Its always interesting when technology becomes so pervasive that both my parents and kids are actively engaged on the same platform or application set. It’s clear that social networks have arrived at that point and crossed the age divide! What is also striking is the amount of time that is now being invested on social media platforms and the variety of applications they expose. With all this usage, organizations are looking for monetization of Social Influence. Im not talking about the Zynga’s of the world monetizing via an IPO, but more about businesses looking to show true ROI on their social media investments. Much has been learned about measuring influence online (clearly still a growing art <-> science) and companies like Klout are clearly positioned to help identify key influencers in the social space. While Klout is interesting, there is still a perceived gap between a Klout score and the ability to truly influence or drive the behaviors that organizations are looking for. Let’s face it, many folks are performing activities to drive up their Klout scores with the hope that it will lead to future results from their Influence score.
OneBill is taking a interesting position allowing social media applications to measure actual behaviors and provide rewards based on these behaviors. They have extended their lifecycle subscription services platform to allow providers to define, measure and monetize actual influenced behaviors.