Social Media Influencer Scores
A patent granted to Google this week tells us about social media influencer scores developed at Google that sound very much like the scores at Klout. In the references section of the patent, Klout is referred to a couple of times, with a link to the Wikipedia Page about Klout and the Klout FAQ page. Unfortunately, we aren’t given a name for these social media influencer scores in Google’s patent, but it does talk about topic-based influencer scores and advertisers.
Many patents are published that might give the inventors behind those patents a right to the technology described in them. Still, often the decision to move ahead with the processes described in those patents might be based upon business-based matters, such as whether or not there might be value in pursuing the patent. When I read this patent, I was reminded of an earlier patent from Google from a couple of years ago that described an advertising model that used social media influencers and their interests called Adheat. That patent was AdHeat Advertisement Model for Social Network. A whitepaper that gives us a little more in-depth information about that process was AdHeat: An Influence-based Diffusion Model for Propagating Hints to Match Ads. One of the authors/inventors, Edward Chang left Google after the paper came out to join HTC as their Vice President of Research and Innovation.
This new patent was originally filed on May 29, 2012. Edward Chang left Google for HTC in July 2012. I don’t know if those events are related, but the idea of using social media influencers in advertising is an interesting one. Unfortunately, the patent doesn’t pinpoint specific social media platforms used the way that Klout does. Interestingly, Klout does use Google+ as one of the social media networks that they use to generate Klout Scores.
I like seeing what Google patents say about things on the Web. Their introduction to social media and social media influencer scores was interesting:
Social media is pervasive in today’s society. Friends keep in contact throughout the day on social networks. Fans can follow their favorite celebrities and interact on blogs, micro-blogs, and the like. Such media are referred to as “social media,” which can be considered media primarily, but not exclusively, for social interaction and can use highly accessible and scalable communication techniques. Brands and products mentioned on such sites can reflect customers’ interests and feedback.
Some technologies have been developed to analyze social media. For example, some systems allow users to discover their “influence scores” on various social media. An influence score is a metric to measure a user’s impact on social media.
The patent tells us about the role of the process it defines:
…one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include the actions of identifying a user in a community; determining an influence score to be associated with the user in the community for a particular topic, including determining a reach of one or more communications that relate to the particular topic that has been distributed from the user in the community; evaluating the reach as compared to one or more other users in the community for the particular topic; and storing the influence score in association with the user.
How Social Media Influencer Scores are Calculated
This new patent tells us about
- Identifying a user in a community;
- Determining an influence score to be associated with the user in the community for a particular topic,
- Determining a reach of communications that relate to the particular topic distributed from the user to other users in the community, and
- Evaluating that reach and comparing it to the reach of communications from other users in the community for the particular topic; and
- storing the influence score in association with the user.