Wait… what?

This is a bit mind-boggling, but you have to admit, it was expected. How often have people said that Klout would soon be implemented in hiring decisions? (Although, I do have to say that I didn’t expect it so soon). It is absurd, ignorant, and lacking all sense of rationality to base a hiring decision on something so… volatile. 

And I’m not sure I would want to work for a company who based the hiring decision on that. What I’ve always wanted to do? Put potential candidates through a mock situation where they would have to complete a task relevant to the position. A practicum, in a way. Then again, I say this because I worry primarily about job performance (that, and I would land any job I wanted if this existed). 

That aside, I feel the same way about that advice and I’m not the one who said it. 

See… you managed to work in that ‘I need a shower’ thing. Now go wash out your mouth with soap, then RT some smart folks with low scores as your penance. Next time someone asks for a tip maybe suggest they hire the person with the low score who’s too busy doing an actual job that earns results to spend all day tweeting, gaming, liking. Ugh. Seriously if the job is strictly about tweeting, FB likes and LI connections, then maybe the score has some relevance but otherwise, this is getting silly and a little dangerous. FWIW.

Well, I wouldn’t feel too bad for telling your friend the cold, hard, horrible truth. It’s irritating, especially when you know the number isn’t as meaningful as people think. If what you’ve written is true, though, it’s reality whether we like or not. I better go check my Klout score…

We’ve chatted about this, Mark, and I think you can guess where I come down on this particular issue. The thing is, I don’t think you gave her bad advice, because she specifically wanted a job in social media. If there is one thing that Klout probably does pretty well, it’s rank your ability to gain attention in social media – and I wouldn’t even stoop to calling that “game the system.” If your Klout score is high, you are probably pretty good at Twitter, at the very least.

Now, if she were looking for an entry level job at my company, I would completely ignore her Klout score – even her relevance in the topic of Market Research. All that score tells me is that she is good at engaging people online about market research, but not whether she is actually any *good* at market research. 

So, when you think about it in those terms, Klout is good at telling you who is good at social media, but when its uses range far afield of that I start to worry.

And I am only commenting on your blog because  your Klout is higher than 50.

Crazy. We expect every social media practitioner to be highly engaged in social media on their own behalf. Yet in any other marketing discipline, and certainly outside marketing, the proof is your business experience or your aptitude. 

When it comes to social, we won’t accept that someone has great experience or aptitude unless they have a strong personal presence. That presence (and associated Klout) may show some mastery of the tools (andin the case of Klout, that is really only Twitter), it doesn’t say anything about the ability to apply it to a business. This approach completely ignores aptitude and relevant experience.

Crazy times. Now please RT me, I may need the Klout. Ughh.

– @wittlake 

Obviously, you aren’t the problem here, Mark. It’s all the people who are looking for a quick-fix shortcut to social media decision-making. This is why those who say “why complain? It’s just a tool and you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to” are wrong.  All of us should be doing a better job of educating the marketplace that these automated tools — no matter how sophisticated — are no match for a little humans-to-human contact.

We all become slave to the Klout:-)

My concern is that people are paying attention to their social media profiles at the expense of their own sites and content. I just blogged about that very topic today. People migrate from site to site (AOL? MySpace?) and keeping up with all of them is dizzying. Not to mention: if you lose your Twitter or FB account tonight, would you be able to reach all those people tomorrow? 

With specific respect to Klout scores: Presuming they’re relevant to the decision being undertaken in the first place, they should only be one factor in the decision-making process, but certainly not the only measure.

I, for one, welcome our new algorithm-based influence-rating overlords

I read a tweet in the morning by a self proclaimed marketing guru that perks should be decided by klout score. now that’s funny. atleast by now everyone out their knows that being active on twitter makes you influential. but is it really true? at least klout thinks so. hope we don’t overlook real engagement and quality in this mad rush of having greater klout score

You had me at “slut” Now I need to go take a shower! The biggest problem with Klout is that it can be so easily gamed. I mean, I love that I am influential about bacon, that really is just so incredibly awesome. I think everyone on this comment thread should follow me on Twitter and give me +K on bacon so I can become a bacon expert!

I feel dirty now too – I blame you for this Mark! My halo is usually very bright and shiny.

I agree with the lack of importance to one’s own skill set being tied to a Klout score. Yes, I have Twitter-Facebook-G+-SocialSpark and a dozen other social media accounts, but I would not choose to use these on a resume as indication of my value to any employer! Sounds like the consultant to those firms played up social media a bit more than reality portends.

