Over at Automotive Digital Marketing, there's been a long discussion started by Jim Zieglerabout Carfax and its place in the automotive community. I haven't chimed in because, quite frankly, I'm not needed there. The discussion is self-perpetuating and there's no shortage of opinions.

It did, however, catch my attention strictly from an advertising perspective as they have an ad out that misses on more cylinders than I thought was even possible. This physics-bending ad is intended to position Carfax as some sort of secret weapon to be used against car dealers. It isn't, but that's not the main reason why the ad fails so miserably.

First, the video itself:

Did you see the biggest problem with it?

Car salespeople are still stuck in the 80s, according to this video. They had a big opportunity to introduce the reality of today's car buying experience, and that reality is that dealers look at Carfax very closely themselves. They do not want to put out a vehicle that won't pass with flying colors. Most use it as a selling tool, a vote of confidence that they stand by their product. To position dealers as the enemy is foolish, mostly because there are plenty of people who feel that if something is considered a potential conflict point, they'll avoid it. Why would you want to make your product appear to be a point of contention during a transaction?

There are many challenges with the way Carfax is marketing, but this is the biggest. Be a conduit between dealers and customers. Don't be adversarial to one side or the other.

Over at Automotive Digital Marketing, there's been a long discussion started by Jim Zieglerabout Carfax and its place in the automotive community. I haven't chimed in because, quite frankly, I'm not needed there. The discussion is self-perpetuating and there's no shortage of opinions.

It did, however, catch my attention strictly from an advertising perspective as they have an ad out that misses on more cylinders than I thought was even possible. This physics-bending ad is intended to position Carfax as some sort of secret weapon to be used against car dealers. It isn't, but that's not the main reason why the ad fails so miserably.

First, the video itself:

Did you see the biggest problem with it?

Car salespeople are still stuck in the 80s, according to this video. They had a big opportunity to introduce the reality of today's car buying experience, and that reality is that dealers look at Carfax very closely themselves. They do not want to put out a vehicle that won't pass with flying colors. Most use it as a selling tool, a vote of confidence that they stand by their product. To position dealers as the enemy is foolish, mostly because there are plenty of people who feel that if something is considered a potential conflict point, they'll avoid it. Why would you want to make your product appear to be a point of contention during a transaction?

There are many challenges with the way Carfax is marketing, but this is the biggest. Be a conduit between dealers and customers. Don't be adversarial to one side or the other.

The worlds of public relations and marketing have gone through two major changes in the last decade. The first one came with the mass adoption of the internet as our primary source of information about businesses. The second came a few of years ago when social media became a mainstream method of letting your friends, family, and often the rest of the world know how you feel about a business. Today, there is no shortage of ways that people can voice their pleasure and displeasure with the various companies with which they do business.

Let’s start by making the distinction between the two disciplines. Everyone has an understanding about marketing. It’s simple. You do what you can to get your business and brand in front of as many people as possible and you get your message (in the form of products, services, differentiators, etc) out so that people will consider you when they’re ready for what you have to offer. Public relations often gets lumped in as a form of marketing because the basic concepts are the same, but it’s very different. Modern public relations in the social world is now a way to preserve your positive messages and diffuse the negative ones, particularly when they come from consumers.

This distinction is important because many still lump the two together when in reality they need to attack from completely different angles. At times, such as with online reviews, the goals are only loosely related. From a marketing perspective, negative reviews can be a major hindrance (at least in the eyes of the business). From a PR perspective, negative reviews are your opportunity to shine. I learned a lot about this during a discussion at the last Internet Sales 20 Group conference from Ralph Paglia.

People Hunt Down the Negative Reviews

Think about your own actions. When you look up a restaurant, a movie, or a home repair contractor, you may or may not be the type that checks out reviews. More and more people are relying on reviews every day (not in small part due to the way that Google is highlighting them in search). Some read them. Most will scan down on the page until they get to the negative ones. They aren’t checking reviews to see the positive ones. They want dirt. They want to know about the worse-case scenarios they might be walking into if they do business with you.

