I first heard about Klout scores in one of my public relations classes this past semester when we were talking about a company’s influence in the social media atmosphere. I obviously wasn’t paying attention to it very closely because it came up in conversation again during my internship and had no clue what anyone was talking about. I decided to look into it and found some interesting….and somewhat creepy information.
So you log onto to this website, http://klout.com and you authorize all your social media accounts to be analyzed. Once the data is collected they project your personal Klout score. This score is based from 1 to 100 and ranked by your influence in the social media atmosphere. The average score is around 20. You are then categorized by your “reach” and your “amplification” and are also labeled as a type of influencer.
The first time I signed on, I got a 22 which I was fine with since it was determined average. Then I went back to check on it a couple weeks later and it had skyrocketed to 52. This is when I started to question things. My activity in the social media sphere had not changed drastically at all in the time span between my two logins. It brings to question whether you can really trust their analytics. After doing some research most conclusions were skeptical since they give no real data to base their claims on.
If it were to be accurate, this could be a beneficial tool because it gives you the option to see who you are influencing and on what topics. Therefore, you could gage your messaging towards certain topics to truly become an expert on a topic. If you wanted to be a different type of influencer, you could cater your messaging towards that arena.
It seems like a great tool to use, and if it is accurate then I can see this becoming more popular in upcoming years as social media continues to grow in its dominance.
To find out your Klout score check out http://klout.com
Tags: Analytics, Klout, Klout Score, Social Media