So, before a marketer can engage with an influencer, they first need to identify who those influencers are. To satisfy that demand, the race is on to create the algorithms and one stop-shops that will determine the influencers from the big mouths; the positive sentiment-ers from the detractors, the activist from the trend-setters.

In the May 2012 issue of Wired, Seth Stevenson article Popularity Counts puts Klout into context. In a quick and dirty effort to make sense of who the brand influencers are, Klout scores everyone with a single number, on a scale of 1 to 100 based on a mysterious, proprietary algorithm.

Photo: Garry McLeod

Klout has been criticized for not only its mysterious scoring algorithm but for what Forbes.com calls a Sneaky Klout Trick Designed to Suck You In. In his article, author Anthony Wing Kosner sets the expectation quickly in his warning “Prepare to be manipulated”.

Manipulation notwithstanding, Klout recently stepped up it’s game. The company is ready to infiltrate consumer marketing. Large corporations are discussing how to use Klout scores to determine the kind of service, perks or shopping discounts to offer based on a person’s score.

Joe Fernandez launched Klout in 2007. In the Wired article, Stevenson describes Fernandez vision as a “form of empowerment for the little guy”. Maybe it is. However, influencer research is not valuable if the marketer can’t understand the influence or measure the Vector of Influence.

The Vector of Influence is the nature of the influence that any particular influencer wields in a particular social space and the signals that influence. On Twitter, influence can be measured by who you’re following, followers, tweets, re-tweets, @mentions and replies. On TripAdvisor the vector is different. On Facebook, different again… and so on. Each social space has it’s own signals or collectively it’s own vector. And social space, by social space the vector changes significantly because it’s unique to the community.

So, do identify your influencers, but don’t put them all in the +K basket. I won’t attempt to wrap it up any better than Wing Rosner from Forbes.com:

Klout is a really interesting concept that fails in some important ways. Being able to apply a single number to a person is useful in some situations, and being able to identify the topics that a person has some clout with their peers about is even more useful. But the Klout score is still a blunt instrument, and as such, dangerous in the wrong hands. Your mileage may vary, so while Klout is scoring you (which they are whether you participate or not) be sure to keep a tally on what that score is worth to you, and drive accordingly. -Anthony Wing Rosner

Business Insider, Chart of the Day

Apple’s Market Cap Closing In On Microsoft’s (MSFT, AAPL)

Remember when Apple was on death’s door and needed an investment from Microsoft to survive? Well, a lot’s changed since then.  In May 2000, Apple’s market capitalization was $17 billion. Today it’s $182 billion. Meanwhile, Microsoft was around $356 billion in May 2000. Today it’s around $261 billion.

Jay Yarow and Kamelia Angelova

Cost per click for paid search is on the rise forcing companies to spend more on their Search Engine Marketing. With Google’s monopoly on search growing, expect average rates to continue to rise.

Using superficial metrics, such as click through rates and cost per click to inform your Search Marketing decisions can reduce campaign effectiveness.  Often you can increase your performance by focusing on deeper revenue-impacting measurements, such as profit per order, cost per unique customer and activity measurements such as time spent on site or click path.

To make the most out of your Ad spend, consider these best practices:

1. Organize your Ad spend into campaigns, identify the main purpose of your campaign

•    eCommerce – to sell products or services online
•    Lead Gen – to generate leads
•    Drive Ad Revenue – in an effort to sell ad space
•    Online Service – to reduce call centre calls and support customers online

2. Select and track important metrics that matter

•    Click through rate and cost per click are important measures, but conversion is the most important metric to optimize search campaigns
•    Measure overall revenue, leads and CPA (cost per acquisition)
•    Measure cost per customer (or sale), return on ad spend, and profit per customer (or order)

3.  Reinforce your message consistently from the keywords or phrase to your landing page

•    Broad keywords should take visitors to general landing pages – perfect for casting a big net
•    Exact keywords should take visitors to a specific landing page – expect less traffic, but higher conversion

4.  Create multiple version of landing pages – validate your strategies with facts

•    Create different version of the landing page; make sure there’s a noticeable difference or you won’t know what to fix
•    The headline in your Text Ad should match the headline on your landing page and call to action
•    Clearly state your call to action — what do you want the potential customer to do?
•    Briefly explain the benefits and value proposition of your product or service

5. Have an effective keyword organization strategy

•    Don’t manage key words and phrases manually using using Excel – you’re limiting your ability to effectively scale search marketing campaigns

•    Resource properly – give yourself and your team enough time to manage, organize and execute – Search Engine Marketing takes time

Good luck and let me know how it goes!

