Seattle’s “Two Days of Klout,” A “Kuestionable” Social Expenditure
Does it seem counter-intuitive to you that a social media spawning ground like Seattle would attempt to raise its level of social media mind-share by schmoozing the digerati of Klout in Portland, Vamncouver and SFO? It does to us. Yet, that is precisely what the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau (SCVB) set out to do earlier this year by dog-earing a page from Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point” and inviting 30 purportedly “influential” or “connector” Tweeps from outside the region.
The invitees qualifications were Klout scores of over 50 and at least 1,000 Twitter followers (as if Portland or Vancouver folk had neither heard of nor visited here before). SCVB picked up the cost for the out-of-state Klouters including their transportation, hotels, passes to local cultural institutions and attractions and a $500 gift card. The initiative was memorialized through the use of the Twitter hashtag #2DaysInSeattle and chronicled on the website http://www.2DaysinSeattle.com.
In an attempt to calculate ROI, the KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) of the social media campaign reveal glaring disparities. Director of Marketing Ali Daniels, attempted to rationalize it this way: “Each influencer averaged 8.2 Tweets & Shares,” (8 tweets over two days!!??), “which resulted in 19,645 total Tweets, Retweets, Shares, Comments, and Likes! Overall the city marketers estimated that the 30 influencers resulted in 3.3 million in True Reach, 19.5 million True Impressions and 39.1 million Total Impressions.” 30 Tweeps and 39 million impressions? How inventive!
Ms. Daniels is obviously suffering from the misconception that the extrapolated, “exponential” modeling of impressions constitutes actual views of 140 characters or less, not clickthroughs of course, which is, of course, pure fiction. More importantly, without a measurable conversion rate based on some form of desired behavior or call-to-action, such impressions are almost pointless.
What a senseless waste of dollars! Our city is overflowing with so many imaginative, engaging, and creative opportunities for both the digerati and the Gen X, Y and Millenial, that greasing the palms of Klout users who are already under heavy fire for their dubious grades of distinction seems entirely misguided. We grade the city’s naive efforts an epic “F” for Fail. Ali, do call us when you are ready for no B*S, social media strategy from real professionals. [24×7]
Fledge makes a Pledge to New Social Startups
A new social incubator that been chirstened with the name of Fledge has been launched by Michael Libes, a mobile and tech veteran and the co-founder of Ground Truth, who was interviewed by Seattle24x7 a few, short months ago.
Libes wants to work with social entrepreneurs who have a passion to create businesses that have a positive impact on the world. Fledge will not focus on tech companies alone but rather look to support start-ups that in any sector, as long as they have a larger societal goal to help improve key areas such as energy, environment, healthcare, education, food and community.
Libes, a Carnegie-Mellon graduate, has been advising budding entrepreneurs through the Bainbridge Graduate Institute and the University of Washington. He is also the author of “The Next Step,” a book that provides a simple, understandable path through the stages of business planning. The book lays out each stage in the process including a set of key questions, which when answered, can provide the entrepreneur with the materials needed for a formal business plan and pitch.
Fledge is currently inviting applications for its initial group of proto-companies. A final group of seven companies will be chosen from among the applicants. The selected companies will work together for a two-month program in Seattle. For more informatiion, please see http://fledge.co/ [24×7]