Some estimate that 40% of online reviews are fake. I know that in the automotive industry, the majority of dealers who have more than 50 likely solicited many of the reviews from happy customers. It’s a best practice. After all, it’s great for marketing. In essence, it’s a defensive marketing posture that shows customers seeing just the stars and number of reviews on Google that you’re respected in the community.

The PR opportunity lies in the negative reviews. Those who are really interested in doing business with you will scroll down until they find the bad reviews. They will read them and then look to see how you responded to the review. Were you defensive? Were you a pushover? Did you fix the problem if it could be fixed? Did you empathize?

How you respond to negative reviews is a tremendous opportunity to tell those interested in doing business with you what kind of company you really are.

Show Your Stuff

The moment a negative review is posted, you should respond quickly. Notice that I did not say “immediately”. Speed is important, but it’s not as important as posting the exact right message.

Investigate the concerns that were voiced in the review. As A.J. Maida posted on ADM, there’s a great chance that whichever employee worked with the cusotmer will remember the experience once they read it. Get your side of the story ready, then be prepared to not tell it. This is the hardest part about responding to negative reviews. We want to tell people that they were at fault as well. We want to make sure the rest of the world knows that the person posting the negative review was unreasonable, on drugs, or absolutely insane. This is, of course, the wrong course of action, but it’s important to know your side of the story so you can craft your response properly.

Once you know what happened, it’s time to empathize. This is challenging as well because we have instantly negative feelings towards anyone bashing us, but take yourself out of business mode and into the shoes of the reviewer. They wouldn’t have written a review unless they felt they were wronged in some way (yes, occasionally there are those who want to try to con something out of you, but these are much more rare than most businesses are willing to admit). Right or wrong, you must empathize with them to help correct the situation. Even if the situation in uncorrectable, it’s important to make a public effort to fix things, apologize, educate (humbly), or otherwise step up and accept responsibility even if you don’t think it was your fault.

Here are some keys to crafting the response:

• This is important. There are times when accepting responsibility is hard. They may have been completely at fault, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t your responsibility to help them not be at fault.
• Try to rectify the situation whenever possible from up top. Get the highest-level person available to talk to the reviewer in person or on the phone and offer to discuss it further. It could be the owner, the general manager, or someone else with a strong title, but make sure it’s someone with a title that demands respect. Even if it’s the owner who says, “I’ve instructed the service manager, Shelly, to take personal care of you when you come in,” that’s better than getting a reply from Shelly (no offense, Shelly).
• Use the opportunity to express something positive about your business. “It isn’t often that we get complaints about recall work. Our technicians carry the highest customer service ratings of any Chevy dealership in the tri-state area.”
• Don’t give stuff away. This is a big, big no-no. Gift Certificates, free oil changes, etc – keep those off of your review responses. You can offer it to them when you talk to them in person or on thephone, but the last thing you want is to make yourself a target by posting it in the response. “Oh, if you complain, Bob’s Deli will give you a free sandwich!”
• Keep on the high ground, even if the reviews are insulting. Stay classy.
• Don’t sound too sophisticated. It comes across as insincere if you use big words to try to seem superior to the reviewer. Speak naturally as if you were talking to them in person.
• Run the response passed a couple of people before posting. Get some input and make sure that what you’re trying to say and how you’re trying to say it is coming across properly.
• Post a follow-up response if you’re able to come to a positive outcome with the customer. Talk is cheap. If you can post something like, “Thank you, Bob, for coming by the dealership today. I’m so glad we were able to sort through the initial misunderstanding – enjoy your new Camry!”
• Read responses from everywhere whenever possible. Check your competitors. Check other industries. Get a feel for what’s working and what’s not working by seeing what others are doing right and what they’re doing wrong. You can learn more from real-life experiences than you’ll ever learn from blog post.

Reiterating the Importance

There aren’t enough words in my fingers to stress how important this is. Responding to negative reviews is an art and a science, but it can have a dramatic impact on your business whether you do it right or do it wrong. What type of impact will your negative review responses have?

As I said before, this is your opportunity to shine. A great response to a negative review will reach more eyeballs than a dozen positive reviews.

