Obsessed With Your Klout Score? You’re Doing It Wrong
June 21, 2011 
Author 
In 
All I can think of when I hear people talk about their Klout scores is the famous opening line from the popular TV Show Whose Line Is It Anyway:
Welcome to “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” the show where everything’s made up and the points don’t matter. That’s right, the points are just like Twinkies Lite. They do not mean a thing.”
Here’s the modern version for Klout: Welcome to Klout: the app where everything’s made up and your score doesn’t matter.
I hope this will stick for you and you pass it on, because it’s a perfect way to describe any form of influence score.
The premise of an influence score is inherently flawed. It is usually wrapped in marketing language to make it sound “official” but it is no more or less silly than those old sites that tell you how much your website is worth.Or HubSpot’s attempt at giving your website or blog an SEO or social media “grade.”
An influence score or automated grade just doesn’t work. It is attempting to take something qualitative and reduce it to quantitative, but not all data needs or should fit into quantitative. In a world obsessed with numbers it’s a brilliant play and I’m sure they’ll make lots of revenue being a score in marketing software, providing something quick and easy to add to reports. That’s what previous generation marketers want. But is it meaningful or actionable to any truly data-driven marketer focused on outcomes and conversions? Please.
There seems to be a boon in tools like Klout that measure influence or social analytics in general. Klout aside, for the most part businesses aren’t even ready for social data. There is far more wealth in their own web analytics that most don’t even use properly, and yes the order here matters. You probably already have all the tools and data you need to make decisions, if you’re not doing so now adding more to the mix is not going to help you.
In fact, it could actually hurt you. To those who have been marketing online for years, remember when people obsessed over toolbar pagerank? It has always been irrelevant and only an ego thing: the people who focused on the right metrics grew their sites and those who worried about meaningless scores didn’t go anywhere.
We’ve already shared the notion that you need to connect and build trust, not influence, so I don’t think we need to get into this too much further. Just persuading you not to use fluffy metrics to make decisions. Dump the garbage and focus on the critical few metrics. If Klout makes it into your critical few: wow, just wow.
I wasn’t going to write this post but I have heard enough nonsense and am calling shenanigans: modern marketers know better.
Kristi Hines replied | Jun 21, 2011 (1 comment)
I think the Klout app can sometimes give you some valuable information, like the people you are most connected with, what topics it thinks your Twitter is about (because if you want to brand yourself for social media and it has something random as a topic, then you are probably not tweeting enough to be recognized as an authority in your goal topic), and whether or not you are engaging as much as you should be (always interesting to see your score drop on the weekend).
As far as being obsessed about the number, that’s a bit silly. Look at the data, improve your strategy, but don’t spend time worrying about how to get to a certain number.
Lee de la Houssaye replied | Jun 21, 2011 (2 comments)
I disagree. But it’s not so much your opinion that is bothersome as much as the fact that this post comes off as an over-caffeinated rant containing very little thought or careful analysis.
I do, however, agree with the pagerank comparison, but only because it contradicts the point you’re attempting to make. PageRank attempts to quantify relevance in the same way that Klout attempts to quantify influence. Are PageRank / Klout score always perfect? Of course not, but they’re also far from useless. If you’re not convinced, write an article about how PageRank doesn’t matter and watch the ridicule roll in from every SEO who reads the post.
While many, many other signals and algorithms have been introduced into Google’s ranking system since PageRank was created as the foundation of Google’s unprecedented success in returning relevant search results, that hardly makes it irrelevant. Like Klout score, PageRank is one of many factors in search ranking, and of course anyone who is myopic about a particular performance indicator is going to fail.
Regarding your point about trust: is trust not a component of influence? I’d say it’s difficult to be influential when no one believes you.
Very well-thought out, evidence-based posts on the inadequacies of the Klout score have been written, namely: http://alexbraunstein.com/2011/06/01/why-your-klout-score-is-meaningless – might want to take a page from Mr. Braunstein’s book next time.
Adam Singer replied | Jun 21, 2011 (597 comments)
Thanks for comment Lee – and cheers for the link to a deeper analysis. TBH I didn’t think that was needed, as I linked to in this article the premise is inherently flawed. Didn’t feel like I needed to explain more than that, not every post has to be a long dissertation.
Oh btw, I wasn’t caffeinated when writing this :)
Lee de la Houssaye replied | Jun 21, 2011 (2 comments)
Ha. Then you you’re just passionate like me – though I AM caffeinated. I may have been projecting with that one ;)
And I should say that I can relate to the tone as well (again, maybe seeing some of myself in your post). The hype about QR codes gets me going in the same way that the hype about Klout seems to bug you. Who’s right? who knows, but it makes for great reading / discussion.
