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Archives for November 2011

In Defense of TrueCar

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There’s been a lot of talk about TrueCar lately in automotive industry forums blasting them for their business practices and how “evil” they are. There’s a thread on DealerElite with over 33 PAGES of comments [edit: 50+ pages] in response to Jim Ziegler’s question:

“TRUE CAR and ZAG Cyber Bandits: Parasites or Good for the Car Business?”

..and even a video from Jerry Thibeau of Phone Ninjas who has a very strong opinion:

(Edit: I guess TrueCar didn’t like the video. It appears that they had it removed.)

My experience with HomeNet Automotive (the leading automotive data distribution company now owned by AutoTrader) gave me unique insight from all perspectives: vendors, 3rd party inventory sites and dealers.

Whether you think TrueCar is good or bad for the automotive industry, you have to step back and consider a few things:

(In regards to TrueCar having, and using, a dealer’s sales data) In the early days of inventory marketing, it was the general thought that having your inventory on every 3rd party site possible was a great idea. Most dealers signed up for every 3rd party site they could, especially if it was free. When I was an Internet Director, I signed up for them all also. When I was with HomeNet, I talked to many Dealer Principals that wanted their inventory everywhere. Most never read any “terms and conditions”, they just signed up. Any of these third party sites could have been polling their DMS for not only inventory but sales data and they never would have known. Nothing’s free. It wasn’t until recently that people started questioning the wisdom of shotgunning their data and, even then, it had nothing to do with whether the sites should have it but how it was effecting their SEO efforts and how the sites were using their data to collect leads then selling those leads to the dealer. It had nothing to do with the fact that they HAD the data in the first place.

When HomeNet Automotive integrated TrueCar into their inventory management tool, (IOL Pro), as a rep, I visited many dealers who loved the TrueCar feature and ability to use reports to close deals and research competitor pricing. Only a few even questioned where the data was coming from and in only one case was a dealer actually upset that we (ie. HomeNet) had the sales data at all. The fact remains that this data was given voluntarily by the dealer to hundreds of 3rd party sites, each with their own terms and conditions, and any of which could have been polling their DMS for sales data and, in turn, providing it to TrueCar, Edmonds, AutoTrader, etc. or any of the hundreds of other sites.

(In a now amusing tangent, industry people demonize Reynolds and Reynolds all the time for protecting their data (ie. not allowing unauthorized 3rd party access) and throttling their control over distributing it to just anybody and now these same people are complaining about 3rd parties having the data.)

Now, onto the lead program.. People are complaining that TrueCar leverages the dealer’s data (which the dealers are giving to countless websites already) to provide consumers information on the lowest prices for vehicles, converting the lead and offering it to the dealers on a per sale cost of $300 versus a per lead basis. Why is this so evil?

There are plenty of 3rd party sites that do the same thing with the only difference being that they charge per lead. Hell, even MANUFACTURERS do it. When I was in retail, I used a company with a similar pricing strategy named Autotropolis (since bought by Autobytel for $15 million). I LOVED those leads. I could easily identify a lead from them and factor in the $250 per sale fee into any deal structured or quote given to a consumer. I only paid when I sold a car. It was great. At least on a per sale basis, my cost per sale was fixed. With 3rd party leads, it wasn’t. I hear dealers complain about $900+ costs per sale with their AutoTrader programs yet they still participate. The point is that I was always in control of the sale. If I didn’t want to sell the vehicle at the pricing given to them, I didn’t. It was my choice. The fact is that I would rather have the opportunity to earn the sale than not have it. Why wouldn’t you want a fixed cost per sale on internet leads? 

Dealers have been sending their transactional and inventory data to 3rd parties for YEARS. This isn’t some new phenomenon that’s all of a sudden appearing. Everyone wants to single out TrueCar when, in fact, TrueCar is only ONE OF MANY companies that have their data. Dealers have willingly and happily provided this data to 3rd party sites for YEARS (at least as far back as 2003 to some sites that I personally know of).

To top it all off, dealers and industry professionals have been evangelizing transparency in their sales processes, pricing and interactions with consumers yet it appears that dealers don’t really want transparency, what is wanted is the illusion of transparency.

Bottom line: If you don’t want your data used by a 3rd party, stop giving it to them. I’m not just talking about TrueCar, I’m talking about EVERY 3rd party.

