Forget Klout: you can't measure influence on Twitter. Experts differ on Klout's clout. Popular social media "influence" firm Klout, took some knocks this week from folks angry about its changes. An early social media application used to influence people. The San Francisco-based firm produces a "Klout Score", from 1 to 100, indicating the (you guessed it) clout of folks across the social media talk-o-verse of Twitter, Facebook and sundry settings for our current era of computer-assisted solipsism.
"The Klout Score measures influence based on your ability to drive action," says the firm. But due to a tweak this week in the formula the firm uses to calculate its scores, some folks saw their numbers drop 10 to 20 points in a widely-lamented leap. "The problem is that Klout's new scoring method is neither more accurate nor more transparent," said Brand&Capture's John McTigue, in a commentary critical of the change. "They have, in fact, made a serious mistake in attempting to redefine influence and may soon be paying a price... " Well who cares? A: What kind of decisions? Klout Updates How It Measures Your Social Influence. Understanding the Influence Metric: What is the Klout Score? Five unofficial methods to increase your klout score.
Why Klout Really Matters. Klout is a social media tool that measures your online influence by evaluating your activity on a variety of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Foursquare, YouTube, and others. It doesn’t just take into account your actions but also how your fans/followers/friends react to what you share. According to Klout’s website: “The Klout Score measures influence based on your ability to drive action. Every time you create content or engage you influence others.”
The Klout Score uses data from social networks in order to measure: How many people you influence (after filtering out spam and bots — how many people are you really connected to).How much you influence them (what action do they take based on what you share).How influential they are (the reach and influence of the people that you inspire to take action — the ripple effect). All of that data is crunched together and you’re issued a score from 0-100, with 100 being the most influential. Guest Author: Klout CEO Confirms That Twitter Carries the Most Weight in Your Klout Score Klout, the service that measures your social influence over more than 12 social networks, gives more weight to your Twitter activity than any other network.
UPDATE: Klout Marketing Manager Megan Berry says that Klout looks at influence equally from all networks and Twitter does not actually have more weight on the Klout score than other networks. But while Klout recently opened up the ability to connect to Google+ they have not yet integrated that influence into the Klout score. "We are working swiftly to add this in and then those users with strongly engaged audiences on Google+ will see an increase in their Klout Score," Berry says. In a post on Google+, tech blogger and pundit Robert Scoble wrote that Klout CEO Joe Fernandez confirmed in an email that the top-weighted network for Klout is Twitter. LAUNCH has contacted Fernandez about the way Klout weights different networks. "Will Klout get me to put more time into Twitter? "