This is the fourth post in the Social Influence Series. If you’ve missed a past post, a listing of the previous posts are listed at the end of this post.
Ask anyone about Klout and you will get A LOT of reaction. It’s one of those things you either love or hate. There’s no in between.
Want my opinion? I love it.
Next week I’ll be talking about to measure social influence, so don’t get all up in arms. I believe Klout is just one component in that formula.
Klout, to me, is like a game. The more active you are on certain platforms, the higher your score. My score stays between 74 and 77. I am proud of that. My score is higher than some of the social media juggernauts out there.
Klout calculates your score based on your activity on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Klout itself. They do factor in some smaller platforms but those four are the biggies. They actually break down (in the circle below) how much of your activity goes into scoring. See mine below:
My breakdown of activity:
Facebook: 48.84%
Twitter: 34.27%
LinkedIn: 7.08%
Klout: 5.28%
Google+: 4.5%
Now, the actual formula of how they calculate is a mystery to everyone except those who programmed it. That is the big problem with Klout. No one knows it or understands it. I have some suspicion on a chunk of it, but more on that later.
People are starting to take notice of Klout. Klout gives you perks based on how you score on your topics. Recently, a friend of mine received a perk to go meet Ben Affleck at the premiere of his new movie in New York City. The biggest news of late is that Microsoft is now investing in Klout and I’ve heard a rumor that another big influential business that I can’t name (sorry, it’s not public, so I can’t say) is looking to invest too.
What does the Microsoft investment mean? Well, first of all Microsoft is going to include people’s Klout scores into their Bing search engine so your score will be out there for everyone to see (even if you’re not aware of it). Second, and most importantly, it signals that maybe there is something to Klout after all.
Will the Microdoft investment pay off? Maybe.
Will Klout become so mainstream that it influences things in our daily lives? We will see.
Klout has it’s fair share of critics and even though I love Klout, I’m included in that lot. Before they changed the formula, my score jumped 3 points in one day because 300 people posted on my Facebook wall for my birthday. Now that they’ve reworked the formula, it’s more even.
In the end, yes, I do think Klout is worth it. It’s one component of many that people are looking at to measure social influence and some industries are even using it in screening job candidates (crazy, I know).
What do you think? I want to know if you think Klout is worth it.
Oh, want to know about that suspicion I mentioned earlier? I’m not going to tell it all here, but let me say this, make sure you are active on Google+ 🙂
Previous Social Influence Posts:
An Introduction to Klout & Kred
A Tour of Klout
A Tour of Kred
My score is climbing and I’m feeling better about the measurements now that Klout is tracking my Facebook business page, not my personal profile. Although I’m still making up ground after a 30 point drop when they made their big change.
That’s awesome Mallie! I still have it set to my personal profile. I need to switch it to see if it makes a big enough difference. —– Original Message —–
From: Disqus
To: mandy@memarketingservices.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2012 5:25 PM
Subject: [memarketingservices] Re: Is Klout Worth Really Worth It?
I feel like I am plowing along with Klout and Kred; I have read great testimonies about it. I keep doing what I am doing and hopefully will see the results in the future. Thanks Mandy for another great informative post
It will be interesting to see if Microsoft fixes their issues 😉
Mandy, you’re right on the money. Forbes supports Klout. Microsoft supports Klout and so do a plethora of F500 companies. If they are investing billions into Klout… well, I think they would know better than the naysayers and snake oil charmers about making disgusting amounts of money. After all, hasn’t MS made billions? Do I need to mention that Steve Forbes is another billionaire? I am sure they didn’t make their billions selling snake oil and key chains. No. Of course they did not. They made their billions making sound investments. Money talks. And the big boys and girls sure are speaking loud and clear about how they feel about Klout.
By the way, I want to commend you on your high Klout score. Simply awesome. Keep up the good work!
Although I appreciate the information you provide I must admit I am almost crazy trying to keep up with all of the ‘numbers’…With no change in activity almost all of my numbers Klout, Alexa etc are declining! It is easy to get preoccupied with what and why!!!
I look forward to your next post revealing more. In the meanwhile, I’ll bide my time and see what happens. I don’t know what to think of all these numbers, they’re just not my gig. I love people!
I’ve enjoyed some nice perks with Klout, including driving the #ChevyVolt for 3 days, and getting to try new social platforms that are still in beta. However, I have to admit it is confusing at times. I suppose it’s worth it if you’ve got a very high score, but otherwise I’m not so sure. If you’re not active on all the platforms Klout measures (or you take a week off), it can work against you. It’s also interesting that it focuses so heavily on engagement, yet there’s no way to ‘engage’ anyone directly on Klout. Go figure …
Like Dawn Lanier I’ve enjoyed a plethora of Klout Perks. The cool prizes range from an herb garden to Visa gift cards. Plus, like you Mandy I find it a game and something I can take part in to just have fun.
Wow, no idea about the Microsoft investment! I think Klout in theory is great…but I recently have not seen any change despite significantly more engament on social networks. :-/
Too bad that you and I didn’t create Klout Mandy 🙂
I appreciate all your info on Klout. Still don’t understand it enough to jump in yet…
Great article but not a good time for me to read it…lol… KLout and I are not friends! It won’t relod, I can’t give Klout to half the people I try to give it to, my score refuses to budge- at least it isn’t going down :-)….arghhhh…me no likely Klout right now!
Dun Dun Dunnnn!!! Love the secret!! =)
Klout, Kred and so on have potential but I have major concerns. The other week someone showed me how ‘gaming’ works, which does rather make the scoring worthless. My colleague set up a dummy account and within a week had huge numbers of people liking, commenting and sharing pointless posts which were endlessly recycled. I believe this is going on a great deal. There is a difference between having a large audience and having something interesting to say…. originality rules.
I kind of agree with Simon, I like to study what others with high Klout scores in my field are doing & sometimes it is nothing! No facebook & just tweeting their product with no interaction! It is fun sometimes.. and a good tool…..
Klout’s support for many of those is lacking. I showed their support personnel how flawed their algorithm was. A person can loose 10 points in one day and then gain 5 the next day. Very flawed and erroneous. I opted out at a score of 77.
Interesting post. I understand the concept of Klout and appreciate my followers who have raised my score. I think it could be helpful to quickly identify someones social influence if you dont know that person…but seeing that person or company engaging I believe has more Klout at present. The fact that those cos are investing in Klout does say a lot for Klouts potential. I would like to learn more about how to use it and give Klout to others. Thx for getting dialogue going.
Thanks for your comment Deborah! I agree – I think the concept is great, but there are still so many flaws to the system, it’s hard to get an accurate picture. You are spot on though when it comes to engagement. Seeing a company being active in both posting and responding earn them more clout in my book!