WEBVTT - TechStuff Has Klout 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:05.560 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:14.280 stuff works dot com. Greetings and salutations everyone, and welcome 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:16.040 to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Paulette, and I 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:18.600 am an editor at how stuff works dot com. Sitting 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:21.520 across from me as usual as senior writer Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:27.840 I've just been informed that I'm too important for this episode. Yeah, 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:31.760 so today we wanted to talk about clout and whether 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:35.120 whether or not you have any yea, uh, maybe not 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:37.520 you personally. You know that guy over there, he's got 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:40.920 no cloud. Apparently I apparently I have some. Um the 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:45.120 it's a not insignificant amount, though not nearly as much 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:49.159 as you know, like justin Bieber. Uh so, what is cloud? So? 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:52.760 Cloud is this company of the San Francisco that was 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:56.560 founded by Joe Fernandez back in two thousand and eight. 0:00:56.600 --> 0:01:00.760 He started to build it when he couldn't talk. Did 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:04.160 you know about this? There's an article and Wired and 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:06.960 I actually revisited it. It's it's called what Your Cloud 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:10.399 Score Really Means. It's from Seth Stevenson. Actually read it 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:12.440 in the print edition, but I went back and revisited 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:15.840 it so I could throw it my electronic notes. Yeah. 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:20.600 He Uh, this is really really funny. He Um had 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:24.919 had had to have his jaw wired shut. That's not funny. 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:28.319 I don't think that's funny. But because he couldn't talk, 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:33.160 he started, uh, he started tweeting and using Facebook to 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:35.640 communicate with people because it was driving him nuts that 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:38.640 he couldn't talk to people, he said, And in fact 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:41.000 he said he couldn't his mom didn't even understand what 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:47.600 he was Yeah. Really, uh so, I mean, thankfully he's 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:50.280 apparently all better now. But I've seen I've seen interviews 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:52.120 with him where he was not wired shut and he 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:55.800 was talking. Yes, so he actually started, uh, he actually 0:01:55.800 --> 0:02:00.200 started talking about or tweeting tweeting about this also two 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:04.280 different things about um restaurants that he had been to 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:08.040 and making recommendations and you know, again kind of iron 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:09.720 as they point out in the article, kind of ironic. 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:13.160 He couldn't open his mouth and go eat there, but 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:16.640 basically product recommendations. He started thinking, because he had had 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:20.960 some experience with with statistics and started thinking, yew, how 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:23.720 many people am I talking to? And and to who 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:26.639 are they talking and how much influence do they have 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:31.680 over people who buy stuff or go shopping or go 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:34.799 out to eat with these different people, and that's when 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:39.040 he started. He started making some rudimentary calculations, rudimentary by 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:43.280 the terms of clouds algorithms today, and started putting together 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:46.680 this idea of you know, how much influence do people 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:52.360 have in the social media? So that's this is really 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:56.440 an interesting concept to me because some people would have 0:02:56.520 --> 0:03:01.320 you believe that influence can be measured solely by things 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:04.320 like the number of followers you happen to have on 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:09.480 social networks. But Fernandez point is that's not necessarily the case. 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:12.560 You could have lots of people following you, but if 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:14.959 no one's really paying attention to what you have to say, 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:18.959 and they're following you anyway, then your influence isn't that great. 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:21.239 You know, there's a lot of people who could potentially 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:23.600 hear you, but no one's really listening to you, and 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:27.760 that's a problem. So you could you could conversely have 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:31.360 relatively few followers compared to someone who has millions, like 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:34.639 you know, Justin Bieber has got millions of followers on Twitter. 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:38.360 Now he happens to be very influential on Twitter. So 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:40.520 that's I've heard that it's kind of a bad example. 