Socially savvy consultants are forgetting the hard skills required in today’s marketplace. If it’s just about driving eyeballs to your webpages so that people will click on your links(s) then soc-med may be one tactic. How about offering quality at a reasonable price? Just my two cents. 

Respectfully, Nicholas Chase – producer / director / writer / engineer

So now hiring decisions are based upon a concept 99.3% of those doing the hiring never heard of six weeks ago? What crap.

So now hiring decisions are based upon a concept those doing the hiring hadn’t even heard of until 6 weeks ago? What utter nonsense. 

Just fell out of my chair laughing. Seriously.

I agree with both @twitter-755294:disqus  and @ShadBoots:disqus on this one. Like Tom says, I don’t believe for a second Klout actually measures any kind of influence. It measures how engaging (or engaged) you are on Twitter and some other metrics, which added all together with good ol’ fashioned research may lead to an idea of influence. There’s a huge difference.

And as Shad pointed out, I would not want to work for a company that was judging me so much based on my Klout score. If I get asked about it in an interview and can provide my opinion of Klout (it’s good for measuring some numbers, but it is NOT influence), that’s fine. But if I’m not going to get a job or an interview because my Klout score is only so  high….I don’t want to work for that company. That’s ignorant and short-sighted. I don’t want any part of it.

I think the biggest problem here is that people want a career in social media. It’s not a career.  Social media is a tool to effectively communicate and market your organization’s goals whether that’s customer service, PR, advocacy or whatever. Saying “I want a career in social media” is like saying “I want a career in InDesign.”

Furthermore, when you try to add jobs like “social media coordinator” to an organization that’s only had “communications associates”, they have no other methods to judge the “quality” of one’s personal accounts than through things like Klout. Poor HR recruiters have no idea how to recruit social marketing positions because they don’t personally use the tools and it’s still vague at some organizations as to how social media fits in with the overall goals. It’s not wrong or right, it just is. We can’t judge HR recruiters for doing this … but, maybe they shouldn’t be recruiting for that position if they judge based on Klout scores.

As for Klout’s validity, I’d like to point these two users out: @hipstermermaid has a Klout score of 77. He/She runs a parody account, is anonymous, and tweets about beer and liking music that’s more obscure than your music. @acarvin has a Klout score of 78. Andy is changing the way news is produced and social media is integrated within an organization. The fact that these two rank even on the same chart as one another, much less within one point of each other, is a serious problem.

Mark:

This one might surprise you. I don’t even know what Klout is.  I’ve seen tweets about it, but I’ve never clicked on the related links to find out more.  Here’s why: I’m so completely and utterly focused on my writing (you know, that stuff bloggers call “content”), that when I do come up for air, it’s for (1) some time with the people who matter to me; (2) some exercise; (3) the balance of my life; and (4) a zoom through Twitter.

One of these days I suppose I’ll need to clue in on Klout, and a few other things.   Which is why I’m so grateful I found your blog.

Great post
Susan

Recruitment is a strange business sometimes. Some of the companies out there are using credit scores to measure potential candidates. Bad credit isn’t necessarily an indicator of good or bad judgment. There are many legitimate reasons for having bad credit, yet it doesn’t stop people from using it.

My resume isn’t formatted to hit all of the keywords that it should. It needs to be reworked and I need to be slapped for not marketing myself as effectively as I should.

Yet I find it irritating to be judged in this manner. I am more than words. There are a lot of companies who have missed out by not bringing me on board.

But at the same time there are “rules” to this game and sometimes we can’t  overturn them no matter how badly we wish that we could.

The conversation about Klout is going to continue for as long as they are relevant and until that changes this sort of thing is nothing more than venting.

Come up with a better system and you’ll find lots of people who will help fund, promote and market it.

I think the biggest problem is Klout doesn’t measure influence at all. Klout measures activity which may lead or cause influence, but a single number like Klout will never represent anyone’s influence.

“Hiring by Klout score” is an interesting discussion.  Last summer, I posted an ad for an intern with the specific job responsibility of helping me develop VIBCO and my social media presence and strategy- do research, learn best practices, post, caption pictures, upload to flikr, youtube, etc. 

NOT ONE applicant sent me a FB friend request, provided their Twitter handle, or invited me to join them on LinkedIn.  If any of those kids had sent me a Klout score, they would have gotten the job.  Even if their score was 7.

As an aside… I consider LinkedIn Recommendations to be far more useful than Klout scores or any other SM “measurement”.

I wouldn’t have sent you a friend request, either, but that’s just because I don’t friend people I don’t know on FB (maybe that’s just me? haha). But I would have included my Twitter handle in an email, cover letter or resume.

