you could be providing more value to your followers/friends, How We’re Using Social Scores Right now, I’m parked in the second camp, monitoring my social score regularly. As a small business owner, it is important for me to have as much data as I can get about my activities, and social scoring is one piece of data. It is also a great source of motivation for me. When my Sprout Social engagement number continues to go down, it’s like a smack in the face. It reminds me that I’ve been doing a lot of broadcasting instead of conversing lately, and that my fans/followers need love too. My social scores are important, and I monitor them. But they obviously do not tell the whole story. There are times where my engagement scores are going up, but the conversations are not having a direct impact on my web traffic or potential client inquiries. So I look at all my data, from all my sources, and make adjustments as necessary. I love data, and sometimes I love the game aspect of social scoring – trying to beat my own best score. Social scoring is valuable for me and my clients, but the truth is that once you’re active – once your are fully engaged and truly living social media, you just know whether it is working or not. You know whether followers are becoming clients. It becomes a gut feeling. And perhaps that’s when monitoring your social score doesn’t quite matter any more. What do you think? Do you monitor your social scores? I’m curious to know how you’re using social scoring (if at all) and how it’s working for you. Leave a comment and let me know! Related articles 12 Reasons to Love Sprout Social (socialamateur.com) What is Klout? And How do I Improve that Klout Score? (thewakemanagency.com) Klout or PeerIndex – which is better? [Nigel Temple] (ecademy.com) SproutSocial Is Burying Klout for Social Media Tracking (theaaroncraig.com) Paul [...]
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