The worlds of public relations and marketing have gone through two major changes in the last decade. The first one came with the mass adoption of the internet as our primary source of information about businesses. The second came a few of years ago when social media became a mainstream method of letting your friends, family, and often the rest of the world know how you feel about a business. Today, there is no shortage of ways that people can voice their pleasure and displeasure with the various companies with which they do business.

Let’s start by making the distinction between the two disciplines. Everyone has an understanding about marketing. It’s simple. You do what you can to get your business and brand in front of as many people as possible and you get your message (in the form of products, services, differentiators, etc) out so that people will consider you when they’re ready for what you have to offer. Public relations often gets lumped in as a form of marketing because the basic concepts are the same, but it’s very different. Modern public relations in the social world is now a way to preserve your positive messages and diffuse the negative ones, particularly when they come from consumers.

This distinction is important because many still lump the two together when in reality they need to attack from completely different angles. At times, such as with online reviews, the goals are only loosely related. From a marketing perspective, negative reviews can be a major hindrance (at least in the eyes of the business). From a PR perspective, negative reviews are your opportunity to shine. I learned a lot about this during a discussion at the last Internet Sales 20 Group conference from Ralph Paglia.

People Hunt Down the Negative Reviews

Think about your own actions. When you look up a restaurant, a movie, or a home repair contractor, you may or may not be the type that checks out reviews. More and more people are relying on reviews every day (not in small part due to the way that Google is highlighting them in search). Some read them. Most will scan down on the page until they get to the negative ones. They aren’t checking reviews to see the positive ones. They want dirt. They want to know about the worse-case scenarios they might be walking into if they do business with you.

Some estimate that 40% of online reviews are fake. I know that in the automotive industry, the majority of dealers who have more than 50 likely solicited many of the reviews from happy customers. It’s a best practice. After all, it’s great for marketing. In essence, it’s a defensive marketing posture that shows customers seeing just the stars and number of reviews on Google that you’re respected in the community.

The PR opportunity lies in the negative reviews. Those who are really interested in doing business with you will scroll down until they find the bad reviews. They will read them and then look to see how you responded to the review. Were you defensive? Were you a pushover? Did you fix the problem if it could be fixed? Did you empathize?

How you respond to negative reviews is a tremendous opportunity to tell those interested in doing business with you what kind of company you really are.

Show Your Stuff

The moment a negative review is posted, you should respond quickly. Notice that I did not say “immediately”. Speed is important, but it’s not as important as posting the exact right message.

Investigate the concerns that were voiced in the review. As A.J. Maida posted on ADM, there’s a great chance that whichever employee worked with the cusotmer will remember the experience once they read it. Get your side of the story ready, then be prepared to not tell it. This is the hardest part about responding to negative reviews. We want to tell people that they were at fault as well. We want to make sure the rest of the world knows that the person posting the negative review was unreasonable, on drugs, or absolutely insane. This is, of course, the wrong course of action, but it’s important to know your side of the story so you can craft your response properly.

Once you know what happened, it’s time to empathize. This is challenging as well because we have instantly negative feelings towards anyone bashing us, but take yourself out of business mode and into the shoes of the reviewer. They wouldn’t have written a review unless they felt they were wronged in some way (yes, occasionally there are those who want to try to con something out of you, but these are much more rare than most businesses are willing to admit). Right or wrong, you must empathize with them to help correct the situation. Even if the situation in uncorrectable, it’s important to make a public effort to fix things, apologize, educate (humbly), or otherwise step up and accept responsibility even if you don’t think it was your fault.

Here are some keys to crafting the response:

