Influence Is In the Eye of the Beholder: Klout's "Most Influential Topics of 2010"

In 1937, How to Win Friends and Influence People was a book; in 2011, the era of social media and networking, it's a motto. Businesses, organizations, individuals, and even governments have turned to social media to flex their networking muscles, and who proved to be the most powerful social media user in the last twelve months? According to Klout's Most Influential Topics of 2010 analysis, it was a tight race between two figures: President Barack Obama and Justin Bieber. While many media outlets are focussed on how Obama and Bieber could end up in the same sentence, never mind the same "most influential" list, a closer look at Klout's list reveals what it can and cannot tell us about social media. In order to understand Klout's list, it's important to know on what criteria the list based its analysis. The list focuses on Twitter, and, as such, it cannot (and does not claim to) tell us about social media and networking as a whole. Using Twitter, Klout's list determined the most influential topics based on the criteria that they were, "shared by the top influencers on Twitter". While there is some debate on what constitutes an 'influencer', what is important to understand is the list is not compiled from Twitter trends, re-tweets, or volume of posts. Without defining what constitutes "influential", it is inaccurate to understand the list as a comprehensive source on the most influential topics on Twitter last year. This is not to say, however, that Klout's list is not useful. The list is like a poll; while it may not be an entirely definitive source, it does gives clues to the topics, people, and companies that were popular on Twitter in 2010. In the last twelve months, politics were clearly at the forefront of Twitter, with political figures and events featuring heavily on the "general topics", "people", and "tags" lists. On the "political figures" list, President Obama was number one, commanding an apparently impressive lead over others in the category, including Sarah Palin, George W. Bush, and John McCain. While many are appalled that Justin Bieber could exert almost as much influence as Barack Obama, there is an important lesson to be learned. Second on the "most influential people" list and first on the "most influential musician" list, Bieber was a genuine Twitter phenomenon in 2010; it is a reminder: when it comes to social media and influence, millennials are a powerful demographic. For companies, however, social media was a double edged sword. Coca-cola, The New York Times, and Starbucks did well on Twitter in 2010. However, both Toyota and BP were on the "top ten companies" list, reflecting their respective controversies during the year. In business, not all publicity is good publicity. Finally, perhaps the greatest trend of the last twelve months, was social media itself. It earned the top spot on the "most popular topics" list by being a consistent topic throughout the year, as opposed to some topics - like Health Care and the World Cup - which peaked during certain months. Also, on the "products" list, Apple continues to dominate social media related technology; the iphone, ipad, and ipod were all in the top ten. Despite the information it can't provide, Klout's list does offer insight into general trends on Twitter in 2010. However, influence is only as strong as it's staying power, and it will be interesting to see who does and does not make next year's list.

Social Pro Daily

Influence Is In the Eye of the Beholder: Klout's "Most Influential Topics of 2010"

Kelsey Blair

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Kelsey Blair