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:42.320 But let's say let's say you've got someone who's got 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:44.520 over example, let's say, lets say you've got someone who's 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:46.800 got over a million followers, but for some reason, their 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:49.280 cloud score is not that high. The reason for that 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:51.920 might be that perhaps a lot of those followers aren't 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:56.280 real people, they might be boughts, So that could be 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.880 one factor. But what Fernandez wanted to do was men 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:04.000 sure how much impact a person has on their various 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:07.560 social circles and on the web in general. Uh, not 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:10.200 just how many people are following them, and those are 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:13.720 those are two different things. So he built this, uh, 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:18.920 this company, and this algorithm helped to Yeah. The his side, 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:22.359 of course, is called Clout with a k um, And 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:26.839 since its inception there have been other imitators. I don't 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:29.120 know if some of them were actually out beforehand. And 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:33.440 Twitter itself is working on its own implementation of a 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:36.279 similar software that would allow you to see, like when 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:38.800 you tweet, how how much of your audience are you 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:41.599 actually reaching when you send out a Twitter message. And 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:43.960 this really applies to people who have lots and lots 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:47.320 of followers. So for example, if you take me, I 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:51.080 don't have you know, thousands and thousands of I've got 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:53.960 like four thousand followers, which that's a that's a lot 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:55.880 for me because I'm like, well, I'm just a guy, 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:58.480 you know, I'm a guy that four thousand people follow 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:01.560 I hope that I'm interesting in to justify that. But 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:04.280 there are other people out there who have millions of followers, 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:06.920 but they don't know necessarily how many of those people 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.400 they're reaching when they send out a message. Yeah, just 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:12.440 just for independent confirmation, I am sitting here directly across 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:17.760 from from Jonathan and he is, in fact just a guy. Yes, um, 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:19.679 I'm just a guy with a sixty five cloud score 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:22.559 though that's true. And then and part of the reason 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:25.000 that that Jonathan does have a sixty five cloud score, 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:27.400 and that's of the day we're recording this. These things 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:29.520 do change. It could be, it could be it could 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:31.760 be in the low forties. By the famous Podcas goes out, 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:35.560 part of the reason that that Jonathan has a cloud 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:38.040 score of sixty five is because there are a lot 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.560 of people following him. But he's also well networked with 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:44.760 people also in the tech world, So there are people 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:49.520 who share his tweets with other people. That's part of 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:52.200 the score. There there are people who who talk back 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:54.800 to him. Who also have they talk back to me? 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:59.360 Shut up? You see what I did there? Yes? I 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:02.120 do who. There are people who have conversations with him 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:05.240 on Twitter, let's go with that, who are also influential 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:09.400 uh in the Twitter sphere and on cloud and therefore, 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:15.520 uh that boosts his reputation UM and his his ability 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:18.359 to uh to network with other people, and so therefore 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:21.120 he has a higher score than than maybe some other 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:23.680 people with more followers. This might sound really familiar to you, 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.559 especially if you are familiar with like Google's page rank 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:29.760 algorithms what used to be called page rank anyway, UH. 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:33.560 The idea that Google would use this complex formula to 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:38.920 determine how well various sites would rank and search for 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:42.720 any particular term that you're searching for. So, when you're 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:47.800 searching for, I don't know, uh, cool tech gifts for 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:51.760 the holidays, then Google would look through its use its 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:54.640 algorithm and rank all these pages that relate to those 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:58.120 search terms and give you the highest ranked ones. And 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:00.920 that ranking is based on lots of different factors, including 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:04.960 how many websites link into it and how old that 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:08.600 particular website that you're looking at is, and and other 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:10.440 factors as well, there's a lot of stuff that goes 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:13.360 into it. This is the same idea except for people 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:16.440 instead of pages. It's it's how well a person ranks, 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:19.640 partly due to their behavior online, partly due to their 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:22.240 network that's around them, partly due to how many people 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:24.480 are following them. There are a lot of different factors 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:27.720 at play. There's actually a web page on cloud site 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:30.320 that goes into the different factors that that they will 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:34.000 admit to. Now, they don't give you the nuts and bolts. 