Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Klout Me In

In our prior blog “Clout…. No, Klout”, we presented a new site which focuses on ranking an individuals’ online social prowess. Since that blog post, Klout has grown to a point where even I find myself very impressed. A person’s Klout score not only is an indication of one’s social “swagg”, but it could be an indication of influence on people’s purchasing choices.

The more I research the more I cannot believe how lucrative Klout can be. Companies are now looking at Klout scores and sending users with high scores “complementary” perks. From free products, to free upgrades: there was one individual who was given an electric car to test drive for the weekend. All these perks are voluntary but the motivation for the “generous” companies is that those Klout members will speak about their products on their various social networks. Essentially almost anyone can now become living logos like the Jared from Subway and the “can you hear me now?” Verizon network guy.

Recently Klout made a change in the algorithm used to come up with the score, causing some people to have their Klout score lowered. This sudden drop has caused somewhat of an outrage because there is limited transparency as to how the scores are calculated (for obvious reasons). Some of the outrage is quite justified since there are some jobs (vast majority in the marketing segment) that use an applicant’s Klout score as part of their job requirements. Inadvertently some people have been unable to get a job because their Klout score were lowered. An even more outrageous example is the party where only people with Klout scores over a certain number can attend!

It is these events that have have encouraged me to join Klout and take a deeper look into the world of calculated online influence to see how deep the well goes.

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