Kasey Skala replied | Jun 22, 2011 (5 comments)
Lee – No offense, but I think your response contains “very little thought or analysis” on why you think Adam’s post wasn’t valuable. Personally, I agree with Adam. I think Klout is completely worthless and shouldn’t be used at all to form any opinion or business decision. The concept makes sense, but the tool is completely worthless. It’s simply a tool for lazy marketers.
Alex Braunstein replied | Jun 22, 2011 (1 comment)
Thanks for the shout out Lee. For those that want to dig deeper, I did several followup posts. More are coming as well!
http://alexbraunstein.com/2011/06/02/klout-reacts/
http://alexbraunstein.com/2011/06/08/comparing-klout-competitors-and-alternatives-peerindex-and-twittergrader/
http://alexbraunstein.com/2011/06/20/an-interview-with-klout/
Gary Lee replied | Jun 21, 2011 (2 comments)
Adam:
Have to weigh in here to say I agree with much of what you’ve written, but also make a case for where I think proper tools can provide benefit for today’s marketing professional in determining which voices have “influence” and which do not.
First, in full disclosure, I am CEO of mBLAST, and we make a tool that measures the influence or impact a voice is having as they blog, write, tweet, etc. Hopefully, you’ll continue to read after that disclosure.
Second, we believe that single, generic scores like Klout are interesting, fun, etc, but not very valuable to a marketing professional 99% of the time. As a general rule, marketing professionals are not interested in “generalists” and deriving scores based on “general” influence. Instead, marketing profesionals are marketing in specific markets or communities, and therefore need to find voices writing with the ability to move these specific markets — Voices which are relevant and authoritative in a market or community and can therefore help them with their marketing efforts.
It is these specific voices that really matter. And it is these specific voices that marketing professionals should be “measuring” for their importance and standing in the market.
Further each person can and does have multiple voices and scores. I may be highly “influential” in a market segment because I write blogs which are widely followed, tweet valuable information the market moves on etc. And be non-existent in another market segment because I have NO voice in that market whatsoever. One person, multiple “scores” and ways to measure that person based on what they are actually talking about and the impact they have having when they do.
This is the path we’re chosen for our software — allowing marketing professionals find the bloggers, authors, Twitter users, etc who are actively saying things that matter to a particular market or community, and then measuring the impact they are having when they do.
When viewed this way, “influence identification” is not a new discipline, but is instead rooted in the very methods we’ve used in marketing forever: finding the voices saying things that matter to our market, and then understanding who has the most influence / impact / sway when they do.
There is, and always has been a place for this in marketing. And in a world where the volume of voices is making it harder and harder to listen to the conversations, and then understand who to respond to first, it’s critical for new tools like ours to exist.
So I think to dismiss all influencer-identification tools are wrong is improper. We think what we’re providing is based on common sense and best-practices in marketing. I would welcome further discussion with you on this.
Thanks
Gary Lee
CEO, mBLAST
http://www.mblast.com/mpact
John Boitnott replied | Jun 21, 2011 (12 comments)
The Klout score isn’t terrifically valuable by itself so much. It’s the history behind the person with the score that matters moe. It’s that score added to several other factors. Their history in building community for instance. Spend time attempting to network with various folks, and gain an organic understanding through relationship building of whether or not their score has value. Also take a look at things like Empire Avenue, because that service actually applies a number score to various activity levels on the social networks. At the end of the day, be prepared to let go of your impressions entirely if some new set of data springs up that changes your perspective a bit. There is no black and white here on the social web. Things change quickly.
Danny Brown replied | Jun 21, 2011 (19 comments)
Here’s why Klout is something that is fun, but that’s about it.
This morning, a bunch of my online friends and connections thought it’d be fun to say I’m influential about “sheep”, since I wrote a blog post about sheep telling the shepherd to flock off (correlating to loyal readers questioning the quality of A-list blogs).
I am now super influential about sheep – but I’m pretty sure if I tried talking to farmers about wool and shearing, I’d put them out of business quicker than you can say “Baaaaa”.. ;-)
http://klout.com/#/dannybrown/topics
Catherine Lockey replied | Jun 21, 2011 (63 comments)
haha Adam, now you’re taking Klout away?? I’m an explorer dammit! I can’t survive without this. Besides, my analytics don’t have pretty graphics next to them.