Curious, why would a Klout score have convinced you?

Regardless of the score, it would have told me that they spent at least a little bit of time Googling social media measurement and had taken some initiative based on that search.  I would have been delighted if any of the applicants had contacted me via any of the social networks or had liked or shared any of VIBCO’s or my SM content.  

I’m sorry, but I am now physically ill. 

Oh Mark, for shame… For shame!  Of course, I’m kidding. The reality is you don’t do a young person entering the job market any favors by regaling them with grand theories about how the industry should be, you help them by telling them the way it is. I’m sure it was a gut check moment, but you really had to say it.

With this metric becoming part of our lives, I’ve been pondering the concept of a baseline. Do you think there is a certain number above which you are sort of accepted as influential in some way? (Not asking for the number, btw, just about the concept.) I think recruiters will eventually have to use baselines. “Must have a Klout score of 60 and at least one year experience.”

In my day, one of the costs of looking for a job was buying nice stationery for resumes. Perhaps now it will be buying followers to game Klout scores. Or worse, career services will create networks that help new grads build their Klout scores for a fee… Yikes!

I am headed to the shower after reading your post and realizing that I, too, worry about my Klout score — and I qm 1)a grandmother and 2)not looking for a job. Social media has become high school,

“A very talented friend told me he was rejected for a job at a major ad agency because his Klout score was too low.”
Painful, but in a way, he may have dodged a bullet by not being stuck at such an irrational place (or at least with such an irrational manager.) 

I’m just wondering how that convo went down: “Joe, we were going to hire you but it looks like you don’t spend enough time staring at your iPhone, and your Facebook profile seems to be just real friends that you’ve met in person. Chris, on the other hand is being followed by hundreds of #teamfollowback peeps and gets a #FollowFriday mention even on Tuesdays.”
Joe: “But what about the way I helped a brand increase it’s conversion rate from 1.5 to 4.5% and improved time on site and overall traffic and pagerank…?”
“Tell it to the Googlebot, cause the +K ain’t listening.”

So I was just walking by this little campfire with a can of kerosine and heard all the chit chat and decided I’d throw a little excitement on the fire.

Let’s go through the scenarios presented in this blog post:

“A very talented friend told me he was rejected for a job at a major ad agency because his Klout score was too low.” – There are three actors in this scenario: the hiring manager, the job applicant, and the writer of this blog post, Mark. One or more of these people is a moron or a liar or possibly a moronic liar. Mark, I hope you’re not a moron. Surely you can use your noggin here and think there’s another reason that may have contributed to this person not getting this gig. If not, I retrace my first comment.

“A B2B marketing agency Managing Director told me he chose between two qualified candidates based on their Klout score.” – There are two actors in this scenario: the managing director and the writer of this blog post. One or more of these people is a moron or a liar or possibly a moronic liar. Mark, what did you not call BS on this person? Seriously? I simply don’t believe this is the entire context of what happened and I have to assume that something else played into that decision…of that this person is just a full-time buffoon and therefore this request would not have been a surprise to anyone who knows him/her.

“A friend in D.C is creating a Klout 50 Club exclusive to people with high Klout scores. Why? He wants to find good hires for social media marketing.” – Your friend is a moron. While the list is a good idea because a list like this could be used to extract $ from other morons, it’s not the basis of good, solid hiring.

“A woman told me her boyfriend was accepted to a prestigious conference based on his Klout score alone.” – You, your friend, or your friend’s boyfriend is a moron or a liar or a moronic liar. Mark. Really? Seriously? Really? *rolls eyes*

Seriously – all four of these scenarios are so ridiculous as to not be even the slightest bit believable on the surface. Surely for the sake of either briefly or shock value you have left out so much information from each of these situations as to make yourself look ridiculous. Sorry that so many commenters are so quick to take the bait on this one, but the set up is simply not believable.

With that said, let’s throw some gas on the fire, shall we? – if you were looking for someone to teach you how to have a successful music career would you look towards a Justin Bieber or a Lyle Lovett? I personally think Lyle Lovett is a much better artist, song writer and performer, but the Biebs has sold more songs with his first effort than Lyle has in a 20+ year career. Who’s more successful? Who’s better for the job?

How about TV shows? Say you’re looking for a person to teach you how to create a successful TV series? Would you choose the creators of “Full House” or “Lost?” Well, based upon quality of content and not wanting to strangle two adorable twin girls every week I’d choose the creators of “Lost,” but I’d be getting the wrong team since “Full House” had an average of twice as many viewers as “Lost.” What show was more successful? Full House? What show was more popular? Full House? What show make me want to throw up in my mouth? Full House. Such a conundrum. Those girls were so cute and so loathed at the same time.

