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#Klout #Kred #EAv Eight Facts And Figures About Klout You Might Not Know


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8 Facts And Figures About Klout You Might Not Know

 September 19, 2011  33 Comments and 546 Reactions
Yes, you are right, it is stats and facts time here on the Buffer blog. Last week, I wrote about the latest stunning Twitter factsand followed up with some suprising new Social Media facts.
Today, it will be all about the latest facts and figures from Klout, you might not actually have come across yet. The best part here is that all information is directly coming from @. Megan, Marketing Manager for Klout kindly joined @, @ and me in last weeks #ToolsChat, a weekly chat we are holding to discuss Social Media tools and topics.
She shared the latest infos with us and here are the top 8 facts listed for you:

1.) Over 50 Variables Are Used To Determine Your Klout Score 

The algorithm to determine an influencer score for you and me contains over 50 different variables. Of course, we don’t know exactly which ones, because we would go ahead and do a Klout score ourselves. Yet, a few of the most important ones are number of clicks on your links, retweets, @, likes, comments or completing a 4Sq-tip.

2.) 10 Social Networks Are Included In Your Klout Score And All Carry Equal Weight 

This is something I was very surprised by. Megan mentioned that all 10 networks, if connected, carry an equal weight to determine your score. Personally, I would have guessed that Twitter and Facebook are more dominant. The 10 networks areFacebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Youtube, Instagram, Tumblr, Blogger, Last.fm and Flickr.

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3.) Klout Is Still In Beta 

Yep, this is something which doesn’t appear to be important at first, yet Klout is still a product dubbed to be in Beta. I believe this, to a large extent also tries to point towards the fact that the algorithm is by far from perfect. A lot of ideas around establishing an influencer score are yet to be discovered. So, personally I believe it is a good thing to remain in Beta until the company believes results and scores have a better matching pattern.

4.) 100 Million Scores Have Been Analysed By Klout 

Nonetheless I believe that having a score for over 100 million people available allows for a serious improvement in matching and comparing scores. What do you think about this?Recently Klout announced that they have reached a major milestone, crunching the numbers of over 100 million users. Of course,this doesn’t mean that 100 million have signed up for Klout yet.

5.) For Some Offline Events You May Need A Certain Klout Score To Get In 

Yes, this is a very interesting experiment if you ask me. Klout was involved recently in a Fashion event, where you could only get in with a Klout score of 40 or higher. I was stunned by this. Not only is it one of the craziest Marketing gigs I have ever seen, I believe there might also be a real benefit for a business there. Knowing that people, with a strong (online) voice will attend can help tremendously to make an event popular.

6.) The Average Klout Score Is 20 

@, Social Media marketing pundit and good friend of mine, asked Megan, if there are many users with a Klout score of 80 or higher. Whilst Megan said that there are very few with such a high score, she also disclosed that the average Klout Score is only 20. This is surprisingly low, at least for my personal feel. I wonder for which applications or else your Kloutscore might be used for in the future.

7.) Klout Lists and +K Don’t Influence Your Score 

Another interesting fact, that I wasn’t very sure about, is that the recently introduced Klout Lists and +K nudges, don’t improve your score. The way that it works is thatyou can vouch for a topic for someone with a +K or by putting them on a listof influencers, yet it won’t change anything around their score. In a way, I believe that this is great, as it would make it way to easy to game someone’s score through this. Megan mentioned to use this as a way to give kudos or say thanks.

8.) High Klout Scores Lead To More Clicks, Sales And Conversions 

As a last fact, Megan mentioned that a high Klout score can affect engagement with your content. What I am not sure here is which way it works. I thought that because you already get a lot of clicks, sales and conversions, you have a high Klout score. But looking at it the other way, it is also a way of saying, the score is actually correct. So, using the Klout score as a backup to show the numbers you are seeing are relevant makes total sense. We did the same thing to show engagement with Buffer.

I found that Klout is always a very hotly discussed topic and many have strong opinions on whether it is useful for not. What are your thoughts?


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  • get a life. who tf cares about such numbers? ask a statistician; your klout score is meaninglesshttp://alexbraunstein.com/2011...
  • I would disagree that it is "meaningless". While I do agree that the number IN AND OF ITSELF holds less weight than the reasons you have that number. As with most measurements on-line, you can only use the number as a guideline. You take that number as your starting point, and you spend a bit of time understanding it.

    Very akin to any store sale. 50% off is "meaningless" if the store jacks it's prices 100%. Then a 10% sale looks good on a store that doesn't jack it's prices at all.

    So a score of 50 CAN be relevant if it's in the topics you are interested in vs a score of 20 in the topics you are interested in.

    Dave
  • One thing that's currently missing from Klout is the ability for company (not individual) accounts to be accurately tracked. For example, we can't connect the Klout profile associated with our corporate Twitter account () with our Facebook page; it only connects to the profiles of individuals. So by definition our Klout score is incomplete.

    (More thoughts on Klout here: http://bit.ly/why-klout)
  • Interesting numbers. I check Klout few times a month but overall I don't like it because it calculates your score even if you never logged in. It is practically impossible to leave it, which I wish they had that option.
  • Agustí López 1 month ago
    Good post, no doubt. And there is some rich information for those interested on Klout. I would like to translate your post totally to Spanish and publish it in my blog (www.agustilopez.com), obviously mentioning you as the authors of the original post. Do you mind if I proceed?