TrueCar is a business that pays for information received from the dealers themselves. Rather than demonizing TrueCar for monetizing the data by providing a service to both consumers (via transparency) and dealers (via sales), don’t participate.

As the saying goes: Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

(Edit: TrueCar is just a scapegoat and convenient target. I don’t necessarily disagree with all of the arguments, just the placing of the blame on TrueCar. Dealers created this, not TrueCar.)

UPDATE 12/1/11: Seems as if my friend Jerry created a new video.

When Dealer Promotions Go Wrong

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In browsing a popular deal website, Slickdeals, I noticed a thread titled “20% off all new Chevrolets (Arizona)”. Out of curiosity, I thought I’d check it out. I was more curious to see if the dealer (or an employee) posted this or if it was something that a forum member posted.

Wow. Talk about negative publicity. Here are some choice comments from the thread from people who TRIED to take advantage of this deal posted on the dealership’s website (which does actually say “20% off All New Chevrolets”) and one local customer who decided to chime in about his buying experience at this dealership.

“Interesting. Called the dealer and he stated that the deals are good for Arizona residents, although this isn’t stated anywhere on the website. Doubt very much that the OP was successful in securing a car from these guys. I was trying to buy a Chevrolet Volt from them. The salesman was very accommodating, suggesting that I falsify my residency to obtain the price. Imagine that, a dealership suggesting that we do something illegal so that we can take advantage of their poor advertising and sales tactic. Unfortunately this is another example of one poorly run dealership proving the stereotype that all dealers are thieves. Sad really.”

“Get ready. My deal went all the way to the owner. Just another car dealer living down to their reputation.”

“I’ll be interested to see if any of you get the deal. I live close to this dealership and recently tried to buy a new truck that was listed in an ad. Went to the dealership that morning and was told that the truck listed in the ad “wasn’t available.” The salesman offered me a truck with the same exact options, color and sticker price as the one listed in the ad, for $2,000 more than the price listed in the newspaper.”

They even included a response e-mail from the Internet Manager at this dealership that they got when inquiring:

“Hi Chris … Thanks for your email 11-27-11 on the New Chevrolet Volt #120126 and choosing Sands Chevrolet in Surprise for your next Chevrolet purchase.

This Volt is available from Inventory here in Arizona. Is that a CRAZY PRICE or what? $7,500 of this Huge Discount will be in the form of a Tax Credit at Year End Tax Time, and you will also need to be a Resident of Arizona to purchase at this Special Price.

There are no Rebates or Special Interest Rates at this time. Please call or email me.

Thanks
XXX XXXXX
Internet Manager”

 

To date, over 5,000 people have viewed this thread.

That’s 5,000 people who were interested enough in buying a new Chevrolet that they clicked on the thread to get the details and found the above types of comments.

Done right, that could’ve been 5,000 leads. This probably led to 5,000 people who aren’t going to buy a car at this dealership.

The Kindle Fire Deal That Wasn’t Supposed to Be

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[UPDATE 12/2 – This phenomenon is still going strong. People are STILL trying to get this deal.]

For many, Black Friday has become more about the “thrill of the hunt” than about a real need for savings. People lined up 9 days early at a Best Buy in Sarasota, FL. In my opinion, there really wasn’t anything worth waiting NINE DAYS IN LINE but, hey, that’s just me.

xlarge_kindle-fire

On to the sale that wasn’t supposed to be.

A Target store in Trumbull, CT didn’t have enough Kindle Keyboard 3G’s in stock for their Black Friday sale so, in an act to make their customers happy, they decided to sell their stock of Kindle Fire’s at the same discount (38%) that was being offered in the ad for the other item. This effectively reduced a very popular, just-released item from $199 to $123.38 plus tax. Kudos to them.

One of the people who managed to get this deal (and it is a good deal) decided to post the deal to a popular deal website, Slickdeals, to inform other bargain shoppers. Many people saw the deal and attempted to get their local Targets to sell it at that price to little success. Then one person attempted to get the item price-matched at a Wal-Mart using the display pictures and receipt images as proof of the price…and succeeded.

This prompted a mad rush on the country’s Wal-Marts. The crowd talking about and trying to get this deal kept each other up-to-date on where they had succeeded and failed posting pictures of receipts and store locations as they went, in real-time. Remember, this started with one store who made a special deal to its customers.