So, is “better” better?

VHS or BETA? BETA was a much better quality product but VHS was the successful platform. Microsoft or Apple? Arguably Apple creates a better product but Microsoft dwarfs Apple in sales and revenue.

My point here is pretty simple – many times we confuse quality solutions with successful or profitable solutions. Businesses exist to make profit. So when a business is looking for a team member, social media or otherwise, it is looking for metrics which can show success in the area that team member is responsible for. When it comes to social media, volume, engagement, popularity, influence, friends, posts, etc. are all very valid metrics to look at when making a decision to hire that person.

It’s a “proof is in the pudding” thang. Whether or not Klout has the right algorithm to determine a person’s influence online better than say Buzz Metrics or Hubspot’s Grader.com is not relevant. What’s relevant is that people who are not in our industry need to hire people in our industry to do things for them that they don’t know how to do. How are they supposed to make a determination about someone’s success in this field if they aren’t subject matter experts? They are going to fall on tools like Klout or Google SEO results or followers, etc/

Are there other things you should look at? Sure. That’s why I began this comment with the set up that I believe the post itself is completely bogus. Maybe the Mark is being fooled, but if that’s the case then Mark has nut loose. No offense to any nuts out there.

Sorry it can’t be a question only quality here, but as the Biebs told the big haired-crooner from central Texas, “I was born to be somebody. Ain’t nothing that’s ever gonna stop me.” and he did that by being popular and working his audience on social networks, not by being a better musician or songwriter than Lyle. Quality counts. But quality without quantity is a lonely place.

I can point you to plenty of great singer songwriters who are 100% true to their core values and can’t feed their family with their craft because they refuse to play the game. A 15 year old kid from Canada was smart enough to realize that, it’s time all the self-proclaimed “social media police” whining about other peoples’ underserved success realize it also or move on to another career. I say that because if you’re complaining about others’ success, it might be helpful to stop, take a breath, and see if you can learn from them. Your careers will benefit from it. If that’s distasteful to you, then I’m not sure what you’re complaining about.

I’m not suggesting that anyone in social media reduce the quality of their conversation or sacrifice engagement. I am suggesting that you look at what those who might hire you are looking for when they make their decisions and address those issues. I figured out long ago that pleasing my peers (read competition) in this industry wasn’t going to put food on the table. My job is to please my prospects and get them to notice me. So, in that context, followers count. SEO rankings count. Fans count. Klout scores count. Grader scores count.

It’s no different than showing up for an interview wearying a nice suit or wearing shorts and a t-shirts. It’s a dance and the sooner you learn how to do the dance the better off you’ll be.

Wow, Mark. Rarely has a blog post ever evoked emotion for me the way this one has. You made me realize today that, yet again, I’ve been naive in thinking we were actually going to be social for a change instead of just being manipulated by celebrities and brands. The battle is long since lost, it would seem. @Russ_Somers:disqus is right — all hail the new masters of the universe.

I welcome people throwing gas on the fire and sincerely appreciate the effort in your reply but I couldn’t get past you calling my friends morons after a 17-word description.  I honestly stopped reading at that point.  I’ll respond to a disagreement if it’s civil Giovanni.

Steve, I needed the sarcasm font for mine…my earlier comment in the
stream will give a better flavor for my real reactions to this. It does
occur to me that Klout will become a great way for us “real” people to
filter out the junk. (Basically exactly the opposite of how Klout would like
us to use it.)

I’d just like to say I’d rather better to be judged by my Klout score than my Empire Avenue share price.

When Charlie Sheen came out of the gate with 1,000,000 followers, 0 following and 1 tweet with a Klout score of 50, I realized it was a tech-popularity contest with little creed at least in my book. Sadly, I do admit to checking my own, scowling when my score goes down a little but that’s about it. The only clout that I worry about is with the peers that really mean something to me and I hope that’s more than a number

I think I once knew but now don’t even recall exactly what a Klout score is. Do I want to?

Seems to me like the Groucho Marx comment, ‘I wouldn’t want to be in a club that would have me as a member.’ For me, it would be the same with an organisation that depended on some social media ranking. Count me out. That would be like hiring an academic on the number of articles
published, with no consideration for their quality.

Tell your DC friend to check out my Klout score!!  How’s that for shameless self-promotion

http://klout.com/owenpaun

This is just the way of the world, it’s always been something – like a grade-inflated Ivy League GPA was in the past. At least anyone with a cell phone can play at this game.