John Trader replied | Jun 21, 2011 (2 comments)
Adam, this quote from your post summed it all up for me – “But is it meaningful or actionable to any truly data-driven marketer focused on outcomes and conversions? Please.” I know my bosses don’t give a tinker’s damn what our Klout score is (as was evidenced when I proudly displayed it in a recent presentation I gave to our brass about analytics) and they instead wanted to know — how are our social media efforts driving leads and generating revenue?
One thing that troubles me about this post. If any of my colleagues read it, it’s going to be awfully hard to continue justifying my contest I run each week that the person with the lowest Klout score in the office buys everyone lunch on Fridays.
Gini Dietrich replied | Jun 21, 2011 (11 comments)
The thing that is scary about Klout is SO MANY companies think it’s the way to measure influence. To Danny’s point, it says I’m influential about drugs and army. Whaaa?? But people are looking for an easy way to understand online influence and, rather than jump into the fray and test out certain things themselves, which takes time and patience and more time, they hope things like Klout will give them an easy way out.
Except that Subway can send me a $10 gift card because I have a high Klout score, but (other than spend it), I’m not going to help them move the needle or raise their awareness.
So what’s the point?
andrew replied | Jun 23, 2011 (42 comments)
Now I’m hungry for a Subway sandwich.
Al Pittampalli replied | Jun 22, 2011 (5 comments)
Klout score has some value, but stand alone means very little. I agree, that the obsession by many is a little silly. Great post, Adam.
Brian Driggs replied | Jun 22, 2011 (1 comment)
If I used Klout, I’d totally give you +K or whatever for this post. :)
Matt Dollinger replied | Jun 22, 2011 (7 comments)
Adam – as I said on Twitter I think your post is spot the F on. I think that social media is fast becoming a popularity contest and many are looking for ways to carve virtual “notches in the bedpost”.
Is Klout flawed? – yes
Does it bring some interesting metrics to the table? – absolutely
However I did a little experiment. I went on and friended a bunch of folks I really had nothing in common with. I RT’d their drivel, and they did the same to mine. +5/10 pts in a matter of days.
Does that show I have clout? Hellz no. It shows I can work a system. However much like alot of social media – companies are cherry-picking buzzwords out of the air and suddenly “respect” those with a higher score. All of a sudden, those that give great nuggets of information less frequently are being “ranked” due to their silence. It’s not the loudest kid – it’s the smartest kid who you want to follow IMHO.
The worst part is that this becomes a “contest” to see who can work the system best. Much like alot of tech out there, there’s a system, and those that figure it out are going to work it. I like their whole (Klout +1) rankings where I can give someone a +, but that again is playing to the popularity card.
Overall it’s not a true metric that gauges anything other than their social prowess and amplification level (to me). It’s kind of like people throwing around the word “innovative”…
Anyway… ’nuff said. Thanks for writing.
Matt Dollinger replied | Jun 22, 2011 (7 comments)
Example A = http://bit.ly/loBi0a
Derek Slater replied | Jun 25, 2011 (1 comment)
Numbers become meaningful through analysis.
True for Klout, for everything in Google Analytics, and so forth.
So look at your Klout score, look at the elements they measure, consider these against your business goals. Effective action comes from smart thinking, and data can help sharpen and direct your thinking. But not replace it.
Am I oversimplifying? :)
Mitch Mitchell replied | Jun 26, 2011 (13 comments)
Marketers know better but not everyone does. For the most part I agree with you, but I’ve come to know two things.
One, suddenly there are employers, believe it or not, that are looking at a person’s Klout score to determine if someone is hire-worthy for positions regarding certain types of sales or social media positions. Someone posted an ad on Twitter where the qualifications said the applicant had to have a Klout score of at least 50 to apply; serious!
Two, it’s pretty much like most every other ranking system out there. Even though one has to take them for what they are, which means not the most accurate things in the world, the truth is that whether one wishes to follow it, it’s still better having a higher score than a lower score. It at least gives one an opportunity to see if they’re even seen on the internet as an individual. A recent news story on the NY Times site indicated that on average most people score in the teens, and per Klout people and others (they didn’t define who “others” are) if you have a score of at least 50 you’re probably influential to at least certain groups, though it also made it plain to recognize that you’re not influential across the board.
I don’t know overall. Without being able to connect with people’s blogs to see real online influence and traffic, it can’t be overly accurate. But it’s still better than page rank, which hasn’t been updated in so long that even Google tells you it’s worthless to track. Now that’s saying something.