In case you never heard of Klout let me quickly quote Wikipedia for you cause I don’t think I can formulate it better:
Klout is a website and mobile app that uses social media analytics to rank its users according to online social influence via the “Klout Score”, which is a numerical value between 1 and 100. In determining the user score, Klout measures the size of a user’s social media network and correlates the content created to measure how other users interact with that content.
Klout allowes you to link multiple social networks & social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn and so on, and uses data from these channels to set-up your Klout profile and calculate your score. In a nutshell: the higher your Klout score, the more influential you are.
A common asked question by brands is “Should I take Klout into account in my metrics / KPI sheet?”. Personally I think it’s nice to regularly check it, but see it merely as an indication of your social activity. It doesn’t mean because you have a great Klout score that you are delivering great content;-) Btw businesses make sure that you use “Klout for Business“, and don’t set up your profile as an individual.
Now what can Klout do for you as an individual: more and more companies are using Klout to know who has influence to affect their brand. Their mindset is: why give freebies to everyone while you can know who will bring your company or brand the most word of mouth. With a high Klout score you might get upgrades at hotels, free drinks in bars, and even upgraded flights. Klout also has a service called “Klout Perks” to provide Klout users with exclusive products or experiences also to be earned based on your influence like for example pre-release movies screenings. I spoke about a Klout Perk example from McDonalds a while ago, which you can read here.
And let’s not forget Klout parties 🙂 I’m attending a #Kloutparty myself in August organised by Social Media Club Antwerp in Belgium, and they played it well: a blog post mentioning this event gives you free oysters accompanied by bubbles. Of course there will be free drinks and snacks for everyone who subscribed offered by The Other Agency. Hope to see you all there on the roof terrace of Kube8 😉