This thread has grown to over 59 pages (2300+ posts) as people scramble around all over the country, sometimes visiting 3-4 Wal-Marts and other retailers in an attempt to get this deal price-matched and save $75. Some people just want a deal. Some are looking to resell these which, by my calculations, would net them AT MOST $50 each.(Check for yourself) Many just bought them because…well.. for no reason other than it was a good deal.

I like a good deal as much as anybody but this is just insanity. The unsuspecting managers at these competing stores are getting hammered. In many cases, these deal seekers report having to “convince” (ie. complain vigorously) the managers to even give them the deal in the first place. I suspect many managers just gave them the deal to save themselves headaches. I’m fairly certain that these deal-seekers aren’t being straight forward when attempting to get this price-matched deal (ie. telling them the circumstances under which only this one Target sold the item at that price and why) which, in my opinion, is fraudulent, or, at the very least, dishonest. To top that off, many people are doing this simply to say they succeeded as, more often than not, they are failing. However, just enough people are succeeding to keep people trying.

What compels people to waste so much time in an effort to get a deal on an item they may not even want under circumstances that take advantage of retailers requiring them to be dishonest because one store made a special deal to their customers?

This started on Black Friday and is still going on today.

What are your thoughts?

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

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Most consumers hate shopping for cars. They love to BUY cars. They WANT new cars. It’s just like shopping at the mall, just way more expensive, which is why they should enjoy it much more. If you were to go into any retail store and tell them you wanted to spend $20,000+, they would treat you like royalty, yet, when people go into car dealerships, all they get are headaches and wasted time. Many dealers are recognizing this and consciously making changes to their processes that streamline the buying experience and make it easier, and more enjoyable, for people to buy cars but, sadly, many dealers are still playing games.

Has something like this happened to you at a dealership or have you seen this happen at your dealership?

Until dealers can break through the stereotype they earned, consumers will distrust them. That’s why it’s such a refreshing experience to consumers when they find a dealership that doesn’t play games. Until they experience it personally, however, they won’t believe you no matter how hard you try and convince them that your dealership is different. Treat every customer like royalty and you’ll be well on your way to referrals and word-of-mouth marketing that you could never buy.

(P.S. This video was from a series of videos shot by DealerKnows Consulting. It was an honor (and a lot of fun) to be included in these. There are more to come and, in case you missed the first one released, I’ve included it below.)

Is Content Marketing Valuable?

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Last month at BlogWorld LA, I had the privilege to see Jay Baer and Joe Pulizzi’s session about content marketing. Their session focused on the different types of content marketing that companies participate in. It was titled: “How Much Do You Open Your Kimono?”

IMG_0059

Is content marketing worthwhile? How do you tie it to revenue?

They taught that there are six types of content marketing. The six types of “opening the kimono” are:

1. Closed Kimono – There is no online thought leadership. Your content is not for public distribution. This type has the goal of significant repeat and “word of mouth” business. Pro: There is zero time investment. Con: You have limited exposure and a reduced ability to build online influence.

2. What Happens In Vegas – Online thought leadership is distributed and built via micro-platforms. Your company is participating in platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. and leaving blog comments to build your reputation as a thought leader. Pro: Original content is not required. You’re sharing other’s content in an effort to become a community resource. Con: You have no ability to drive the lead source and limited search engine potential. A great quote included in this segment was:

“To be considered a leader in any field, one must build and gain trust within their communities.” – Lisa M. Loeffler, Genuine Media Co.

3. Quid Pro Quo – This type comprises of selling thought leadership via methods such as e-books, how-to articles, and e-newsletters. The essential flow is that you give away free content and include a form asking people to subscribe to receive more free reports, etc. This builds your subscriber base and you then you market to those people with your paid content. Keep in mind that your free content needs to be “best in class” or people won’t pay you for your paid content. Pro: Recurring revenue. Con: Passive income.

4. Give Me Your Number – This is essentially lead-gated thought leadership. In this type, you put your content behind a gate (such as a lead form) and people have to give you some personal information to access the content (such as an e-mail address, etc.). Here you can focus not just on lead generating but lead nurturing. You would promote your content through all of your media channels but not give it to away until someone completes a lead form. Pro: If your content is good, you can generate a river of leads. Con: You have no control over the lead quality.

5. Peekaboo – In this type of content marketing, you give away what you know but not the process. Your content itself becomes your resume of thought leadership. Pro: You will get heavy SEO and PR awareness within your audience Con: This type takes tons of effort. It can also devalue each piece of content. You also risk publishing too much which could lead to you being ignored.