    Many thanks and congratulations
    Agustí López

    ATTACHED FILES

  • Hi Agusti, yes it is just like Michael Q Todd  said, we would be honoured to have you repost it! :)
  • Shall proceed then! Thank you so much
  • Sure Agusti you should do this
  • Point number 2 is incorrect. I spoke with CEO Joe Fernandez directly on this. He said that Klout is platform agnostic and that if Twitter is your "lead" network the system would recognize that. I makes common sense. Point 8 is certainly debatable. I would ask for some case studies!
  • Hey Mark and Leo,

    It's a question of definition of "equally" here. We do consider all networks equally overall - you don't have an advantage for being on one network over any other. However, if YOU are more dominant on Twitter and influence more people there, that will definitely be the biggest part of your Score. We're concerned with how many people you're influencing, how much you influence them and how influential they are -- no matter which network they're in.
  • Hi Megan, thanks a lot for clearing that up, yes I think both wordings will work then, but will update to show that one can become dominant! :)
  • Hi Mark W. Schaefer , thanks a lot for stopping by here. Yes, that sounds very reasonable and it is very likely I am wrong here. I actually took a reference from   on this, when she was our guest in ToolsChat the other day. Here were her words (http://twitter.com/#!/meganber....

    Maybe some stuff changed? Keen to get this right, it is also very likely my interpretation of her words were wrong, will try to get clarification on this! :)
  • whattheklout 1 week ago
    If you want more on Klout, check out my blog.

    http://whattheklout.virb.com/

    Enjoy!

    @gknutson
  • jhaime 3 weeks ago
    so basically you can really help your score by simply following people with very high scores (you can use klout plug-ins for twitter timeline), then also glean a few of them following you back? Same on facebook and youtube... so really, how influential is it? hmm... I see many twitter users with 40-50 scores always commenting on trending topics, however would struggle to influence a 4 year old in a sweet shop.
  • What I mean is, to register only those platforms I am focusing on (even if I have accounts on others)?
  • If all platforms are given equal weight, would it therefore benefit my Klout score to focus only on those platforms on which I am most active and focus most of my energies?
  • Why is it most of the top people on Klout talk about Klout or are in social media?  Isn't that a sort of self fulfilling prophecy?  I would have to say that until it is out of beta and used by people in other industries it is a not a valid test. For example I may want to know who the most influential in the Cookie business is. Not who is most influential at using social media to market cookies.
  • Interesting article--but still so many questions. The things Klout says people are "influential" about, well that's become a source of jokes on Twitter. Now with my editor hat on: use "while" instead of "whilst" unless you're writing a British who-dunnit; look up the difference between affect and effect. In point #8, you mean affect. Also note that these two words kind of switch meanings depending on whether they're used as nouns or verbs.
  • Linda, thanks for the heads up on the errors, just corrected them. :)
  • Great article and comments. I hope Klout takes the feedback into consideration when refining the Beta model. It holds great potential for all.
  • One way Klout scores can impact clicks is with people that have linked Klout & Twitter accounts. Now I see people's Klout scores next to their Tweets; and that can impact people with whom one focuses engagement. Thanks for the article.
  • Klout should include RunKeeper as a social network parameter. Workouts/activities should be analyzed and progress taken into consideration, including one's weight. Mens sana in corpore sano! 8^)
  • Great article. I think Klout is a great way to find influential people to follow on Twitter and on their blogs. If you leave comments and start conversations you'll soon get back links to your site which will improve your SEO. Klout is a great place to see all of the social networks in one place.
  • One thing I noticed is that my Klout score was reasonably high @54, all really Twitter related. I went through following and deleted several people/Orgs with very high follower numbers. My Klout score started to go through the floor even though RT's and clicks stayed much the same. My network influence was most affected but why? I was following them not them me, I could have no influence on them. Strange?
  • Info@deanseddon.co.uk 1 month ago
    Love Klout :-) Its very addictive.

    Dean
    www.deanseddon.co.uk
  • Me, too! I love pulling up my Klout score daily to see if it has gone up!
  • I'm not sure I have enough Klout to weigh in on the subject. K40
  • haha, well I am sure you do and Klout doesn't limit anyone's ability to engage in the discussion I thikn. :)
  • Laura H. 1 month ago
    What I don't like is that social networks in which I am an almost unwilling participant -- only there because I got dragged in by one friend -- are given equal weight. Silly.
  • ashutosh nigam 1 month ago
    article is very nice....thanks for sharing with us
  • great article! regarding point #1, i was intrigued from the beginning how exactly the score was calculated, but now i realize this may become a very sought-after algorithm as klout gains momentum.

    i do enjoy having an overall metric of online presence, and i think this was a logical next step for social media as it gains maturity. i'd love to see klout evolve in a way where you could see your impressions/engagement on a micro level, so you could make adjustments accordingly.
  • I believe Klout to be of value. Would I bet the farm on it? Hardly. Your mileage may vary. {grin}
  • Hi Jeff, that's a great point, I think you can never know how widespread Klout may get, yet I think they are doing a great job with marketing at the moment. :)

Reactions

  • SigurdFelix 1 week ago
      From  Twitter
    8 Facts And Figures About Klout You Might Not Know http://t.co/6uUrgXol
  • Eflow03 2 weeks ago
      From  Twitter
    @AdamLeydenTuck For some real facts: http://t.co/EZgdCHHY #klout
  • ADerricks 2 weeks ago
      From  Twitter
    "The Average @Klout Score Is 20" 8 Facts And Figures About Klout You Might Not Know http://t.co/PsQ5Gw5e via @bufferapp
  • Vanessa_Simons 2 weeks ago
      From  Twitter

Posted by Robby Ball at 9:44 AM