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:37.200 It's a secret sauce if you will. Clearly, you wouldn't 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:39.720 want to be able to give out all the information 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:42.560 because then people would game the system like crazy just 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:44.480 to get their clouds score up, which is not the 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:47.720 purpose of the of the site at all, or to 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:51.720 to start a competitor to another good point, Um, yeah, 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:54.600 let's let's talk. I'll mention a little bit more about 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:59.040 what what they say, Uh, competitors are critics. I should say, 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:03.960 actually a size cloud because it's usually the comparison I've 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:06.880 seen as to a credit score, because the credit reporting 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:13.040 agencies don't tell consumers what's actually going into your score. 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:15.760 Um and in the case in the case of credit 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:18.720 it has to do with. You know how much you spend, 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:22.360 how quickly you pay it back? UM. You know how 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:25.000 many cards credit cards you have, are credit accounts, lines 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:28.400 of credit that you have open, and lots of different 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:30.840 little proprietary things, and each of them has a little 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:34.000 different mix. Well, the cloud is sort of the same way. 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:36.200 They tell you roughly what goes into it, but they 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:39.320 don't tell you exactly how much weight each one carries. UM. 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:42.839 It's based primarily on on Twitter and Facebook. UM. This 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:45.960 is not really much of a secret. Things like mentions 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:51.240 of your name and Facebook posts UM, people who who 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:54.760 are engaged with a lot of brands on there, the 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:57.720 likes that you have, the TV shows you like, UM, 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:02.360 the the UH stores that you like on Facebook, UM, 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:05.000 the number of comments you have, people who subscribe to 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:08.800 you UH, the number of friends. Obviously that's a metric 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:10.960 and obvious metric. You know how many people follow you 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:13.920 on Twitter, how many people follow you on Facebook, people 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:17.520 who mention you on on Twitter or people who UM, 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:20.360 people you reply to and people who reply to you 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:24.080 shows your engagement with that network. They've also extended it 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:29.360 to UH to Google Plus, LinkedIn, four Square, Wikipedia, UM, 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:34.120 things on on LinkedIn, Um, they go by your reported title. 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:36.559 So if you say you're CEO of the world now 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:39.320 and guess that that would probably help your Cloud score. Yeah, so, 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:42.520 although I think that's probably hard to verify. These are 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:47.080 relatively new in the in the cloud world, these these 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:50.560 UM these items, because before what that was really looking 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:53.199 at was Twitter and Facebook mainly first it was Twitter 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:56.199 and then it was fok then and then also linked 0:09:56.240 --> 0:10:00.400 you could choose to link stuff to your your or cloud. 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:03.320 If you create a cloud um account, you could choose 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:06.880 to link things like Google Plus, Facebook, Twitter and other 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:10.040 platforms as well. Now it looks at these other elements 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:12.679 like Wikipedia or if you are mentioned in something like 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:18.280 the New York Times, so that it can determine all right, well, um, 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:21.840 you know you're getting press, people are writing about you, 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:24.800 so then that means you are more influential than someone 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:27.400 who is not getting pressed, So that would impact your 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:30.160 score as well. Yeah, if you want to sign up 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:33.400 for Cloud, you would sign up using your Twitter or 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:37.160 Facebook information. Basically, once you're logged in, you can you 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:39.679 can uh sign up for Cloud and it will access 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:42.360 your account UM and it will say, okay, do you 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:45.040 want to add your other accounts? Do you want to 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:46.880 add these other accounts and they're even more than they're 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:49.800 mentioned here, things like Flicker and other accounts and things 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:53.440 um and so yeah, what what Jonathan said is is true. 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:56.600 They're also measuring this information whether or not you sign 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:59.760 up for Cloud because you're you're if you have a 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.600 bitter account and it's public and you are sending out messages, 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:07.679 that's public record, that's stuff that anyone can access. So 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:11.320 what Cloud does is it will automatically start to index 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:14.520 you and look at how other people are responding to you. 