6. The Full Monty – Just like it sounds. You give it all away – what you know and how to do it. You create content for content’s sake. You even create content that is outside your industry. You can still have a lead form but it should not act as a gate to the content. Pro: There is no barrier to the customer. You can go big or small. Con: This type requires serious effort. It also allows others to “steal” your content and diverts attention from your core attributes.

Which one is right for you really depends on your target audience. Through testing, you can determine which one converts the most for you with your audience.

They provided a worksheet with a testing plan that you can use to evaluate each type and see which is the best fit for your company. You can access that worksheet at http://bit.ly/openkimono

It was fun using this “type-guide” to identify which type of content marketing various members of the online automotive community are using.

You can follow both Jay Baer and Joe Pulizzi on Twitter for more valuable information and content.

 

Lessons from BlogWorld – A Social Media Experiment – How to Find a Job by DJ Waldow of Waldow Social

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DJ Waldow of Waldow Social delivered a timely and fascinating presentation at the 2011 BlogWorld LA conference held November 3-5, 2011 in Los Angeles, CA titled “A Social Media Experiment: How to find a job” sharing his thought and experiences while offering timely advice and tips on how job-seekers of today can leverage the power of social media to aid them in finding a job.

DJ Waldow was formerly the Director of Community for Blue Sky Factory and is now the owner of his own business, Waldow Social. In his session, he told his personal story of how he was laid off unexpectedly when his employer was acquired by another company. Because the company’s acquisition was not public, he was not allowed to say anything other than he no longer worked there. So he got creative.

He shared with the audience how he created “Project Awesome“, which included an interactive PDF resume in Slideshare (to date viewed 9,181 times), the aforementioned blog post (which received 5,000+ visits and over 200 comments), and enlisted his friends to give video recommendations(viewed over 1,500 times) for him to use in his job hunt. All of this creative marketing of himself using social media led to “300 e-mails, 44 phone conversations/interviews, 7 in-person interviews, 13 Skype chats, 2 Google+ Hangouts & one Facebook chat – all with people interested in hiring (him) for a full-time position” and all of this occurred within the first 2 weeks of him losing his position.

Of course, being in the business of social media, he had some very high profile friends (which helped), but his approach was not one of soliciting recommendations from everyone he knew, but rather identifying key people in his life that he knew well enough to ask for a personal favor from. He called this “Social Capital”. Your social capital is gained by trust from people that you have earned, friendships that you have built, and relationships that you have grown. Identify key people in your life, both personal and professional, to assist in marketing yourself. Be creative and use social media networks to share that you are in the market and enlist your network in sharing YOU with THEIR network.

He advised that, if you plan to use social media, the first step is to know what’s out there in the world about you, right now. Do a search on the internet and see what others would find should they be looking for information about you. If you find negative items, either delete them or correct the ones that you can.

He challenged job-seekers to ask themselves these four questions:

  1. What are you known for?
  2. What do you want to be known for?
  3. What are you good at?
  4. What do you love?

In the connected world in which we live, traditional job hunting skills and habits will no longer separate you from the rest of the “pile”. You must be different and creative to stand out, but above all be helpful, be kind and always be positive.

Originally published on Yahoo!

Inflatable Gorillas vs. Social Media

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The question I hear asked the most by dealers when talking to them about social media is “What’s the ROI? How do I measure that?” The problem with getting a buy-in from them is that they want to see a straight line between a Facebook post or tweet and a sale. Sometimes that’s possible but most of the time, it isn’t.

gorilla

My rebuttal is, “What’s the ROI on the inflatable gorilla on the roof? How do you measure that? Do you have a source in your CRM for “Gorilla” similar to the infamous “Billboard” one you have?”

Inevitably, they can’t answer that question. Funny thing is that even Google got into the “gorilla” game when they posted an ad for PPC advertising stating that Google Adwords would have “tons of customers headed your way” and implying that the gorilla would not (which they were promptly sued for by the makers of inflatable gorillas).

googlegorilla

The most common thought is that the giant inflatable gorilla gets people’s attention (just like the weekend tradition of “ballooning” the cars. Nobody that I ever know of said that they stopped at a dealership and bought a car because they saw a gorilla on the roof. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. I’ve seen many comments by consumers that say inflatable gorillas are insulting to them. Some have even said that they are an indicator of an “old-school” dealership and would avoid these dealers at all cost.

