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There’s been so much buzz — on and offline — about Klout’s decision to unveil a new formula which supposedly recalculates scores more accurately, the result of which brought most people’s “popularity” scores down a few notches, including my own.
While I think what the guys over at Klout are trying to do is admirable and truth be told, we need really smart analytics and measurement tools to break through the noise, what we have today simply isn’t accurate enough or “whole” enough to give us the real truth on who’s influential and more importantly, in what circles and why.
Wouldn’t it be more interesting to know who had a Klout score of 80 in food and wine, 80 in social media, 80 in fashion, 80 in politics and so on?
Wouldn’t it also be more interesting if tools like this took into consideration a person’s offline influence as well as other things they may have done, such as a bestselling book or created a program that made an African village sustain itself?
Part of the issue is that we’re early and all of the vendors trying to innovate in this area are trying to figure it out. I spent time talking to Klout’s CEO and founder Joe Fernandez in Dublin recently at a web conference and I think he’s a great guy who’s trying to do the right thing.
I jokingly complained that I’ve seen 21 year olds who are new to social media, new to Twitter and new to business whose Klout scores have been higher than mine on some days. There are many things they take into account when dishing out a Klout score, including the level of engagement. Crikey, if you’re my niece’s age and have thousands of Facebook friends who have a ton of time on their hands and can chat away all day with their friends, regardless of how big the circle is, then no doubt, that online “activity” gets engagement brownie points which goes into the Klout analysis.
While engagement could be high in this ‘circle’, it is its own ecosystem and the real question is: will this voice influence a certain number of people to buy a certain product or take a certain that builds brand awareness?
I have 3 Facebook pages attached to my name, all of which are mine, but I don’t get credit in the Kloutsphere for any of them because they can only give you points for one Facebook account – your personal one. When I asked Joe about this, he had a logical explanation. There are far too many people managing a celebrity or brand’s Facebook fan page and they shouldn’t get credit for that level of influence when the page is about someone else. Fair enough. But what about those whose Facebook pages are legitimately connected to themselves? Small business owners would also fall into that category.
Yet, despite the fact that the numbers aren’t accurate or “whole,” tons of vendors and brands are jumping into the lions den and testing things out. Frankly, there’s nothing wrong with that. With every evolution and revolution, you need to learn by trial and error just like we did with email after fax, blogging after websites and Twitter after AOL IM.
One of my issues is how much credence we (as an industry) give these early tools and how much of a time waste they are for so many I know including me at times before I kick myself back into perspective, nevermind the cultural impact which has quite honestly turned into a popularity contest. I feel as if everyone is competing to be Ken or Barbie and we’re back to high school behavior in a way that’s not healthy.
As Geoff Livingston points out in a recent post, “people are spending time debating its merits and deficiencies, as well quantifiable metrics in general.”
Scores are one way for brand marketers and PR folks to create a list of targeted bloggers and tweeters they can go after, aka a list of the most influential voices who must hear about their product or service. I get it as I’ve been on the pitching line – both in front of it and in recent years, on the receiving end with We Blog the World.
As Geoff points out, the most influential people in any given sector aren’t necessarily on social media. They hire other people to serve as community managers. As one example, Klout only gives President Barack Obama an Influence Score of 48.