My apologies, William! But, I’m still unsure if Klout will truly enable anyone to filter out junk as quite often the higher their Klout score, the higher their junk ratio.  There’s just so much more to it than that.

If someone is creating a 50+ list, I’ll jump to the conclusion that this would indicate that the Klout Overlords ::nods to @Russ_Somers:disqus::  think a 50 is a …

(I’m struggling for an adjective here. good? decent? respectable? None of these fit with the nasty, slutty, shower-inducing subject matter of Mark’s confession.)

… score?

Assuming this is true, imagine my surprise upon reading this post knowing that I signed on to Klout yesterday for the first time ever — induced by another {Grow} post — and had a score of 57. I suppose now I have to figure out how I gamed the system so that my next 10,000 tweets manage to keep pace?

Or not.

In my experience, Klout can be gamed pretty easily.  I’ve done it myself as an experiment and seen instant results.

From my perspective, Klout is nothing more than a measure of how many people follow you and how much you’re retweeted. NOT about the quality of that information and interaction.

If I choose, I could game the system by going completely off topic and leaping on every available trend etc.  But one quick look at my Tweet stream would reveal this as an immensely shady tactic because of the CONTENT, not the distribution.

Klout is an interesting marker of one’s learning about how to use (and game) social media.  But as an indicator of quality… Not so much.

“ It’s not a career.  Social media is a tool to effectively communicate and market your organization’s goals whether that’s customer service, PR, advocacy or whatever. Saying “I want a career in social media” is like saying “I want a career in InDesign.”

Love this comment Nicole! So true, I alluded to the same in a recent blog post - http://bit.ly/rqWFMM under the heading – ‘ A knowledge of the principles of marketing’

I’m pretty sure I landed a job once in part because I happened to be one of the most followed people on Twitter. I have to note though that that was when Twitter was very young, and after that point, I pretty much stopped trying to get more and more followers. That whole social proof thing though really worked in my favor

Mark, great post.  You got everyone fired up.  Nicole, I feel the same way.  It’s cold hard truth no matter what you know about the Klout score. I’ve been guilty of worrying about my own score for credibility too. I would say for those on the job hunt, work on the score BUT have a kick-ass portfolio of things you’ve done online to build community, engage and make things happen.  If you have 9,000 people behind you for any reason, write up the story and tell it to the interviewer. Put the Klout score on the table in your resume. “Look my Klout score is 10, but my talent is 100 and here’s why….”  I know everyone’s upset about Klout scores but as someone else mentioned, we have Empire Avenue, FourSquare badges, etc.  My former boss reported on the number of followers we got each month. I reminded her that numbers don’t mean anything. It’s the sphere of influence. For someone just graduating, I would say do the real engagement in your field, build credibility with your authority, be ready to tell your story and the Klout score will take care of itself.

So, this was posted yesterday afternoon, and 81 comments later…I guess I’m a little late to the conversation.

Oh Klout, you odd little number, what are you doing to people?

This is a classic example of what businesses always do. They can believe that something can be more beneficial, even influential if the numbers do not support it. I remember when I worked for an Agency, and we would get into debates over what Advertising we should use Me: “Radio has a better impact on your audience, and will do a better job than TV” / Other guy “yeh, but TV has the numbers…”

Ironically, it is those same companies who are now looking at Klout and selecting whom they should empower and who they shouldn’t ~ even when someone was already an advocate.

Personally, I think the biggest mistake however is something you Mark, and I and a few others have been talking about for a while, that to use social media, it must be a natural extension of what you are already doing everywhere else. And that it is not a separate plan, but a unified one.

By empowering people who don’t care at all about your business / brand, that idea of natural extension just went out the window.

But, you got to do what you got to do when it comes to getting hired these days, so don’t feel bad about your advice, “Don’t hate the playa, hate the game”

Very interesting read Jason, thanks

Maybe Murdoch is behind this KLOUT-like movement. Seems like a great way to make people even more neurotic, getting them to consume more media, while feeling obligated to comment, recommend, re-post, blah, blah, blah. 

I know some highly influential people who don’t have a Twitter or Facebook account, they do however use the telephone, are well read, and are secure with themselves, just the way they are. 

Now PLEASE, hit the “LIKE” button below and COMMENT below. I’m a pathetic 28.  Have a great day! 

May I buy some of your Klout shares? JK

First a douchebag, now a slut? I’m proud of you Dad.

It’s not a career, it’s a tool bag.  At the moment, it’s a pretty productive one, but it’s still a tool bag. 

I’ll take it … especially since it was one of your friends who I was helping! : ) 

I’m trying to remember a more ridiculous thing I’ve heard lately…

aaaaaand…I got nothing!

