Klout: what's all the to-do about it?

I recently read a fellow marketer's recommendation of Klout in an e-blast, and while I appreciate his enthusiasm, I don't agree with his logic and support of this application as the be-all, end-all of social media influence measurement.

I look at my own Klout score from time to time, but I take it with a grain of salt. It's maybe the best indicator out there right now, but how accurate is it really in determining influence, which by Dictionary.com's definition is, "the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others?" 

True, @BarackObama's Klout score of 90 seems impressive. But @JustinBieber's Klout score is 100. Can anybody reasonably argue that a 16-year-old has more influence than the president of the United States? Are the retweets, comments and mentions of pre-teen girls really more significant and unpactful than those of the US president's constituency?

How about someone who has just 3 followers? This person's Klout score might be relatively low. But what if those 3 followers were Barack Obama, John Boehner, and Ben Bernanke? It could be argued that this person could be in a position of powerful influence regardless of whether they were retweeted by those users.

I am also a little suspect of Klout's data, some of which seems surprisingly old. I've been listed 107 times on Twitter, and this has been the case for a long time, but my Klout score reflects that I've been listed just 50 times. This makes me doubt the accuracy the rest of the data regarding retweets and mentions too. I really don't understand why this information is inaccurate though because it is dynamically generated and easily accessible. The list data seems at least 6-months old.

So, taking all of this into consideration, I really do take my own Klout score with a grain of salt. I commend the people at Klout for creating what is perhaps the best indicator available right now for social media influence, but Klout's algorithm unfortunately favors people such as celebrities. Let's not confuse popularity with influence.

- Christine Pilch

Comments

[Morriss Partee]

I agree 100%. The more arcane the formula used to derive a result, the more it is a bunch of hooey. It's like multiplying the number of apples by the number of pears to come up with a fruit salad score. Even if the quantities were right, this is not how you measure the goodness of a fruit salad.

Besides, they can only measure action via other social media avenues. In many (if not most) instances, real action crosses the bridge from social media to somewhere else.

[Christine Pilch]

I love the fruit analogy, Morriss! And you're right. The proof is in the transfer of social media Klout into tangible action.

[Christine Perkett]

Bravo, Christine. Well said - very well said! Thanks for leading me to this from my rant on Facebook :)

Christine Perkett
http://www.twitter.com/missusP

[matthew greenfield]

I couldn't agree less with the conclusions in this post - though i do love the fruit salad analogy. Of course the Klout score isn't perfect, the science of identifying online influence is new, and certainly not perfected. No one is implying that you can determine the quality of the fruit salad from the quantities of its ingredients, but certainly if I measure all the apples and pears in a fruit salad I will know roughly how many people that salad can feed. As for Justin Beiber - if he says buy a certain kind of toothpaste, you can almost be assured that 16 million people will go out and buy that toothpaste. What Klout measures is INFLUENCE, not IMPORTANCE of the decisions, actions, or behaviors being influenced. If Obama says buy Crest, will 16 million people of any age go buy Crest because he said to? Doubtful. Similarly, if Justin Beiber posts that all union workers should lose their collective bargaining powers, would that cause Democratic senators to return to the Wisconsin capital? Doubtful. That is why Klout separates individuals into categories, based upon their interests and sphere of influence. While I agree that the Klout system is not perfect, nor is it accurate, it is surely the best tool of its type around.

[Christine Pilch]

Hi, Matthew. Thanks for your comment. We agree that Klout is the best social media measure around, and I respect your opinion.