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| How Klout Found Success by Focusing on Users | | Sunday, January 15, 2012 6:21 PM | Erica Swallow |
|  This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. There's no set formula for startup success. Some companies focus on design, mastering industry research or one-upping competitors to make it to the top. In the case of Internet startup Klout, though, the focus is on users. From day one, Klout Founder and CEO Joe Fernandez's goal has been to "help people understand their influence and toleverage that influence." The San Francisco-based company measures an individual's influence across the Internet and scores that user's influence on a scale of 1 to 100. Prior to Klout, no other company had tried to tackle the space of Internet influence -- as a result, Klout has become the de facto standard of online influence, defining the industry. Some of the world's largest brands even use Klout to identify and reward influential consumers in their categories. During late 2007, Fernandez was recovering from jaw surgery with his jaw wired shut for three months. Unable to talk, he turned to social media to communicate. "When social media became my only form of communication, it changed the way I looked at it," Fernandez says. "It was amazing to me that for the people who trusted me the most, I could tell them my opinion about anything instantly from my phone and it would have some sort of impact on them, just as what they were saying or thinking or experiencing would have an impact on me. Even more exciting was the idea that all the data was there to measure it." Fernandez started building Klout during his recovery period. Since then, the startup has received massive press and a lot of investor attention, with $10 million in funding. It has also built quite a large audience, and has assigned scores to more than 100 million people and brands. Klout is all about data -- it analyzes 2.7 billion pieces of content and connections per day, receives more than 8 billion API calls per month and has worked with more than 5,000 partners and developers. We recently spoke with Fernandez about the journey he has taken in establishing Klout. Fernandez shared four key thoughts on how the company has maintained a focus on its users in order to learn and grow. Here are his thoughts on putting users first. 1. Get Feedback from Super Users The first step to connecting with and learning from users is to ask for and act upon their feedback. Fernandez recommends keeping your ears open for every single mention of your brand across online and offline -- great feedback can come from anywhere. But for the really nitty gritty details, go to your super users, the people who love your product and use it nonstop. At Klout, these users are part of a small, invite-only group called Klout Squad. These users are the first to know about, experience and give feedback on new Klout features. "We're creating a standard around something that's inherently subjective, trying to evolve the product and iterating really quickly," says Fernandez. "It's really exciting to have a group of people that may or may not agree with everything we do. They offer different perspectives and engage in intimate conversations around product and strategy and give us feedback. It's a key part of how we want to grow this business." Klout also hosts Klout Chats on Twitter to engage with a larger audience of users regarding new features or important topics -- Fernandez says that these Twitter chats attract 5,000 users on average. That's a lot of feedback to act on. 2. Be Accessible
Klout users Han Ly, Nicole Mickelson, and Setareh Taghvaei mingle with Klout Co-Founder and CTO Binh Tran at a KloutUp in San Francisco. Consumer feedback is important for all businesses. While it can be a challenge to connect with users, it's essential that your business overcome all obstacles to engage with users. Klout is very accessible online, having a very active presence on Twitter and Facebook, for starters. But Klout receives more than 1 million @mentions on Twitter every month, so sorting through the madness can be a bit of a task. As a result, Klout makes it a point to host in-person events where Klout users can mingle with one another and get to know the company. Deemed "KloutUps," these events give users and employees a chance to learn about Klout, face to face. "We leave more informed about what may or may not be good about our product, and they leave more informed about what our intentions are," says Fernandez. "We're putting scores next to people, and it can feel really cold," Fernandez explains. "The more we can humanize our company and be accessible to the community, the better." 3. Show Tangible Value Klout introduced Klout Perks earlier this year to offer exclusive products and experiences to online influencers. Users can earn exclusive access to new online services, invites to events and free merchandise, based on how influential they are in certain topics. Klout Perks "makes the value of your Klout Score tangible," says Fernandez. "The idea that for just being who you are, for just being as passion as you are for whatever topic, that brands want to recognize and reward you, is pretty awesome to me." So far, the the Perks program has been a hit in 2011 -- Klout distributed 300,000 Klout Perks to users. If your service lacks tangible value for users, figure out a way to solve that problem. You'll keep users interested in interacting with your product if they can see the true benefit of staying involved. 4. Build Trust by Protecting User Data Klout monetizes its business through Klout Perks, but in the process, it maintains integrity and manages to keep 100% of personally identifiable user data out of its advertisers' hands. "One of the things that I'm really proud of, but that I think people don't really get about Klout Perks is that we don't actually give any data to the brands" says Fernandez. "It's really all about empowering the user." Brands pay to connect with influential users -- and that's the end of the brand's involvement. Klout strives to protect users' data by dealing with all of the administrative portions that may come up regarding Klout Perks, such as emailing eligible Klout users and shipping redeemed Perks to users. After a brand's Klout Perk campaign has ended, Klout delivers a stats report to the brand, detailing aggregate counts of how many users the campaign reached, how much content was created around the brand as a result and what user sentiment amounted to. In an age when most companies are happy to fork over email addresses, usernames and other information for a pretty penny, it's always a pleasant surprise to see companies resisting the urge to build trust with their users. Images courtesy of Kenneth Yeung, Mike Henderson and Klout. |