So all I have to do to get the job is artificially inflate my Klout score? Nice!

On one hand, I feel your pain.  This is a horrible way our society is progressing.

On the other, I have to agree with the comments below, that social networking isn’t really a career … or, rather, social networking as a career is pretty whorish in and of itself.  Social media is for connecting people and sharing information – turning that for profit is like being a “professional friend”.  Its like being paid to hang out in Starbucks and work other people’s products into conversations.  I’m not saying it’d be an awful career – if I felt passionately about a product I could happily spend all day tweeting/facebooking/Google+-ing/Blogging about it to raise awareness.  But when you’re looking to do that for ANYTHING just for money … well, there’s no point in nit-picking and pretending.  It’s filthy whorish work, like any PR job.

I think what makes it more nauseating to see social media monetised is that its so prevalent and transparent that you shouldn’t really be able to manipulate it like that.  Its championed as the channel that finally brings free speech to the masses, not another way for us to find out about the latest Nikes – but that’s the way the commercial world works, I suppose …

This suggests the world really, really wants a single number to represent reputation. Klout has a lot of flaws, but my takeaway is that we’ll see a whole bunch of new products in this space over the next few years.

As for your sluttiness, Mark, I think you’re being too hard on yourself. If your friend was looking for a wife and you tell him to learn to small-talk, I think that’s just reading the market, it’s not being a “small-talk snob.”

Mark,

Hilarious post but it there’s tremendous truth in what you’re saying. The fascination/obsession with “influence” is making people do all games of things to game the system. There is no doubt that influence has lot of potential as a way to identify ways to rise about the digital noise but we need to be careful about how much emphasis we place on a particular score by a particular company.

Without coming across as blatantly promotional, you might find it interesting to look at a new influence service by a client, Appinions, called the Influencer Exchange - http://beta.ix.appinions.com/influencerweb/main. There are no scores but Appinions is using the power of opinions to identify influencers (both content creators and those attracting the most attention) for a wide variety of optics.

cheers, Mark

Mark, thoughtful post. I’m thinking of a new service called Flaunt.com. You sign up, pay me $198 and the service totals your Klout and Peer Index scores and emails you back your impressively high FLAUNT SCOREwhich will get you discounts at the Four Seasons, Chez Pierre and entrance to Harvard. Any angel investors out there?

You can get a W score for free … http://crosscutcommunications.com/2011/07/introducing-the-w-score-click-for-yours/

I am in shock but not surprised at how something so superficial is influencing those making decisions on new hires. Finding talent or the right fit is a talent unto it’s own, and now a score based on an indirect influence is a factor? I have always believed that the human looking at resumes is imperfect and not always as smart or intuitive as professional job-seekers believe them to be….but now adding a score that has had little intent in recruiting has now taken shape scares me in the worst way. Hopefully this is a quick passing fad to disappear faster than a canceled tv show.

That is really scary.

that damn share price but actually it moves just as much as some of my klout metrics

Normally I respond to individual comments but this time I wanted to try something different. Rather than repeat themes and messages throughout 100+ comments, I wanted to summarize my take on this conversation that you have so generously provided.

First, while the human reaction to being dissected, rated and compared is naturally visceral and strong, that is not going to change the fact these systems exist and are going to gain more power and momentum from a business standpoint. So now that we have had our moment to say “yuck,” let’s  move on to assess this dispassionately from a clear-eyed marketing perspective.

One of the common responses in the comments is that Klout is flawed and even stupid. I can imagine a similar reaction from people who went to see the first silent movies. “This is stupid. The people don’t even talk.”

Similarly, social scoring is in the silent movie era.  Klout has millions in VC money and a dozen PhD researchers figuring this out. It is going to get more accurate, more meaningful every day. I’m not defending any company in the field. I’m simply offering a suggestion to be aware of the TREND, not the data point. 

The fact that companies like Disney, Audi and American Express are incorporating Klout data into their efforts is a sign that this is something we should all pay attention to. Let’s keep an academic perspective on this, too. There are going to be some interestingcase studies and success stories emerging from this, too. Eventually there may be applications for our own clients and companies. We would be well-served to be open-minded and aware of the emerging opportunities.

As a professional marketer and amateur futurist, I’m thinking through what Klout, PeerIndex, and the other rating systems COULD be as the technology progresses.  Soon, there will be a digital “layer” across our real world. The Internet will be the air, as reality and a digital world blend seemlessly. Companies like Google are collecting and collating detailed information about our locartion, movements, attitudes, behaviors and purchases. I foresee a time where indeed, algorithms will be able to correlate online influence and offline behavior. From a business perspective, this would be a historically important development. It changes everything. Literally everything. Real-time ads, pricing, personalization, rewards.  Deals struck in the moment, at the point of purchase. It’s mind-boggling.