• This is important. There are times when accepting responsibility is hard. They may have been completely at fault, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t your responsibility to help them not be at fault.
• Try to rectify the situation whenever possible from up top. Get the highest-level person available to talk to the reviewer in person or on the phone and offer to discuss it further. It could be the owner, the general manager, or someone else with a strong title, but make sure it’s someone with a title that demands respect. Even if it’s the owner who says, “I’ve instructed the service manager, Shelly, to take personal care of you when you come in,” that’s better than getting a reply from Shelly (no offense, Shelly).
• Use the opportunity to express something positive about your business. “It isn’t often that we get complaints about recall work. Our technicians carry the highest customer service ratings of any Chevy dealership in the tri-state area.”
• Don’t give stuff away. This is a big, big no-no. Gift Certificates, free oil changes, etc – keep those off of your review responses. You can offer it to them when you talk to them in person or on thephone, but the last thing you want is to make yourself a target by posting it in the response. “Oh, if you complain, Bob’s Deli will give you a free sandwich!”
• Keep on the high ground, even if the reviews are insulting. Stay classy.
• Don’t sound too sophisticated. It comes across as insincere if you use big words to try to seem superior to the reviewer. Speak naturally as if you were talking to them in person.
• Run the response passed a couple of people before posting. Get some input and make sure that what you’re trying to say and how you’re trying to say it is coming across properly.
• Post a follow-up response if you’re able to come to a positive outcome with the customer. Talk is cheap. If you can post something like, “Thank you, Bob, for coming by the dealership today. I’m so glad we were able to sort through the initial misunderstanding – enjoy your new Camry!”
• Read responses from everywhere whenever possible. Check your competitors. Check other industries. Get a feel for what’s working and what’s not working by seeing what others are doing right and what they’re doing wrong. You can learn more from real-life experiences than you’ll ever learn from blog post.

Reiterating the Importance

There aren’t enough words in my fingers to stress how important this is. Responding to negative reviews is an art and a science, but it can have a dramatic impact on your business whether you do it right or do it wrong. What type of impact will your negative review responses have?

As I said before, this is your opportunity to shine. A great response to a negative review will reach more eyeballs than a dozen positive reviews.

My days start the same way. Every morning at around 2:15am, I wake up and hit the feeds. I have over 20 SEO blogs, 40 social media blogs, and a dozen automotive blogs that I start with at the beginning of my day and that I check regularly throughout. I read more about these two important topics, search and social, on any given day than most read in a month.

I’m not saying all of this to brag. If anything, it’s sort of sad that I chose to enter a pair of worlds that are in such a state of constant change that staying on top of my game is a daily task.

The reason that I bring this up is that despite all of the effort that I put into staying ahead in search and social, the topic that I’ve received the most questions about over the past two months is Klout.

Klout? Really?

It’s the only thing I understand about internet marketing that has absolutely nothing with driving traffic, generating leads, or making sales, yet a day hasn’t gone by in a long time during which I am not asked about how to do better on Klout.

If it is to be, then so be it. Let’s talk Klout…

Understanding the Underlying Forces

Before learning the tips and techniques that can help you grow your Klout score, it’s important to understand the dynamic. Monitoring Twitter tells me that there are some misunderstandings surrounding how Klout works.

First and foremost, it’s a 90-day scale. Every day worth of activity is not adding to your score. It’s replacing whatever you did 91 days ago. This is important to understand because all too often I see complaints about how someone had a strong content day with a ton of +Ks, great posts on Facebook that got a ton of likes and comments, and retweet requests designed specifically to go after more Klout. These people wonder how their Klout score could have gone down after such a strong day.

The reason is that it’s a replacement day. One day falls off the tail end as yesterday gets added to your score. If 91 days ago you were a social media rockstar, yesterday’s addition to the mix might not make a big difference.

Another dynamic that must be understood is that the it’s not a linear scale. It’s a logarithmic scale. In other words, moving from a 60 to a 65 is much easier than going from a 65 to a 70. The difference between 79 and 80 is greater than the difference between 50 and 60. This does nothing to change strategy but it’s good for the psyche to not get discouraged; moving up quickly into the 60s or 70s might set you up for disappointment if it takes you a month to go from 74 to 75.

The last thing to understand about the underlying forces is that the different networks do not necessarily compound. Having an amazing Facebook profile and adding in a stellar Twitter account does not give you double the bang. There is repetition involved. Facebook friends are often Twitter friends and as a result their influence on you is only counted once even if they double the activity. Even if the networks have completely different audiences, there will be a forced overlap between the networks. Again, not terribly important but combining it with the rest of the understanding behind the system gives you the ability to “feel” your Klout score more easily. Now, the tips…

What to Avoid

Notice the title of this article. I mentioned doing it the “right” way. There are definitely wrong ways to go about building Klout. These things include but are not limited to:

