Are “reputation” scores a waste of time or simply misunderstood?

Every time some tool come out that brags about being able to rank influence and reputation, people immediately jump on it as bunk or as a sign of narcissism and a lack of real priorities– of course, those same people jumping on the tools and clumsily Tweeting out their scores (whoops!) is purely ”research” (right?).

Klout is an interesting tool that has got attention lately- and been getting bashed a little too (but it must be pretty good because my score isn’t particularly high- yes, I did “research”). A more elegant debunking comes from Edward Boches at his Creativity Unbound blog, where he says he won’t rely on Klout or similar scores to hire social media strategists. He then lays out a lot of excellent traits to look for that may or may not affect an influence score.

Should we disregard these scores then? No, but we shouldn’t rely on them for real “influence” either, as that exists both in and outside of social media. However:

• Comparative scores can help people decide which online “influencers” are worth paying more attention to vs others in a chosen set;
• Comparing your own- or a client’s- score over time as it rises (or.. um, rises- our clients never regress) can help you decide if things you are trying are working;
• If you are keeping a clear head about what these numbers mean (that is, they don’t mean everything), you can use them in a pinch if you are short on time, or combine them with your own analysis to confirm your thinking

People work hard creating these tools– often, they are good for something, though as Edward says, probably not a good sole indicator of hirability.

When a customer buys a product they own the product. When they lease it they must give it back and care for it as if they are borrowing it.

I learned this logic somewhere between diapers and kindergarten. Steve Jobs, whether forced by AT&T or due to simply a bad idea, has become confused on this point.

The iPhone is owned by a million people and counting. It is theirs to break if they wish, but Apple does not reserve the right to break it for them. The firmware release that riled so many and spawned lawsuits  was an attack on those who chose to modify their device. If the product were upgraded and unintentionally harmed their iPhone that would have been one thing, but this decision was deliberate and planned.

Do No Harm

Steve, one should not expect to retain customers and encourage future purchases when your intent was to brick these devices. A notice on the screen that reported the device had been modified and continuing would reset the device would have been appropriate, but simply doing so was harmful.

Set – Match

The Jailbreak announcement today illustrates that customers will not sit idly by and will trump any effort a company makes to curtail their efforts to make a product better – or at least personally their. Have the decades of virus taught companies nothing? Your customer holds your license to operate within their hands, beware as the wolves are indeed nipping at your heals Steve.

~ an Apple fan – for now.

SEO — search-engine optimization — is a four-letter word to some, representing the dark arts of manipulating Google and other search engines through blog spamming, keyword stuffing and other odd-sounding activities. But SEO deserves respect, and recent moves by Facebook and The New York Times underscore why it can’t be ignored.

Unlike paid search, in which marketers buy links through Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and others, SEO involves tapping into the “free” listings every search engine has. SEO is like PR for search-engine listings. You want a good review about you in a newspaper? A press release, a call to a reporter or other PR tactics can help. Want a good review in the search world in the form of top rankings and traffic? SEO can help.

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