Like you, I feel the “icky” factor. In fact, the implications are horrifying in terms of privacy. But as business professionals, I think we also need to help each think through the business aspects of this development.  This is a debate that will be going on for a long time and I’m fortunate to have such a great community to help me explore these new reaches of social media and marketing! Thank you!

Hello, Mark.

While I think you make some great points here, I can’t shake the feeling that this comment is less in response to the discussion in the comments than it is the summary thoughts that were already cued up in your head when you clicked “publish” on the original post.

It’s a pretty tried and true teaching method — throw the rock into the room and let the kids react, and then sum up with the intended lesson. I may be completely off base… but it’s where this is landing with me.

Hmmm Rebecca- If that’s what you were taught then I’ve been doing it wrong for the past umpteen years! Before I even try to send my resume or reply to a job posting I hunt down – yes hunt – down the recruiters information, the hiring manager’s information. I call I email directly.  If I can get directly to them I am no longer a number in the pile of applicants. I’m with Linda on this one.

Actually the post was definitely in-the-moment.  I had not even intended to have a post that day but left the meeting with my friend feeling really weird.  When I explore the reasons for those inner feelings and just take a risk in letting it rip, it generally results in a good blog post. So there was nothing pre-meditated.  But you are correct that I have been thinking a lot about the subject.  My wheels are really turning with where this will all lead andf the community comments helped me focus on a few themes. Thanks for the comment!

Well said Robert. Like you and others have said.  Social Media is a tool IN the toolbox.  It is NOT the toolbox itself.

Mark, I’d like to take issue with anything you say, but I can’t. Klout is as shallow, meaningless, and flawed as SAT score (or LSAT, GMAT, etc), IQ, weight, price, or any other numeric shortcut people use to save themselves the need to look deeply into something they either can’t be bothered with or truly, honestly, do not have the background of bandwidth for. Taking just one of those measures, the SAT: imagine if college admissions officers really took the time to get to know each and every applicant so they could compare and select adequately? The world would be a much fairer, more pleasant place – but college would be even more ludicrously expensive, in order to pay for the legions more admissions officers each would have to employ.

The point I enjoy most about your piece is your mention of gaming the system. Klout and its ilk will be relied upon heavily in the coming decades, and, in part because it is so easily manipulated, it’s just as illegitimate a measure as any other shortcut in our repertoire. Life is an essay test – a simple number will never suffice. Savvy employers and marketers will always get that. …And their wisdom will always give them the advantage of the outlier.

Mark,

The fact that we have started to measure the quality of people based on a number of like a Klout score is a sad state of affairs.  You have to wonder much talent an organization hiring somebody for social media misses out on because they evaluate on a number as opposed to what somebody actually brings to to the table.  I had a client who I put together a team of bloggers for and the first thing they asked for was Klout scores of people. I’m not sure what to make of this. I feel like we’re in danger of not seeing people for who they are and their real value if this how we hire.

Nicely stated! Thanks!

Ville, I am not part of the gaming culture and was unaware of this. This is an important connection and I appreciate the diversity you brought to the discussion.  Thank you!

haha nice post Mark – seeing more and more people talking about the exclusive powers associated with high Klout scores. Imagine if someone had of told you 5 years ago this kind of thing would be going on; that what would have been regarded as ‘nerd’ behaviour then would actually be rewarded ! 

Crazy crazy crazy. Anyway, back to posting, engaging and all the other fun things that will help build more Klout score.

Cheers
Dan

Here’s my honest advice. Forget about it. Be yourself. Have fun.

The algorithms are going to keep changing. You will go crazy trying to figure it out.  Just be your most excellent self and let it work itself out. : )

Hi Mark – Not sure you were being a “social media slut.” Rather, you pimped Klout. Not sure that makes you feel any better though.

Klout is now, but Twitter’s as-yet-unleashed “reputation score” may supersede it someday. Or some other number du jour. I’ll withhold deep concern until kids’ influence scores are checked to get into computer camp. Or (gulp) college – as in: how much can we depend on this student to be our brand advocate for four years? Uh-oh.

So, does this mean my relatively high Klout score could be netting me high-powered media jobs?  Because I’m honestly not even sure why I have it.  I’m something of a social media power user, but not a web celeb.

