Kred Influence Measurement
Kred Influence Measurement, or Kred, is a measure of influence created by PeopleBrowsr, a San Francisco-based social media analytics company, to identify influential people in interest-based communities. Kred scores are generated by observing a social network user's content, who it reaches, who acts upon it, and whether the user relays the content of others. Developed on the principle that 'We all have Influence Somewhere,' Kred delivers overall network scores as well as unique scores within each of a user's communities. It was introduced at an event at PeopleBrowsr's headquarters on September 29, 2011.
The Kred website is free for anyone to use. It is also integrated into PeopleBrowsr's social-analytics platform, Playground. Kred data is available to developers as a stand-alone API or as part of the PeopleBrowsr and Kredentials APIs.
On August 21, 2012, Kred launched Kred Story, which uses social data and influence measurement to produce a personal visual stream from activity on a Twitter ID or hashtag.
Kred Score
Kred is given as a dual score to distinguish a person's Influence (the likelihood that someone will trust a person and act upon their posts) and Outreach (the propensity to share other people's content forward). "We think this – the Kred scoring system – is strong because it's reflective of the foundations of strong relationships everywhere: trust and generosity," said CEO Jodee Rich in an interview.
Kred Influence measures a user’s relative ability to inspire action from others like retweeting, replies or new follows. Influence scores are delivered on a normalized 1,000 point scale with higher scores representing a higher degree of trust and influence within the network.
Kred Outreach measures generosity and rewards actions like engagement with others and willingness to spread their message. Outreach is scored in ever-increasing levels and never decreases.
Scores are summarized in a 'Kred Story' or 'Kredentials' window that includes other relevant social data like most mentioned people and frequently used keywords, hashtags and clicked links.
Scoring Factors
Kred is the only influence measure to openly publish its algorithm.
Twitter retweets, mentions and replies are included in everyone's score. Visitors to Kred.com may also opt to include Facebook interactions in their score.
Users may give '+Kred' to anyone that they feel is deserving of extra recognitions for the influence in a community.
Kred is the only social influence metric to include points accrued for 'real-world' accomplishments, known as 'Kred Moments.' Users sending PDF copies of their achievements will have points assigned that count towards their Influence scores.
Communities
Kred provides separate discrete scores for a user's overall network participation as well as its affiliation with interest-based communities. Community membership is determined by words used in a person's Twitter Bio as well as keywords and hashtags they have historically used in their posts. In addition, a person may be included be a member of a community if they are found to have high Influence within that community regardless of whether they have used the keywords that would automatically identify them as such. “We look for small close networks of people and look for how they can be just as influential as rockstars,” Rich said in a 2011 interview with TechCrunch.
Transparency
Kred is unique in providing a fully transparent view of the actions that compose any user's score. Users can see an Activity Statement recounting every action that has added to their Influence and Outreach scores. They are also able to access anyone else's Activity Statement to review the sources of their score. "We want to be transparent, so you can actually see how this thing is put together," said Rich.
Other features
Kred offers privacy settings for users that wish to cloak or anonymize their actions.
It also provides recommendations on how to increase scores by surfacing Fresh Content to share that has not yet been widely shared within their communities.
On June 26, 2012 Kred announced it would be offering "Rewards" based upon your score, giving away discounts and product samples.
Methodology
Kred measures Influence and Outreach by using data from PeopleBrowsr's Datamine of more than three years of social media posts. Indicators include but are not limited to: following count, follower count, retweets, number of @replies, new follows based on posts, being added to a list, and the Kred scores of people replying to or retweeting a user's content.