Our Blog: where do you stand?

What We're Reading -- Social Media Influence and Klout

By: Ashlyn Brewer | 10/27/2011

Recently I blogged about some of the mistakes social media marketers make when it comes to Klout, the social media influence measurement tool. This was just a few months ago, and since then the conversation about social media measurement and specifically, the value of Klout, has evolved. Earlier this week, Klout launched a new algorithm. Many users saw their scores drop after the adjustment. Instead of taking this in stride, this led to a significant Klout controversy in the social media realm. In short, many people viewed Klout as an end-all be-all social media influence measurement tool, and they got burned.

We've been following the Klout controversy, and here's how it has unfolded so far:

1. Klout unveiled the new social media influence measurement algorithm on their official blog in a post titled "A More Accurate, Transparent Klout Score." In only a couple days, the blog post received more than 2,000 comments, many criticizing the tool and complaining about a drop in their score.
2. Since the algorithm changes led to decreased scores among some populations, especially those who were gaming the system to increase their score, it also led to vocal outrage in social media channels. Blogger Jessica Malnik highlighted the user outrage in a blog post.
3. One blogger referred to Klout's change as "moving the goalposts." While this is true, we must remember that Klout's goal isn't to help users grow their Klout score. Their goal is to help users accurately measure their social media influence. The goalpost - social media influence - hasn't changed -- it's just that many of us aren't quite as close to the endzone as we thought.
4. St. Louis social media and business strategist Matt Riddings used the Klout controversy as a launching point to discuss what the next era of social media influence measurement might look like.
5. As the controversy continued, several bloggers also raised concerns about their inability to truly opt-out of Klout, and accused the measurement service of violating their family members' privacy.

Personally, I'm glad they are making efforts to strengthen their ability to accurately measure influence. If they ever release more data about how they determine their algorithm, I'm happy to debate the effectiveness of each data point. However, at this point I'm just glad they're working out the kinks, even if that means my score drops a few points.

What do you think about Klout's changes and their users' reaction to them?

Posted in Digital Communications