I put my formal review of ROI by Mark Schaefer on my innovation blog: www.servicecocreation.com. In summary:
- EVERYONE should read Tao of Twitter by Mark: The Tao of Twitter: Changing your life and business 140 characters at a time
- People interested in Klout and its effect on social media should read ROI: Return On Influence: The Revolutionary Power of Klout, Social Scoring, and Influence Marketing
However I was frustrated by the tone of ROI. As a longtime Klout-skeptic I feel that it reads like an authorized bio of Klout and Joe F. Yes, Joe sounds like a nice guy; yes the people at Klout are working hard to find the right algorithm; and yes, Klout is trying to be more transparent…but:
Thinking through the action plan of improving one’s Klout score from the principles Mark outlines in Chapter 10 of ROI, these seven steps should be effective:
- Post more often,
- Post on trending or popular topics,
- Post when your important followers are online,
- Follow people with high Klout scores,
- Don’t follow people with low Klout scores,
- Unfollow followers who have become inactive or have had their Klout score fall below a cutoff level,
- Do whatever you can to engage people with high Klout scores.
These are actionable steps…but will they ultimately make Twitter, FB, your blog, and social media in general better places? It think not – in fact I think transparency will make things worse as more and more people will follow the seven steps above. SM will become less and less social…
KLOUT STILL SUCKS.
In pre-ROI days, Mark had some tough comments about Klout and influence:
- Klout: An Infographic http://bit.ly/nBFhtV
- Social media slut http://bit.ly/p2Tj0P
- Big fat Klout scores http://bit.ly/paCZqj
- Will Klout kill twitter?: http://t.co/pD6HAsy
- Will Klout Kill Community? http://t.co/K2Ax7dj SMM Magazine
Social Media Marketing 4 Business 
I’m not sure how any book that includes the sentence “Klout is like a vampire that came out into the sunlight” has “drunk the Kool-Aid”. : )
In Part 2 of the book. which is specifically about Klout and social scoring, nearly 1/3 of the text is devoted to complaints about Klout and I conclude the book with my own personal concerns. I do think the story about how Klout became a company is positive because I actually think that is a positive and uplifting story, whether you agree with their math or not.
Thanks very much for the wonderful review and the dissenting take Gary!
Thanks Mark!
BTW, I really did enjoy the book. And strong recommend Tao and ROI to EVERYONE.
And I am glad that Joe F. and his henchmen did not water-board you!
Please keep churning out great content for the social media community.
– Gary
Klout have consistently refused to remove me from their service, despite the fact that I never signed up to it. This is a serious breach of EU law. This is why I will never trust them and expect them to be subject to a massive ruling against them in the near future.
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Howdy! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and tell you I
genuinely enjoy reading through your blog posts. Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that cover the same topics?
Thanks for your time!
“Grow” by Mark Schaefer is my favorite!
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