• - Don’t Get Klout Goggles – The quest to get a higher number has caused many that I’ve seen to abandon their real social media goals (such as promotion and/or marketing) and replace it all with Klout bait. Klout can get you free Axe Body Spray. It won’t pay the bills.
• - Don’t Buy Followers – This should be a no-brainer and anyone reading this blog is probably advanced enough to avoid this at all costs, but it should be stated that from Klout’s perspective, quality definitely rules over quantity. That’s not to say that you’re going to blow up the Klout world with 14 Twitter followers and 8 Facebook friends, but take a look at CJ Romig. He has 1600 Twitter followers, 200 Facebook friends, and he’s in 500 Google+ circles. He has average numbers in the follower department, but his Klout is 70 because his content is amazing and his engagement is strong.
• - Don’t Fake Engagement – It’s one thing to be interesting. It’s another thing to be desperate. This is probably a personal bias that has nothing to do with tips and will probably offend some, but it annoys me when I see people post a picture of a sick little boy in Africa with the title, “Like this if you think Lizo deserves clean water. Share this if you think he deserves a proper education.” Exploitation. Don’t do it. If you’re not writing a check for every like and share you get, don’t get involved with awareness campaigns that lead to nothing.
• - Don’t Overpost – First of all, it doesn’t work. Second, it’s more annoying than effective. Third, it still doesn’t work. Just like with followers, posts have the same basic formula – quality over quantity.
• - Don’t Pollute Your LinkedIn – Yes, Klout looks at LinkedIn, but it’s weighted very low. The network is much more valuable as a networking tool than an engagement tool. You should always stay on point with what you post and who you connect with on LinkedIn.

Do it Right

Now that you know what not to do, here are some tips to help you get your score up.

• - Long vs Short – Long posts (including photo galleries) on Facebook and Google+ that are text-heavy tend to get more likes. Short posts (including single images) get more shares. Comments are determined by the quality and style of the post. Try to mix it up, posting short posts often and inserting long posts from time to time. Stick within the bounds of your personality, though. Tracy Myers does exceptionally well with his long posting style, while Louie Baur rarely posts a complete sentence. Both are rocking the Klout.
• - Mix Real Life with Virtual – Some are able to keep their social media profiles loaded with what they’re doing in the real world. Look at John Boitnott. He’s always on the move and documenting his journeys in the form of images and videos. He posts through Facebook mobile, Instagram, and other tools to keep his posts flowing properly (discussed below). On the other hand, some can do well without a single image from their smartphone. The ideal formula mixes the two, combining real life events with interesting finds or opinions that come from the comfort of your desk.
• - Splitting the Tools on Facebook – The most annoying part about the biggest (and most Klout-influential) social network is that they batch images. If you take two photos in a 24 hour period with your mobile device, they get batched. More than one Instagram post in a couple of days – batched. Using tools like Hootsuite or Buffer more than once in a 24-hour period – batched. The problem with batched images is that they do not have like, share, or comment buttons that appear in the news feed. For someone to like an image that has been batched, they have to click through to it, something that most are unwilling to do. I’ve seen batched images on my feed get zero engagement. I could then manually post the same image the next day and get dozens of likes, comments, and shares. Facebook likes posts from Facebook.com. The others get one touch a day or less. Mix up your posting tools and avoid getting them batched.
• - Don’t Forget Google+ – I can always tell when a friend remembers Google+. They’ll be inactive on it for days, then bust out with a dozen uploads to make up for lost time. The best way to do it is to post on Google+ at the same time that you’re posting to Facebook. Technically, you want to post different content as the two networks have nuances, but that’s for another blog post to discuss. For now, if you’re posting to Google+ every day, you’re already ahead of the curve.
• - Give Klout +Ks – Those who give, receive. If you’re active on Klout, you should get 10 +Ks per day to give to those who influence you. Take advantage of these. It’s not just about being a nice person and giving kudos to friends. Giving often gets people to give back to you. Call it artificial. Call it back scratching. Call it cronyism. They put +Ks on the site for a reason and they do have an influence over your Klout score, so using them daily is a simple best practice.
• - On Twitter, One-Way-Engagement (unfortunately) Works – Getting into conversations on Twitter is great. It’s easy. You can spark them. People will spark them with you. Everyone benefits from this type of back and forth engagement. Unfortunately (I think it’s a flaw in their system), you get more credit for being a snob. If you get retweets and @replies from people that you aren’t talking to, it weighs more than conversing with them. Klout looks at conversations much the same as how Google looks at reciprocal links. Don’t let Klout change your Twitter personality, though. If you thank every single person who retweets you, don’t stop now! You’re a better person than most. It’s a good bit of information to know but you don’t necessarily have to act on it. Snobs are snobbish, after all.
• - Build Diversity by Spreading Out – The Klout algorithm sees patterns. If the same people are liking, commenting, sharing, retweeting, +1ing, and generally engaging with your content over an over again, the returns on Klout diminish. The easiest way to reach a broader audience and diversify is to post through the day and night rather than in a couple of batches the way that most people handle social media. Spending 10 minutes every couple of hours is better than spending 30 minutes twice a day.