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:17.240 So whether you have signed up for a Cloud or not, 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:21.240 you may have a cloud score, and uh, you know 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:25.679 the we have we mentioned what the range of scores is. 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:29.240 It's between one and one hundred. So the higher your 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:31.880 Cloud score, the more the more cloud you have, and 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:35.839 the more influence you would theoretically have over the web 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:41.560 based upon uh, you know, the algorithms assessment of you. 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:44.680 Most people are not like you would think the average 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:47.360 would be fifty, but the average is really closer to 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:51.800 the twenties range. And it's that the people who are 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:56.839 fifty or higher are are assumed to be more influential 0:11:56.960 --> 0:12:02.360 in whatever fields they've been identified as being experts in. Yeah, 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:05.800 I'm sorry. I was gonna say, if you sign up, 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:08.040 you'll find out that they ask you, hey, what are 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:10.199 you influential in? Yeah, And it turns out like if 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:12.120 I log into my cloud and I'd look to see 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:14.480 what I'm influential in. There's some things you would expect, 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:17.360 you know, like technology is up there, which that that 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:20.560 makes sense. I do a tech podcast, I write tech 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:23.960 articles for a website. Uh, that makes sense. There are 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:27.560 other things like Atlanta restaurants. Huh, I didn't know that 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:30.640 I was that influential with Atlanta restaurants. I should get 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:34.040 better tables, darn it. Um. But yeah, there there are 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:36.160 other things that I look at on that people have 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:39.240 identified me as being influential. And some of them may 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:43.880 be jokes, but that's that's kind of interesting to me. Yeah, 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:46.679 and I think I think here is a good point 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:49.320 to point out. And then there are critics and their 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:52.880 proponents of cloud, just like anything else. But um, I 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:54.719 think it's a good point to go right down the 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:58.320 middle and say, look, this is what one person and 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:01.280 his company have done, you know, as as as Joe 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:04.560 built this company up, this is how they chose to 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:09.400 measure people and it's not it's it's based on one system. Yeah, 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:11.840 so it's not really I think, Uh, it was a 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:13.520 couple of years ago, or was a couple of years 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:17.040 ago last year where they where they rejiggered the algorithm 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:19.400 and pop was this year. It was this year that 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:24.000 was late earlier this year when they changed it because 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:29.840 my score, my score skyrocketed. I had been around sixty 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:34.560 two and uh, and then I jumped all the way 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:37.240 up to sixty nine. I was almost seventy. It was 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:40.520 very close to seventy, and I was thinking, whoa, how 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:42.800 did that happen? Holy cow, I'm more And that's started 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:46.319 comparing myself because the cars. You know, I'm a bit 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:49.600 of an egomaniac, you know, I admit this. And so 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:51.559 I was like, let me see what my good friend 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:54.560 I as actar of this weekend tech Let me on 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:56.600 tech news today. Let me see what how he ranks. 0:13:56.960 --> 0:14:01.880 Oh he's he's at sixty five. He's lower than I am. 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:03.880 Gosh I as and of course now I think he 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:09.080 I think he ranks rightfully so above me, because these things, 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:11.160 do you know? It was it was like an initial 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:14.360 shock because people's scores change pretty dramatically, some went up 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:17.480 quite a bit, some went down, and then it's been 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:21.480 slowly kind of readjusting to where it needs to be 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:25.000 based on all this new information. Um, and you know 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:27.360 this this is canna be really challenging because you're building 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:31.360 an algorithm that needs to identify people, and it needs 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:32.840 to be able to make sure it links to the 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:35.320 right person, because, as it turns out, there's some folks 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:39.480 out there who share the same name as other people, 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:42.520 and so you have a lot of false positives. For instance, 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:44.720 if you were to search Jonathan Strickland in the metro 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:47.760 Atlanta area, Uh, some mug shots to be popping up, 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:51.800 and none of them are me today Today, Okay, but 