| Square Lets Entrepreneurs Round Out Their Payment Options | | Sunday, January 15, 2012 5:22 PM | Todd Wasserman |
|  This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. If you're an entrepreneur in the retail sector, you've no doubt heard the following phrase that has brought many transactions to a grinding halt: "Do you take credit cards?" If the answer is no, all the goodwill in the world won't help you. These days, people just don't carry that much cash around with them. That was the situation that Chip Forsythe encountered last year. Forsythe is one of the founders of Slo Down Wines, a San Francisco vintner. Forsythe started the company with two college buddies. Having no budget to speak of, he soon found the company's primary marketing vehicle -- wine shows -- was quickly depleting their resources. By Forsythe's estimation, each show would cost around $300 or so to participate in. Then the company would distribute hundreds of dollars in wine for free. What was frustrating was that people at the shows appeared interested in buying Slo Down's wines, but didn't have cash. Last year, Forsythe's younger brother told him about Square, a free device and app that let you process credit cards on your smartphone. It was a huge change. "We went from losing money at the shows to making thousands of dollars," he says. Fair enough, but why didn't Forsythe just go the traditional route and get a merchant account with one of the credit card companies? "It seemed too beyond us," he says. "We didn't have any money." It's hard to turn down free, though. Square entices vendors like Slo Down by sending its quarter-size Square reader device free. After that, the company takes a 2.75% cut of every transaction. You can also set up an account pretty quickly, says Katie Baynes, a rep for Square. "We do a credit check, but it's not a traditional check," she says. Launched publicly in October 2010 by Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, Square claimed its 1 millionth vendor in December. While Baynes says the company doesn't outline which types of companies are using Square, anecdotally at least, it seems to have found a niche among formerly low-tech trades like food trucks, farmer's markets, dog walkers and Christmas tree vendors, as well as at PTA fundraisers. About the only knock against the company, at least in the early days, was that it had a limit of $1,000 a week for transactions, ensuring that your business would stay small. However, that limit has now been removed. At the moment, that doesn't seem to be a deal-breaker for many. Merchants are happy to pay the relatively small transaction fee (for online-only transactions in which merchants manually enter credit card information, Square gets a 3.5% cut plus an additional 15 cents) and, for its part, Square gets access to lots of sales data. For instance, Square knows the average price of a cappuccino ($3.09 as of April) and the busiest sales day of the week (Saturday). That data has helped Square rack up $168 million in funding so far. Dorsey's pitch to investors is simple: There's a huge market out there of vendors who, for one reason or another, don't want to get a merchant account, but would be happy to find a way to process credit cards. Dorsey, of course, isn't the first one to notice this. PayPal has offered the same kind of payment option for vendors for some time and is now making the move into offline transactions with PayPal Wallet. Over the next year, PayPal hopes to roll out terminals that merchants can use to facilitate payments via a PayPal credit card, typing in a PayPal pin or eventually using an NFC tap. Of course, Google is also eyeing the same space with Google Wallet. While those technologies are still in their infancy, though, Square is a solution that's up and running today. That doesn't mean, however, that Square will look the same a year or two from now. Bob Egan, VP of mobile strategy for Mobiquity, a mobile technology consultancy, says he believes that Square has impressed the major credit card firms by rounding up new customers. Egan believes that at some point, one of the credit card giants may decide to buy Square. At this point, though, they're just watching it very closely. Says Egan: "They look at Square as a great science project." |
| Rent the Runway Partners With Iconic Dressmaker for Capsule Collection | | Sunday, January 15, 2012 4:07 PM | Lauren Indvik |
|  Rent the Runway, a two-year-old startup that leases designer dresses and accessories for up to 85% off retail, has partnered with American fashion designer Narcisco Rodriguez to develop a dress line available exclusively to its customers. The four dresses -- one ankle-skimming and two floor-length gowns, along with an ivory frock hemmed at the knee -- were modeled after some of Rodriguez's better-known work. The cutout gown, made in crimson and cobalt, was done in the style of a dress worn by Jennifer Aniston on the Dec. 2008 cover of Vogue. Two others replicate the silhouette and high-contrast paneling of a dress once worn by Kate Winslet. Each dress is available to rent for $275 to $400 for a four to eight-day period. The capsule collection is a first for Rent the Runway, one that allows the New York-based startup to further differentiate itself from other retailers. For the consumer, who would likely rent a dress for a special occasion such as a wedding or formal dance, the collection presents an opportunity to sport an iconic dress that no one else will have -- unless she happens to wander across another Narcisco-loving Rent the Runway member, of course. In an email interview, Jenn Hyman, CEO and cofounder of Rent the Runway, did not indicate that the company had any additional designer partnerships in the works, but that she and her team are on the lookout for more. |
| Inside the Recruiter's Head: What He's Really Asking You During the Interview | | Sunday, January 15, 2012 12:52 PM | Jayne Mattson |