If you do these things, you’re on your way, but remember that these are just tips. The real keys to Klout are (a) building an engaged audience, and (b) posting absolutely amazing content. If you’re funny, be funny. If you’re controversial, be controversial. If you’re cynical, go to Reddit and forget Klout exists.

Remember, your value is not determined by an algorithm. Klout is a game, an inaccurate measurement designed to keep geeks like me worried about our scores. I might have a higher Klout score than Robert Horry, but I don’t have 7 NBA Championship Rings on my hands to go with it.

My days start the same way. Every morning at around 2:15am, I wake up and hit the feeds. I have over 20 SEO blogs, 40 social media blogs, and a dozen automotive blogs that I start with at the beginning of my day and that I check regularly throughout. I read more about these two important topics, search and social, on any given day than most read in a month.

I’m not saying all of this to brag. If anything, it’s sort of sad that I chose to enter a pair of worlds that are in such a state of constant change that staying on top of my game is a daily task.

The reason that I bring this up is that despite all of the effort that I put into staying ahead in search and social, the topic that I’ve received the most questions about over the past two months is Klout.

Klout? Really?

It’s the only thing I understand about internet marketing that has absolutely nothing with driving traffic, generating leads, or making sales, yet a day hasn’t gone by in a long time during which I am not asked about how to do better on Klout.

If it is to be, then so be it. Let’s talk Klout…

Understanding the Underlying Forces

Before learning the tips and techniques that can help you grow your Klout score, it’s important to understand the dynamic. Monitoring Twitter tells me that there are some misunderstandings surrounding how Klout works.

First and foremost, it’s a 90-day scale. Every day worth of activity is not adding to your score. It’s replacing whatever you did 91 days ago. This is important to understand because all too often I see complaints about how someone had a strong content day with a ton of +Ks, great posts on Facebook that got a ton of likes and comments, and retweet requests designed specifically to go after more Klout. These people wonder how their Klout score could have gone down after such a strong day.

The reason is that it’s a replacement day. One day falls off the tail end as yesterday gets added to your score. If 91 days ago you were a social media rockstar, yesterday’s addition to the mix might not make a big difference.

Another dynamic that must be understood is that the it’s not a linear scale. It’s a logarithmic scale. In other words, moving from a 60 to a 65 is much easier than going from a 65 to a 70. The difference between 79 and 80 is greater than the difference between 50 and 60. This does nothing to change strategy but it’s good for the psyche to not get discouraged; moving up quickly into the 60s or 70s might set you up for disappointment if it takes you a month to go from 74 to 75.