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:54.560 let's be fair. Today has the recording of this podcast, 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:57.000 But none of those mug shots would be me. Who 0:14:57.040 --> 0:15:00.600 knows what tomorrow may brain. But that's the thing is 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:02.680 that it could end up identifying this stuff like, oh, John, 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:06.840 this is being written about in criminal newsletters. That's odd, 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:09.920 but I guess that a Justice Cloud score Like, no, 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:13.200 that's not me, that's another Jonathan Strickland and the same 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:16.160 spelling and everything. But you know, so the algorithm has 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:18.520 to take that stuff into account. The other thing that's 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:22.560 kind of a controversy with cloud is how companies are 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:26.920 using cloud in various ways. Yeah, let's let's uh. I 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:28.880 was going to get into the critics in a minute. 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:31.040 I was thinking, uh, this and this is the next 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:34.960 section in my head is very slender. All right. So 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:38.200 what is cloud other than other than influence a measure 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:42.480 of influence in the social media world. An idea of 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:47.120 of that, what does cloud get you? Very little or 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:50.040 or a lot or a lot, depending on how high 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:53.600 your cloud already is. Um, yeah, it's cloud is a 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:56.520 weird thing. In some cases, all it might get you 0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:59.320 is bragging rights in the sense of you know, you 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:01.800 you measure your cloud against your buddy, like your buddy 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:05.160 I s Actar this weekend tech news today, and then 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:08.560 you say, hey, look at that, or you may say 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:12.680 go up because you mentioned in very well and deservedly. 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:15.680 So the man does good work. Uh as much as 0:16:15.720 --> 0:16:18.240 I joke. He he is an actual friend of mine. 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:22.120 Uh so maybe not after this podcast, but he. You know, 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:26.520 the these these numbers for a large part of the 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.280 population may not mean much, although it can tell you 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:33.760 how effective you are online. So in a in a sense, 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:36.280 it's doing what it's supposed to do. It's telling you 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:38.440 what your impact is. And if your impact is low, 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:41.840 you might say, you know what, you might be cool 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:43.240 with it. You might be saying, oh, you know, I 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:45.360 just use this for fun, to stay in touch with 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:47.200 my friends. That's all I use it for that. I 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:49.600 don't care. But if you're trying to get a message 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:53.520 out there, then what it's telling you is your message 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:56.440 is not being heard. It's not it's not punishing you. 0:16:56.560 --> 0:17:00.240 This number is related back to that algorithm. And if 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:01.920 you want to make sure your message is heard by 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:05.520 more people, you need to look into ways of delivering 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:07.639 that message in in a in a way that that 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:11.480 interests people, that get other people talking, that goes beyond 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:14.480 just your immediate circle of followers. And if you're able 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:16.600 to crack that code. And by the way, I do 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:19.199 not have the secret sauce for that. There are some 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:22.600 messages I send out there that go bonkers and I think, Wow, 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:24.760 that's amazing, and then I and then I'll I'll sit 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:28.640 there and I'll craft what I think is the most brilliant, funny, 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.919 uh timely tweet of all time, and I send it 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:35.719 out and no one replies, No one favorites, no one retweets, 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:38.439 So I mean I don't have that secret sauce. Definitely 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:40.040 you need to ask people who have a much higher 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:42.760 Cloth score than I do. But if your score is low, 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:44.840 that could be an indicator that, hey, you need to 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:47.439 change things so that you can make sure that whatever 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:49.359 message you're sending out there is being heard by the 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:54.040 right people. Yeah, yeah, and so and and for somebody like, um, 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:57.439 you know, for politicians for example, yeah, um, this is 0:17:57.480 --> 0:18:01.320 incredibly important, or entrepreneurs to who get their name out. 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:04.880 And then there's the the other group of people who 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:08.360 are are short of in between there there they're doing 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:10.640 this shorter because they want to, and then they might 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:16.119 be getting perks are cloud perks. So so if you 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:20.479 are an influential person, then you are an attractive person 0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:25.080 for certain brands. If you are influential in a particular field. 