Social media, on the other hand, when done properly, can increase customer loyalty, satisfaction and referrals through engagement with your customers. There are TONS of examples of this result from HUGE companies (Ford, Southwest Airlines, etc.). I’ve NEVER heard a customer say those things about a dealership using social media (with the exception of dealers that spam their customers with inventory).

Let’s assume that you can’t track ROI on social media (which is incorrect) and that you can’t track it on an inflatable gorilla, which end of the spectrum would you rather be on?

There’s only one way I could see an inflatable gorilla actually working and that’s if it can do this:

….jump off the roof and physically drag customers in.

So, if you’re willing to put an inflatable gorilla on your roof, balloon-up your lot every weekend, have a “hot-dog food fest” or any of the other things that surely have people (presumably) slamming on their brakes on the freeway to come to your dealership and buy a car, then why wouldn’t you have a presence on social media whether you can measure it’s ROI or not?

What do you think of giant inflatable gorillas on car dealerships?

Buffer: What It Is and Why You Want It

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When I went to BlogWorld LA, I met up with a friend of mine, James Stayton. As I’m walking around googly-eyed at the likes of Chris Brogan, Jason Falls, etc., he jumps when he sees this one guy with a “Buffer” shirt on. We go over and James starts telling this guy how much he loves Buffer and about how much he likes the new features, etc. I had never heard of Buffer so I asked the guy (who turned out to be a co-founder, Leo Wid) to show me how it worked. I signed up (as it’s free) and told him I’d check it out. At the time, the Facebook posting was still in beta, (he let me in on the very tail of that) but now, I believe, it’s live for anyone who signs up.

So, what is Buffer?

Buffer is an easy service that allows you to share information without overwhelming your networks (the networks in this article I’m referring to are Twitter and Facebook). How it does this is that they use an algorithm that determines what the best times of the day (ie. most trafficked and used) are and it schedules them for those times automatically. It also “buffers” your posts so that you aren’t sending a ton out at once and overwhelming your followers/friends. It will determine how many you should be posting and automatically schedule them for when they are most likely to be read or clicked through and it will space them out in time for you also. There is also a “Post Now” button if you don’t want to send it later.

I’ve been (and I am) a Hootsuite Pro user for a long time. I love Hootsuite but it is a pain to schedule tweets with any kind of strategy involved. I still use Hootsuite but now I use Buffer as a compliment to it so that I can share great content without having to even THINK about when I should tweet or post something and how much is too much, etc.

…and one of my FAVORITE parts of Buffer is that it allows me to use my custom URL shortener automatically! You just plug in your shortener information (in this case, I use bit.ly for my shortener –  arni.es) and it automatically uses YOUR shortener for any websites you add to your buffer. Hootsuite charges $50 per month if you want this feature!

Anyways, I don’t get this excited about a new service (God knows there are plenty of them popping up all the time.) but this one has me pumped. I’ve been using it now for a couple of weeks and I love it.

A dealership (or any business) could use this to pre-load a week’s worth of content very easily then sit back and sell some cars!

Check it out , sign up and send your first tweet by clicking HERE!

Can Your Dealership Be Too Social?

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I hope dealerships realize that a social media presence is necessary these days. Hopefully, there is someone at your dealership handling this. More likely than not, this task has been assigned to someone which this is NOT their primary responsibility.

That being said, is there a thing as being “too social”?

There are many social networks out there and new ones popping up everyday. In a perfect world, dealers would have a dedicated person that could keep up with and manage them all by posting new content (preferably original) via blogs and all the social networks with their listening ears on. Most dealers, however, don’t have the budget for this type of person. It’s hard enough for ME to keep up with them all much less to ask a dealer to.

Would it be better if a dealer picked a few and concentrated on being really good at those instead of spreading themselves so thin that they aren’t managing or maintaining an active presence on them all? It’s not enough just to have a Facebook page or G+ page or Twitter account, you have to engage and keep fresh content on it.. nurture it.

Right now we have Facebook, Twitter, G+, Google Places, LinkedIn, YouTube, … and the list goes on. Now Microsoft is about to enter the game with Microsoft Socl.. yet another social network to maintain. Right now, there are 205 websites listed on Wikipedia as “social networking sites” (Yes, I counted them). You can’t effectively manage all of them (and most of them wouldn’t apply either) but you do still have to figure in managing your online reputation through sites like Yelp, DealerRater, etc as well as the location-based services out there like Foursquare.. Oh, and don’t forget about blogging!