The last thing to understand about the underlying forces is that the different networks do not necessarily compound. Having an amazing Facebook profile and adding in a stellar Twitter account does not give you double the bang. There is repetition involved. Facebook friends are often Twitter friends and as a result their influence on you is only counted once even if they double the activity. Even if the networks have completely different audiences, there will be a forced overlap between the networks. Again, not terribly important but combining it with the rest of the understanding behind the system gives you the ability to “feel” your Klout score more easily. Now, the tips…

What to Avoid

Notice the title of this article. I mentioned doing it the “right” way. There are definitely wrong ways to go about building Klout. These things include but are not limited to:

• - Don’t Get Klout Goggles – The quest to get a higher number has caused many that I’ve seen to abandon their real social media goals (such as promotion and/or marketing) and replace it all with Klout bait. Klout can get you free Axe Body Spray. It won’t pay the bills.
• - Don’t Buy Followers – This should be a no-brainer and anyone reading this blog is probably advanced enough to avoid this at all costs, but it should be stated that from Klout’s perspective, quality definitely rules over quantity. That’s not to say that you’re going to blow up the Klout world with 14 Twitter followers and 8 Facebook friends, but take a look at CJ Romig. He has 1600 Twitter followers, 200 Facebook friends, and he’s in 500 Google+ circles. He has average numbers in the follower department, but his Klout is 70 because his content is amazing and his engagement is strong.
• - Don’t Fake Engagement – It’s one thing to be interesting. It’s another thing to be desperate. This is probably a personal bias that has nothing to do with tips and will probably offend some, but it annoys me when I see people post a picture of a sick little boy in Africa with the title, “Like this if you think Lizo deserves clean water. Share this if you think he deserves a proper education.” Exploitation. Don’t do it. If you’re not writing a check for every like and share you get, don’t get involved with awareness campaigns that lead to nothing.
• - Don’t Overpost – First of all, it doesn’t work. Second, it’s more annoying than effective. Third, it still doesn’t work. Just like with followers, posts have the same basic formula – quality over quantity.
• - Don’t Pollute Your LinkedIn – Yes, Klout looks at LinkedIn, but it’s weighted very low. The network is much more valuable as a networking tool than an engagement tool. You should always stay on point with what you post and who you connect with on LinkedIn.

Do it Right

Now that you know what not to do, here are some tips to help you get your score up.

• - Long vs Short – Long posts (including photo galleries) on Facebook and Google+ that are text-heavy tend to get more likes. Short posts (including single images) get more shares. Comments are determined by the quality and style of the post. Try to mix it up, posting short posts often and inserting long posts from time to time. Stick within the bounds of your personality, though. Tracy Myers does exceptionally well with his long posting style, while Louie Baur rarely posts a complete sentence. Both are rocking the Klout.
• - Mix Real Life with Virtual – Some are able to keep their social media profiles loaded with what they’re doing in the real world. Look at John Boitnott. He’s always on the move and documenting his journeys in the form of images and videos. He posts through Facebook mobile, Instagram, and other tools to keep his posts flowing properly (discussed below). On the other hand, some can do well without a single image from their smartphone. The ideal formula mixes the two, combining real life events with interesting finds or opinions that come from the comfort of your desk.
• - Splitting the Tools on Facebook – The most annoying part about the biggest (and most Klout-influential) social network is that they batch images. If you take two photos in a 24 hour period with your mobile device, they get batched. More than one Instagram post in a couple of days – batched. Using tools like Hootsuite or Buffer more than once in a 24-hour period – batched. The problem with batched images is that they do not have like, share, or comment buttons that appear in the news feed. For someone to like an image that has been batched, they have to click through to it, something that most are unwilling to do. I’ve seen batched images on my feed get zero engagement. I could then manually post the same image the next day and get dozens of likes, comments, and shares. Facebook likes posts from Facebook.com. The others get one touch a day or less. Mix up your posting tools and avoid getting them batched.
• - Don’t Forget Google+ – I can always tell when a friend remembers Google+. They’ll be inactive on it for days, then bust out with a dozen uploads to make up for lost time. The best way to do it is to post on Google+ at the same time that you’re posting to Facebook. Technically, you want to post different content as the two networks have nuances, but that’s for another blog post to discuss. For now, if you’re posting to Google+ every day, you’re already ahead of the curve.
• - Give Klout +Ks – Those who give, receive. If you’re active on Klout, you should get 10 +Ks per day to give to those who influence you. Take advantage of these. It’s not just about being a nice person and giving kudos to friends. Giving often gets people to give back to you. Call it artificial. Call it back scratching. Call it cronyism. They put +Ks on the site for a reason and they do have an influence over your Klout score, so using them daily is a simple best practice.
• - On Twitter, One-Way-Engagement (unfortunately) Works – Getting into conversations on Twitter is great. It’s easy. You can spark them. People will spark them with you. Everyone benefits from this type of back and forth engagement. Unfortunately (I think it’s a flaw in their system), you get more credit for being a snob. If you get retweets and @replies from people that you aren’t talking to, it weighs more than conversing with them. Klout looks at conversations much the same as how Google looks at reciprocal links. Don’t let Klout change your Twitter personality, though. If you thank every single person who retweets you, don’t stop now! You’re a better person than most. It’s a good bit of information to know but you don’t necessarily have to act on it. Snobs are snobbish, after all.
• - Build Diversity by Spreading Out – The Klout algorithm sees patterns. If the same people are liking, commenting, sharing, retweeting, +1ing, and generally engaging with your content over an over again, the returns on Klout diminish. The easiest way to reach a broader audience and diversify is to post through the day and night rather than in a couple of batches the way that most people handle social media. Spending 10 minutes every couple of hours is better than spending 30 minutes twice a day.

