How to Get sued for using Twitter

Twitter is an amazing communications tool.  I type a message of 140 letters, press a button and off it goes to my 750 "followers". If they like it, then they may send it onto their followers. Potentially my message can then get to 225 000 people. If all those people like it and re tweet it, then that is 55 million people! Imagine what my Klout score would do if that happened (I am currently 63, Obama is 99 out of 1o0 and Justin Bieber is  92 ). I digress a little. 

As twitter has grown, we have seen grown adults cry over tweets, people resign, hide and get sued. While this is still a new field, Luke Scanlon a technology law expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com has listed in The Register of the UK ten tweets to avoid if you do not wish to be sued. These in summary are: 

1. Using someone else's Branded Tweets or Hashtags. eg #Qantas #Southwest @Unitedairlines  potentially could result in a damages claim if the use creates a "likelihood of association or confusion with the products or services of the trade mark owner"
2. Copied tweets-  if the tweet which reproduces the work of another gives evidence of that other individual or company's unique choices in choosing and arranging the words or images or sounds.
3. Revealing personal or confidential information
4. Threatening tweets -  if the person to whom it was directed has a genuine belief that physical harm is imminent.
5. Impersonating Someone else is fraud 
6. If the tweet is deceptive in nature or likely to deceive 
7. Menacing Tweets - If a tweet could create fear or apprehension in the minds of anyone who may reasonably be expected to see it then the tweet can be considered menacing
8. Malicious tweets done with the intent of damaging another's business, goods or services through false statements
9.  Harassing tweets 
10. Defamatory tweets - you are libelous if you send a tweet which lowers a person's standing and expose them to 'hatred, ridicule, or contempt'. Does that mean I cannot Tweet about any politician?

#Biebs move over for Pres. #Obama

An event occurred this week which has impacted on the content of one of my Social Media training sessions! Up to this week, the world's most influential man on the internet was Justin Bieber. This little known fact excites or dismays my workshop participants.

In the last week, this changed with Obama moving to the top spot of the most influential person on the internet and Beiber sliding down. The arbiter of this is Klout, a somewhat controversial measuring tool. Barack Obama has  a Klout score of 99 out of 100 up from 95.  Justin fell an incredible eight points from 100 to a new Kout score of 92.

The cause of this swing was a change in the Klout algorithm. Previously Klout only measured Facebook and Twitter. Now Linkedin, Foursquare and Blogger are included. If you have a Wikipedia entry, this will also impact your score.

The effect of the new algorithm was a jump in my score from 57 to 66. This was after a period of lower activity from me which had seen my score drop down to 47. One of the other upgrades Klout is introducing is the provision of information on what activities cause your score to go up and down.  That will come in the next few weeks.

Klout says that the average Klout Score is around 40. They note that the Score becomes exponentially harder to increase as you move up the scale. For instance, it is much harder to move from a 70 to a 75 than from a 20 to a 25. My challenge is to get over 70!

One of the things that is interesting about Klout is that it does give you some sense of how well a person uses Social Media. For example, Beth Kanter who I consider to be the number one guru on Social Media and Not for Profits has a score of 79. Not quite Obama territory, of course,  but it is definitely enough to tell me she knows what she is doing (and I am not too far behind her!). I have a list of "influential" people that I am connected with.

Interestingly, high scorers can get Klout Perks, rewards for their influence. The idea is you take the perk and then Tweet or Facebook about it. The company providing the perk gets publicity althiugh Klout says: "You have no obligation to talk about the product. You're welcome to tell the world you love it, you dislike it, or say nothing at all. Most Perks seem to be for people with scores over 50 - and living in the USA.

So is Klout good or bad? Is it real or a crock? To be honest, I dont know but I do know that if you engage someone to do Social Media training or marketing and their score is 21, what does that tell you about how well they engage Social Media? You are wasting your time and money. You can find out someone's Klout score by entering their name at Klout.com. You can also download an app for your phone and an app that embeds into Twitter and tells you the Klout score of everyone who tweets.

And of course, Klout ignores the people who have an influence off Social Media. If a volunteer reaches a child to read on a one to one basis, what is their measure of their influence? Life changing but Klout does not measure that does it?

Tuesday Tech: What is Klout?

Tweeting, blogging, Facebooking you probably know. So what is Klouting?  Well its actually just Klout!

Klout is designed to measure a person's "influence" on Social Networking sites.  Klout looks at how many people follow your blogs, tweets and facebook posts and what they do with them. So Klout looks at how many retweets, likes and shares done by others in response to an "influencer's"  messages. tweets and posts.

Based on those interactions, Klout calculates a score out of 100, based on 35 variables. My score is currently 64.35. How does that compare with others? The CEO and co founder of Klout, Joe Fernandez says that “It’s really, really hard for a normal person to get a score above 70." That has give me an incentive!

There are five accounts on Klout with scores above 90. They include Justin Bieber at 98 and Lady Gaga at 91. There are apparently two or three others with scores above 90. One wonders that the world is being influenced by Gaga and Bieber?! President Obama’s Klout score was at 87, with the White House Twitter account coming in at 80.

The variables measure your influence on Facebook and Twitter in three categories

• True Reach- the number of people you influence I found out that on average 504 people respond to my messages. Not quite world domination but Klout says: You have a larger network than most people
• Amplification Probability -how much you influence these people- your effect on an audience
• Network Score- how many Influencers you influence- having influenctial people you connect with means, that your message will go far. This is again a score out of 100-mine is currently 62

What does this mean for a Not for Profit?

1. If you are using Facebook or Twitter or both, find out who you influence. Sign up for Klout to see how many people you are influencing and who they are
2. Find out what messages they are responding to.  This could help your organisation work out if your messages are reaching your desired audience. My most influencing messages include: Facebook, Television, Adelaide, Training, Nonprofit and Social Media
3. Benchmark your own organisation and identify what your target score is
4. Get me in to do training on Social Media. Seriously? Are you going to choose someone with a Klout score of 11 or one that is over 40? I have a great Social Media training course.
5. Engage with top influencers: Find the supporters of your cause who have the highest Klout scores they are your most influential followers. By sharing information with those people, they will promote your cause, issues and messages through their networks extending your reach
6. Recognise people who have influenced your agency in a particular topic by "giving them Klout". This is symbolised by K+. 

Love your feedback, reactions and thoughts on Klout. In the meantime, expect lots of posts with Lady Gaga mentioned in them!
Please do mention to others this blog. We keep growing in readership and I want to keep it that way!
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