The game-changing news is that Apple has done away with copy protection technology known as digital-rights management or DRM. “DRM-free” means music can be copied an unlimited number of times, to any device. It remains to be seen if this change in business model drives net new paying customers to iTunes (or those previously known as the pirates).

Well, ongoing research is demonstrating that brands that ignor iPhone application strategy for their products are, and will be,  leaving money on the table. In market research terms, iPhone users have now become their own “segment”.

Not only is the device a ‘game changer’ changing the way human beings percieve content, the iPhone is now its own marketplace. The App Store, controlled by Apple enables anyone to either distribute their own iPhone application for free, or collect fees for each download. Whilst Apple takes 30% of the sales revenues, the 70% revenue to the developer is appealing and previously unheard of in the mobile applications business.

If it’s time for your company to start thinking about your mobile application strategy, check this out. The Amazing iPhone is a free report developed by Kinsey Netmedia, a UK social media and mobile consultancy. It’s full of useful insight for iPhone developers and business owners. Most of the info is obvious for those living in the iPhone and mobile world for some time. Get it here.

“The reports starts off with an overview of the iPhone and the opportunities available on the App Store. A lot of it will be apparent to anyone who’s been in the iPhone world for a while, but it could make a great report to pass on to your bosses, clients, investors, or other people who need to get up to speed fast. It also goes into how mobile development was before the iPhone and contrasts it to the newer techniques.” As reviewed by TechCrunch

The Social Media conversation is powered by Web 2.0 which is now effectively more popular than porn, it’s clear it’s not a fad.

Social Media is a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. Brands that understand the importance of an intimate conversation with their customers stand to benefit with runaway growth.

Online communities are important and it’s even more important that brands engage with their customers in the way their customers want to engage with them.

Tibs.com is part of the Twitter ecosystem and is currently tracking businesses on Twitter. Twibs indexes the 4, 500 + business (and growing) on Twitter who are engaging in a conversation with their customers.

The discussions that customers have about a brand are of critical importance and it is in those conversations that a brand is elevated or tarnished. These ideas run contrary to traditional lifestyle marketing. Mike Trap of Scaleable Intimacy suggests the power of the dialogue demonstrates that brands are not composed of the people who buy their product, but that people are composed of the brands they use.

If you’re already in the twitter-sphere or starting your journey, consider adding me to your follows here: http://twitter.com/marinamann

According to Chris Anderson, the idea of “feeconomics” is not a new one; making money by giving something away has been going on for some time. Chris Anderson is one of my favorite speakers. I had the exalt and the pain of following Anderson at an Infopresse conference last year. At the time, he was on his book tour for The Long Tail based on his 2004 articulation of how technology enabled infinite shelf space and make niche markets viable. His article shook up business thinking in a lot media & entertainment boardrooms.

In January 2008, Anderson wrote the thought provoking article Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business. In it, he explains that the new model of “free” is not based on a cross-subsidy or the shifting of say a “free” mobile phone in exchange for a 3-year contract. But because the cost of products is falling so fast, brands can offer “free” for free and charge for stuff that costs them money. “Once a marketing gimmick, free has emerged as a full-fledged economy.”

Has Anderson picked up on an idea or are we all monkey typing on our laptop keyboards? Years ago, when Adam Neate was starting out as a software developer come artist, he left about 6,000 paintings on cardboard on the streets of London. Today his paintings sell for tens of thousands of dollars but as I write this, Neate and his band of friends and collaborators are leaving 10,000 of his paintings in all 32 of London’s boroughs. Free culture, free art, free internet – a world wide Web.

The proposed partnership deal, first announced in June 2008, would have allowed Yahoo to display ads from Google and then take a portion of the revenue.  Google’s current share of the online ad market is estimated to be as high as 70 percent, with Yahoo controlling 20 percent and Microsoft controlling between 8 percent and 10 percent.  If a deal between Google and Yahoo were to go through, Google would have ended up controlling 90 percent of the search advertising market – a prospect that scared many marketers and advertisers.  The outcome would have invariably meant, higher prices, and worse: Yahoo inventory at Google prices!  Moreover, because Google’s search results generate higher revenue than Yahoo, the latter was planning to exit search marketing all together and essentially outsource it’s advertising to Google. If only the U.S. Department of Justice was as diligent at regulating financial services…

Read more about the saga on CNET: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10082800-93.html