It’s exhausting to think about, isn’t it? I promise it’s just as exhausting to actually do.

My advice: If you don’t have (or can’t afford, or don’t want to afford) a person that can actually manage this full-time, pick a few sites mixing up social, reputation management, location-based and a blog… and be good at them.

Bacon + Klout = Winning!

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Wait, bacon? What does yummy bacon have to do with Klout?

For those who don’t know, Klout is a service which supposedly measure a person’s influence on social media. Some have equated it to a social media “credit score”, if you will. Klout has this super-secret, if-we-told-you-we’d-have-to-kill-you algorithm which they use to monitor a person’s connected social media accounts (or public one’s if they don’t have any connected, but we’ll get to that in a minute.) Klout seems to be an increasingly polarizing topic amongst both people I know and blog articles I read.

Take for example, this one which was re-published by CNNMoney and written by John Scalzi who asserts why “Klout scores are possibly evil”, in which he states that “Klout exists to turn the entire Internet into a high school cafeteria, in which everyone is defined by the table at which they sit. And there you are, standing in the middle of the room with your lunch tray, looking for a seat, hoping to ingratiate yourself with the cool kids, trying desperately not to get funneled to the table in the corner where the kids with scoliosis braces and D&D manuals sit.” (It really is a hilarious read.)

Or this one, by Sharon Hayes, titles “10 Reasons Why I Opted Out of Klout”, In which she lists out the many reasons she chose to opt-out of their database…

I have friends who obsess about their Klout scores and I have friends who think Klout is a crock and a complete waste of time.

Here’s my take. I look at, and use Klout in 3 ways. Two of the ways are simple amusement and one is a business tool.

1. The primary way in which I use Klout is as a game, of sorts. When you give someone a +K on a topic (which is saying they influence you on that topic), it gives you the opportunity to tweet out the gift. The fun part comes in where you can alter the tweet so that instead of saying, “I gave @arnoldtijerina a +K about the Auto Industry on @klout..”, you can modify it to say “I gave @arnoldtijerina a +K about being the super-awesome guy that he is on @klout..” (which I am, thank you). I use this “modifying tweets” in 2 ways. The first is acknowledging people in a positive, reinforcing way (as shown above) and then there is a group of us that like to modify them in a…well, more fun way.. like “I gave @arnoldtijerina a +K for knowing when to hold them and when to fold them on @klout..” Either way, it’s fun and funny.

2. Klout Perks. This is a program in which Klout teams up with companies to offer freebies to influencers. I’ve received some cool freebies through this program so, if for no other reason, free stuff is a good reason in my book to keep your Klout score high.

3. Now, here is where people get polarized. Do I think Klout accurately measures a person’s influence? Sort of. While I know that there are topics in which I am not influential (uh.. like “bacon”.. yes, this is a REAL topic on Klout that I, apparently have some influence in, according to them. The real scoop is that it’s fun to give your friends +K in oddball topics.), I do believe that you can utilize Klout to assist in identifying influencers. Basically, if I were a business and I was looking to leverage my influencers to help spread the word about my service/product and if I were to take all of my Twitter followers and try to figure out which ones are active and influential in social media, it would take 1) time I don’t have and 2) the odds of actually pegging a true influencer would be low. Now, same scenario but I take all my Twitter followers with Klout scores above 50 and target them. While not everyone I target will be an influencer, I have a much higher probability of actually identifying influencers and it took me way less time.

The thing that seems to irk the most people is that Klout is an opt-out service. What that means is that if you have public social media accounts (like Twitter), Klout will have a profile on you whether you’ve signed up for their service or not. If you don’t want one, until recently, you were SOL but now they have created an option in which you can delete your profile. Do I agree with this? Meh. I don’t care. I kind of look at it like if you put it out there publicly, you can’t really get mad when someone monetizes that information. C’mon folks, Klout is a business. They make money by finding and selling lists of influencers to other companies.

However, the one thing that I do know, as Sharon Hayes pointed out in the blog article I referenced earlier in this post, is that as employers give a person’s Klout score more weight and use it in hiring decisions, you better start paying attention. Whether that’s by making sure you have a good score or deleting your profile altogether, you need to act.

As stupid as you may believe it to be I’m fairly confident that you don’t want it to affect your ability to get hired. You may not care what your credit score is either, but that doesn’t mean other people don’t.

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