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The Great Klout Plunge of 2011

posted on May 23, 2011

A few minutes ago I saw a friend tweet about his Klout score and I figured since I hadn’t looked at mine in a long time I’d swing by and see how it was doing. When I got there I saw this:

Now, I got a good laugh out of this because it was obvious to me something was borked on their site (they are having DB issues), but I’m also sure that more than one person out there who hasn’t figured out what truly matters in life had a heart attack when they did their daily check of their score.

But, this raises an important point that I’ve been trying to make to my clients and co-workers for years.

That is that you can not measure online influence by numbers alone.

This is not a slam of Klout because I think their service and business model is an interesting one. Plus, I’ve been on the receiving end of some fun Klout Perks from time to time. They are a very helpful tool to use when looking for people you may want to reach out to on behalf of your company or client.

I’ve pulled together lists for this purpose numerous times over the years. We always used a mixed bag of tools to build our lists because no single tool will ever get it right on it’s own. I’m sure this morning interns somewhere are pulling together an influencer outreach list and if they only used Klout to get that list while they are having some problems there is going to be hell to pay in a few weeks when their list prooves to be faulty.

Numbers are important. But, you’ve got to look beyond them to look at the person behind the numbers. Who are they? What do they do? Just because they tweet about a topic a lot does not make them an expert or influencer in that area.

I’ve watched more than one person take these sorts of numbers and suddenly think themselves more important magically because a system told them they were special. That is both dangerous and a bit sad at the same time. What does it say about a person who only finds worth and validation from numbers?

Klout will fix their bug shortly, but will you fix your idea of how to define and find influence? Please always think beyond just the numbers.

 

 

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Categories: Rants
  • http://210consulting.com/ Jeremy Blanton

    Good stuff CC.  It drives me nuts when I see people look at their score and think that it is gospel.  True influence isn’t measured by a number.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

       Thanks man and we both know that people crave validation from everything they possibly can,but there is SOOOO much more out there that is more important then follower counts, views and ranking on any of these services.

  • http://www.davejones.ca Dave Jones

    Many years ago I did PR work for the spomsor of an up-and-coming race car driver named Jacques Villeneuve. He told me that he only raced cars to have a nice life AMD provide for his family. He didn’t crave attention and wasn’t trying to live up to his father’s legacy or create one of his own. It was a means to an end: do your job, be successful, have a nice life. I always respected that. You validate yourself based on your own yardstick. Why compare to someone else?

  • http://www.davejones.ca Dave Jones

    Many years ago I did PR work for the spomsor of an up-and-coming race car driver named Jacques Villeneuve. He told me that he only raced cars to have a nice life AMD provide for his family. He didn’t crave attention and wasn’t trying to live up to his father’s legacy or create one of his own. It was a means to an end: do your job, be successful, have a nice life. I always respected that. You validate yourself based on your own yardstick. Why compare to someone else?

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      AMEN Dr. Jones!

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      AMEN Dr. Jones!

  • http://twitter.com/CarlaGates247 Carla Gates

    Klout *is* having major issues this morning; but C.C., your post brings up some good points about using one company’s algorithm to define your success on social media. The reality for all of us is that if its a high score, we promote it, and if its a low score, we ignore it. Doesn’t really say much, does it? I’m sure more refining will go into the algorithm in the future…

    In the meantime, I’d have us each ask: have you gotten jobs, positions, speaking gigs, clients, guest posts, book sales, interviews, and partnerships from your social networking/media efforts? Then you have *klout*!

  • http://twitter.com/CarlaGates247 Carla Gates

    Klout *is* having major issues this morning; but C.C., your post brings up some good points about using one company’s algorithm to define your success on social media. The reality for all of us is that if its a high score, we promote it, and if its a low score, we ignore it. Doesn’t really say much, does it? I’m sure more refining will go into the algorithm in the future…

    In the meantime, I’d have us each ask: have you gotten jobs, positions, speaking gigs, clients, guest posts, book sales, interviews, and partnerships from your social networking/media efforts? Then you have *klout*!

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Exactly what I was trying to say. NONE of these services that rank people
      should be used by themselves to determine anyone’s worth.

      Hard work and producing great stuff matters a lot more than any one number.

  • Anonymous

    Great! Thank you for the update. 

  • http://markfrisk.com Mark Frisk

     I’ve been watching the great Kloutpocalypse with some bemusement this morning. Hadn’t thought of the intern-putting-together-an-influencer-list angle. That oughta be some list! I’m seeing some accounts, whose tweetstreams consist mostly of automated links to Mashable and Techcrunch, with Klout scores in the 40s, while genuine value-adders are in the low single digits. Klout’s own score was down to 1.

    Anyway, LOVE your last paragraph. Spot on!

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Yeah it has been rather fun to watch and it looks like they are fixing
      things now and in most cases have it fixed, but I hope this woke some people
      up.

  • http://jplovescotton.com/ Janice

    Can I celebrate just for a second mine is way better than yours? I mean, it doesn’t mean anything but there’s no reason I can smile about it right? LOL. Social media needs numbers & measurements but an over reliance on them is the pathway to SM death. 

  • http://jplovescotton.com/ Janice

    Can I celebrate just for a second mine is way better than yours? I mean, it doesn’t mean anything but there’s no reason I can smile about it right? LOL. Social media needs numbers & measurements but an over reliance on them is the pathway to SM death. 

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Sure, if it makes you feel better go right ahead *grin*

  • http://twitter.com/scottpenton scott

    The great crash of 2011, lol :)  

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