|  Jayne Mattson is Senior Vice President at Keystone Associates, a leading career management and transition services consulting firm in Boston, Massachusetts. Mattson specializes in helping mid-to-senior level individuals in new career exploration, networking strategies and career decisions based on corporate culture fit. You applied for a new job, and you've been called in for an interview. During the interview process, there are three main questions that need to be answered to help the HR person determine if you're the right fit for the job: Can this person do the job? Will he do the job? Will he fit in with the company culture? By asking what I call "the question behind the question," hiring managers have a better chance to making the right hiring decision. As job seekers, your task is to answer them honestly and fully. Here are 10 top questions that the interviewer might ask, along with the hidden agenda behind each one. Tread carefully -- the way you approach the answer might tell more than what you actually say. 1. As you reflect back at your last position, what was missing that you are looking for in your next role? This question gets at the heart of why you're leaving the current job or, in the case of a reduction in workforce, it helps the interviewer understand what was missing. If you answer with, "I didn't have access to my boss, which made it difficult to get questions answered," then the interviewer might follow up with, "Can you give me a specific example where you had to make a decision on your own because your boss was not available?" This follow-up question will help the interviewer determine your level of decision making and how much access to the manager you'll need. 2. What qualities of your last boss did you admire, and what qualities did you dislike? This is precarious territory because your answer needs to have a balance of positive and negative feedback. It will show if you are tactful in answering a tricky question and if your leadership style is congruent with the admired or disliked ones. If you name a trait the interviewer dislikes or that's not in line with company culture, then you might not be a fit for the position. 3. How would you handle telling an employee his position is being eliminated after working for the company for 25 years, knowing they would be emotional? This question is not unrealistic in today's job market, since companies continue to downsize as a way of conducting business. Knowing that you might have to deal with this situation, the interviewer wants to know how you would tell the long-term employee the bad news. Would you tell the business reason why the company is downsizing, and would you thank the person in a genuine, heartfelt way for years of service? 4. How do you like to be rewarded for good performance? As simple as this question is, it helps the interviewer get a sense of what motivates you -- is it money, time off or more formal recognition? If you're interviewing for a management role, the follow-up question could be: How do you reward the good performance of employees who work for you? Are you a "do as I say, not as I do" type of manager? The interviewer is looking for congruency in behaviors, because if you don't practice what you preach, then it might not be a cultural fit. 5. Can you give me an example of when your relationship with your manager went off track and how you handled it? The interviewer is listening for the reasons why the relationship went off track. Are you taking responsibility for your own actions first or placing blame on the manager? The interviewer wants to learn more about your communication style and how you approach conflict. 6. When a person says "I have integrity," what does that mean to you? The follow-up question is: "How have you demonstrated integrity in your work?" Integrity is broad, and most people think they have it, but can you really articulate what it looks and sounds like? The interviewer is looking for congruency of words and actions with this question. 7. Can you tell me about your experience working with the generation X or Y? What are the three qualities you admire about them? There's been much talk about the work habits of various generations. At a startup, you'll likely be working with younger people, and employers want to know how you will integrate with this population. And young people will be working with baby boomers at bigger companies, like Dell and Apple. The interviewer will be looking for ways you've collaborated with workers of all ages and used each others' talents to achieve a goal -- do you have the energy, drive and attitude to work well with others? 8. Do you think age discrimination exists in the job market and if so, why? Some job seekers use "age discrimination" or "I make too much money" as the reasons why they did not get the interview or the job. In reality, they have applied for a job for which they are overqualified. They have too many skills for this particular job and the employer can find someone who has the exact skill and salary that commensurate with the job. Don't make that mistake. 9. Can you convince me you are the most qualified person for this role based on what we have discussed? The interviewer wants to make sure you clearly understand what the problems are and what would be expected of you in the event of your hire. This is the opportunity for you to sell yourself effectively for the job. 10. As you look at your previous companies, can you describe in detail which company culture did you excel in the most and why? The interviewer is looking for a culture fit, which is one of the essential criteria for job satisfaction. They want to hire someone who will do his best work for you, so do your research before you go in for the interview. What other probing questions have you been asked at interview? Let us know in the comments. Social Media Job Listings Every week we post a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we publish a huge range of job listings, we've selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting! Senior Back-End Developer -- Algorithms at Zite in San Francisco Social Media and Marketing Intern at Pongr in Boston Associate Director, Strategy and Analysis at Digitas in New York |
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