Writing this post may endanger my ability to score free Axe hair gel in the future, but it needs to be said:
Klout scores mean little when it comes to real social media success.
The online measurement tool does a great job of entertaining those who care about the difference between a retweet and a mention, but it falls short in measuring true online influence.
Klout scores range from 1 to 100; with a higher score assumed to represent a greater level of influence. The score attempts to measure how many people you influence (true reach); how much you influence them (amplification); and, how influential they are (network score).
The company claims that Klout influencers “create thousands of pieces of [user-generated content] and millions of impressions for a brand’s new product, initiative or campaign.” I cannot argue this point. They do.
Yet Klout cannot take the next step. Klout does a great job of determining the number and reach of the people talking about your brand online, but it doesn’t know if any of these people are actually taking action with your brand because of it.
Actions taken that impact business are the only way to measure real influence. In higher education, the number of inquiries, applications, or online donations demonstrates this influence. Klout doesn’t take into account any of these.
In other words: Unless Klout addresses your specific goals for engaging in social media, the score it spits out is useless beyond immediate amusement.
So how can you use Klout?
Use it for fun. Use it for a benchmark the competition. Just don’t use it to demonstrate the success of your social media efforts. You’ll have to do that yourself.
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Right there with ya, 100%. BTW–Axe hair gel is overrated.
Nice post. I totally agree. I is interesting to benchmark against others, but only an individual or account can tell what is to be successful. Each school has their own goals and how they measure their goals.
THANK YOU Patrick for bringing some signal to the world of noise Klout has been bringing into the space.
I’m drafting a similar post on meaningless metrics, and will definitely be linking to this. Loved this part:
“The number of inquiries, applications, or online donations demonstrates this influence. Klout doesn’t take into account any of these. In other words: Unless Klout addresses your specific goals for engaging in social media, the score it spits out is useless beyond immediate amusement.”