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I'm sitting here nodding my head at what Don Bartholemew is saying about his frustration with Klout scores and other influence rankings. As usual, I wanted more data, so I did a quick review of Klout scores for Don, myself and a number of our peers. And, as always, you can manipulate the data to say anything. So in terms of Reach, I'm the Queen, but in terms of Klout scores, Chuck Hemann appears to King. Does any of this matter? No, because if someone is making a decision to hire or not hire a PR agency, or a measurement partner based on Klout scores alone, I'm not sure I'd want them as a client anyway.
I'm a little skeptical about this. Either way, thank you for sharing this infograph.
Posted by: form an llc | January 10, 2012 at 02:09 AM
Matthew Rideout sums up the problems very well here: http://professionallysocial.com/2011/10/my-klout-is-bigger-than-your-klout-the-truth-about-influence-measurement/
Proof of the silliness of this concept is the fact that I have a Klout score of 67 so I could in fact get into "oh so exclusive" Fashion Week party. http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/09/10/you-must-have-a-klout-score-of-40-or-more-to-get-into-this-fashions-night-out-party/
Only problem is, I know a thing or two about fashion, since my mother was editor-in-chief of Harpers Bazaar. And, on principle, I buy all my business and dress clothes at Goodwill. In fact, you'll never see me speak in anything but a Goodwil outfit. It's my way of reducing my carbon footprint.
So I will never ever be a customer of Bal Harbor Shops and if anything would be a negative influencer on their business.
Posted by: kdpaine | October 19, 2011 at 12:35 PM
I have a colleague who's Klout account says he is influential about "yeehaw". I am not kidding you, "yeehaw" That tells me all I need to know about the credibility of Klout scores.
Sad fact is, that there are pockets of industry that buy into Klout and are making decisions based upon it.
Klout is just another shiny object that feeds into social media's lust for ego-centric data.
Posted by: Dean | October 19, 2011 at 11:46 AM
excellent info! it was really helpful for me :)
thanks a lot for sharing!!
Posted by: Jobs In My Area | September 22, 2011 at 05:47 AM
I like the last sentence.
Posted by: Ibrey Woodall | September 21, 2011 at 10:27 AM
Michael, I think a good influence ranking tool like Traackr is valuable for that purpose. I just find Klout too driven by Twitter activity. If you just add a hashtag to every tweet, you get a better score, but does that mean you are influential?
Posted by: KDPaine | September 21, 2011 at 06:02 AM
Katie,
I agree if you look at comparing 2 guru's in the same space Klout means little. But if you are looking at your followers and are wondering who might be better influencers, I'd say the third or half of my followers in with the highest Klout scores are a better place to start than with the whole list.
I see Klout as a broad brush who's high and who's low rather than trying to compare you and Don (2 gurus).
Michael Procopio
@MichaelProcopio
mprocopio.com/blog
Posted by: MichaelProcopio | September 21, 2011 at 12:58 AM
Thom, I'm not sure we ever will, because "desirable" or "favorable" or "positive" all mean something very to McDonalds than it does to BP or Old Spice or Lockheed Martin. So why would we expect one conclusive way, when there are so many different needs?
Posted by: KDPaine | September 18, 2011 at 04:23 PM
I think we're right to be a bit skeptical about the relevance of Klout scores. I wish they would make their algorithms public.
I also use SocialMention who does explain how they calculate things like reach, passion and strength.
Will we ever have a conclusive way of measuring online sentiment?
Posted by: Thom | September 18, 2011 at 04:18 PM