Mark,
I think you make some good points in your article, but I take offense at how casually you use the term “slut”.  It saddens me that this term seems to be gaining popularity as an acceptable way to describe selling out or feeling guilty.  It’s like how colloquial “pimp” has become to mean using someone.  I find both words to be crude and offensive.  I appreciate that your actions made you feel “sick and … dirty.  Filthy” (a tad exaggerated, perhaps?) but your use of the word slut leaves me with a sick and dirty feeling about how degraded our language has become.

Cindy

Who knows where it will lead?  But I say … keep an eye on it : )

Being popular and being an authority are 2 very different things. Klout needs to be able to differentiate between popular joke accounts versus legit professionals. They can give credit to well trafficked parody accounts but they need to be recognized as having “popularity Klout” not “expertise and professional Klout.” According to Klout, I am an influential speaker on rodents. I don’t know how it determined this but it just goes to show how funny it is.

To learn the art of communicating effectively is what carves you into the best in this field. So hone a few of these skills and kick start a career with the best academic writing jobs. These will certainly be a good break for your ambitious career in writing academic articles in-house for your domain specialty.

“You’re in marketing for one reason: Grow.” Shouldn’t that be ‘growth?’ Anyway, I like the headline of your post. Well done. 

Totally agree since according to Klout I’m influential about parenting and Korea among other things. As a single woman who is pretty darn sure I haven’t had kids and has nothing to do with Korea, I strongly believe that Klout score is nothing but a number!

“A very talented friend told me he was rejected for a job at a major ad agency because his Klout score was too low.” Fake

I am finding it problematic to place reliance on services like Klout when the APIs for the services they attempt to analyze data from are one big moving target. For instance, new research shows that when you post to multiple sites at the same time, using a content distribution service (which provides us with more time to find more valuable content) Facebook users click “like” or comment on them less frequently. Maybe they can’t see them in their feeds, maybe they resemble SPAM or Farmville requests, who knows. But, this and many other measurement issues are problematic.

Additionally, my score on Klout is dropping despite spending more time online and interacting with my networks. I’m posting to Facebook, having conversations, RTing on Twitter, posting and responding to discussions on Linkedin. I have a 24,000 strong network in my own comment, 7600 in my group on Linkedin, 5,000+ on Facebook, nearly 7,000 on Twitter and all of these folks also use a variety of tools to redistribute and share content. Sometimes they click through, read the content I linked them to, then use the “share” button on the destination site (the place I directed them to) to share with their networks, breaking the traceability of my influence.

All in all, I like Klout, but think that depending on it for accurate results (instead of merely a representation of some level of influence) is not only foolish, but not something one could not defined under scrutiny.

My two cents,

Scott Abel
The Content Wrangler
Twitter @scottabel:disqus 

It’s true. The entire story wil be in my new book actually.

Pretty dirty of you Mark! First you pimped me out, now this? You are definitely getting around, and according to Klout, you have some very high mileage! Nonetheless, I don’t blame you for stating the obvious. The future of marketing will be based on social media slutiness. It’s sad for the young meat coming out of their sheltered classrooms, but the reality is that, the streets are calling, and they better be ready to turn a few tricks on social media. What business will survive without a social presence? Which background checks will not include a search on social media? Too many dirty questions to answer. Oh well, I better get back to my corner. I have to earn my Klout perks tonight! Btw, will this give me a +K?

Hope you are booked

Tu amigo

R

I think you need a Klout score of 50 to get somebody’s attention, but who knows? : )

Mark, I too am guilty… just this morning I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when I found out my Klout score had dropped 2 points over the weekend.  I had to keep telling myself, it’s not you… it’s just a number.  And remember recently when Klout was down for a day?  I was joking that I didn’t have a social media value without Klout… turns out it was truer than I thought.  

I think it is a little more complicated than that. We are not Klout’s customers. These big brands are. If we stopped buzzing about it, they would go on successfully. My take any way. Thanks for the great comment Bret.

I know this is an old post, but SO worthy of comment. Look – we all want shortcuts in life, for things to make them easier. That is what Klout is trying to offer – kind of like wine buying guides. Instead of actually trying the wine, you can read about it. So instead of actually engaging with a person and discovering for oneself if that person is engaging and influential, one can just look at what the algorithms have to say about it.

Fie upon those who wish a shortcut. They wish to purchase engagement through those that, according to a machine, have earned it for themselves, without doing the necessary research (getting to know a person) to make an informed judgment for themselves.

I love this – I remember when I was a Social Media Slut. Now I’m more of an escort!.

Human Beings are so outdated, I’m surprised, they’re still making them.
As for the net, who gives a shit. Choose reality.

Thanks Laci.