If you do these things, you’re on your way, but remember that these are just tips. The real keys to Klout are (a) building an engaged audience, and (b) posting absolutely amazing content. If you’re funny, be funny. If you’re controversial, be controversial. If you’re cynical, go to Reddit and forget Klout exists.

Remember, your value is not determined by an algorithm. Klout is a game, an inaccurate measurement designed to keep geeks like me worried about our scores. I might have a higher Klout score than Robert Horry, but I don’t have 7 NBA Championship Rings on my hands to go with it.

We all know it's impossible to make every customer happy. There are often confusions in the automotive industry that consumers simply do not understand. They can do unreasonable things to try to get back at the dealership when they perceive that they were not treated properly.

This was a challenge a decade ago and before when word-of-mouth was arguably the most important factor in the success of a dealership. Today, that word-of-mouth has turned into "word-of-mouse" and simple things can be made explosive very quickly.

The image above (which has been removed) is one of those examples. It went popular on a social media site and a single version of it has now been viewed by nearly half-a-million people. It has spread to other venues and will likely break a million soon if it hasn't already.

These things get worse on the local level when those in the area of the dealership see it through social media and then spread it through their own channels. Competitors can get a hold of it and take advantage of it. Things like this can go from ugly to truly detrimental to business in a hurry.

The moral of the story - try to cut things off before they get to this level. It was the intention of the person who bought the vehicle to let as many local people as possible know of their opinions. They basically vandalized their own vehicle in an effort to harm the dealership that sold it to them. The person who took the picture was likely someone who simply thought it was funny and decided to spread the word. It hit hard on social media and will continue to do so for a long time. This image will appear and reappear on various social media sites for months, possibly even years.

It's not possible to make every customer happy, but try not to let it get to this point. Sometimes, it's better to take a big hit now rather than a crippling hit later.

We all know it's impossible to make every customer happy. There are often confusions in the automotive industry that consumers simply do not understand. They can do unreasonable things to try to get back at the dealership when they perceive that they were not treated properly.

This was a challenge a decade ago and before when word-of-mouth was arguably the most important factor in the success of a dealership. Today, that word-of-mouth has turned into "word-of-mouse" and simple things can be made explosive very quickly.

The image above (which has been removed) is one of those examples. It went popular on a social media site and a single version of it has now been viewed by nearly half-a-million people. It has spread to other venues and will likely break a million soon if it hasn't already.

These things get worse on the local level when those in the area of the dealership see it through social media and then spread it through their own channels. Competitors can get a hold of it and take advantage of it. Things like this can go from ugly to truly detrimental to business in a hurry.

The moral of the story - try to cut things off before they get to this level. It was the intention of the person who bought the vehicle to let as many local people as possible know of their opinions. They basically vandalized their own vehicle in an effort to harm the dealership that sold it to them. The person who took the picture was likely someone who simply thought it was funny and decided to spread the word. It hit hard on social media and will continue to do so for a long time. This image will appear and reappear on various social media sites for months, possibly even years.

It's not possible to make every customer happy, but try not to let it get to this point. Sometimes, it's better to take a big hit now rather than a crippling hit later.