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:28.879 Let's say with me, I'm apparently I'm influential on technology 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:32.440 and Atlanta restaurants. Then let's say an Atlanta restaurant opens 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:37.000 up and they are cloud savvy, they understand how cloud works, 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:40.920 they and they know, hey, if we convince this guy 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:44.919 to come into our restaurant and eat our food and 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:47.520 we really pull out all the stops. He's gonna go 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:50.240 out and he's going to talk about this incredible experience 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:53.520 he had. And because his influence is high in this area, 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:57.880 that means we could see a return on that investment. 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:01.160 We could see people come in because as we tapped 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:04.400 the right person to talk about this, and that can 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:06.960 go across all sorts of industries. So that being said, 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:08.840 I'll come out and say it right now. I have 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:12.000 not received any cloud perks. I am not I don't 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:14.399 use cloud to get cloud perks. I'm not saying that 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:17.879 I would never use one. If one came along, that 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:21.479 was just unbelievable and I'm like, hey, this is exactly 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:23.960 why I need and exactly how I need it, I 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:26.520 would probably do it. But I've never had that. I've 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:29.760 never had that happen. Yeah, the companies, the companies involved 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:32.680 in cloud perks are generally people who want to do 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:37.879 some promotion. That's it's pretty simple. Um. And so once 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:40.920 you get your cloud score up to a certain level, 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:43.480 and it could it depends on what it is. Yeah, 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:46.000 it depends on the company. Like some companies will say, okay, 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:49.720 anyone who's below a seventy five. We're not interested in 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:52.080 because that's not that's not worth the time it would 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:55.359 take to do this. Yeah, but you might, um, you 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:59.560 might pass let's say thirty, and they'll say, hey, people 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:02.320 with cloud score of thirty, we'll give you a coupon 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:05.920 for a free UM six pack of our new soda flavor. 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:09.159 Go ahead and redeem it at your local store. You know, 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:11.240 tell us where to mail the coupon. So they mail 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:13.560 the coupon and you get the beverage and you try 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:16.159 and go, hey, this stuff is pretty good. What they're hoping, 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:19.000 but there is no requirement to do. What they're hoping 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:21.720 is you're going to share that experience with their friends. Hey, 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:23.960 I was uncloud. They sent me a coupon. I tried 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:27.080 this stuff. It tastes like a combination of mangoes and feet, 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:29.040 But I happen to like the taste of mangoes and feet. 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:32.439 So I'm gonna, you know, tweet this on Facebook and 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:35.120 Twitter and put it on my Google Plus account and 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:38.639 mentioned it on LinkedIn. That you just did exactly what 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:43.000 the promoters were what. Apparently my choice of mangoes and 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:47.160 feet was not just I just wanted to do something, 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:49.600 so trying not to think about that taste right now. 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:53.119 I just wanted to say something silly. I don't like 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:57.080 mangoes and I really don't like feet. But yeah, okay, 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:00.560 so UM, so that's essentially what they're hoping that you 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:05.080 will say that cloud for it for its uh, you know, 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:08.399 just to to promote its own credibility here. And I 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:10.600 feel like it's fair to mention this cloud says. There's 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:16.120 absolutely no obligation on your part as a cloud participant 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:18.880 if you get a perk to promote it in any 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:21.200 way at all. You can take them up on the perk, 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:24.199 you can decline the perk, you can tweet about it 0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:27.959 or not. Um and uh. And you know it's up 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:30.320 to you whether you you could say, hey, this stuff 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:32.560 is nasty. I don't ever want to see it again. 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:34.440 I hope they pull it from the market fast before 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:37.760 I sue them. Um. You know it that that is 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:40.679 completely up to you. But it depends on partially on 0:21:40.680 --> 0:21:43.919 your cloud score, and it depends partially on generally, and 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:48.760 it depends partially generally on what areas you are influential. 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:52.240 And I would assume that uh, President Obama and Justin 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:55.880 Bieber probably you know, get all the Cloud perks they want, 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:58.080 they probably can't, don't take anyone up on them. Yeah, 0:21:58.080 --> 0:22:01.360