Why you should pay attention to Klout

“The Standard for Online and Internet Influence” — Klout.com

Last week, Rob Bertholf, a member of the Social Media Club of Hawaii launched a new website, Hawaii Klout.  Using his programming skills and the Klout API, he aggregated a list of Hawaii social media users based on their scores.  There was some discussion throughout the week about the new site, most of it initiated by Bertholf who sent tweets to listed users.

The discussion varied, depending on the role a person plays in the social media game.  Newer players were congratulatory while veterans discredited the measurement tool and one PR person alleged to be oblivious to the tool altogether.  But, in monitoring the discussion, the realest conversation came from Toby Tamaye, President of AT Marketing and @atmarketing on Twitter.

His initial glance of the list and Tamaye asked Bertholf to get rid of the “riff raff”.  In subsequent conversations he remarked how important each random retweet and #FollowFriday was with respect to measurement used by Klout.  To me, his sincere acknowledgment of being aware not only of the Klout algorithm, but its level of importance is refreshing.  Tamaye is a traditional marketer who has aggressively and quite successfully integrated social media into his business services.  He gets it and is honest about it.

Tamaye’s “riff raff” comment is accurate and likely the reason for veterans in the social media community to discount its measurement.  The initial local list had non-Hawaii residents, Bertholf quickly made some programming changes, added a ‘flag’ button, and cleaned up the “riff raff”.  But, there’s more vulnerability to Klout, it’s something that they cannot measure, it’s “local knowledge”.  It’s the type of “insiders scoop” that investors like to learn before committing millions of dollars.  It’s the “word of mouth” reviews that small town residents wouldn’t post on Yelp! or as a tip on Foursquare.  It’s, as we call it in Hawaii, the “Coconut Wireless”.

So, while Klout uses its technology to measure influence based on a user’s following and activity, it (for now) doesn’t allow for the “coconut wireless” to chime in (and there are so many ethical reasons NOT to do this, but that’s another discussion).

For example, Russ Sumida, more affectionately known as @ParkRat all over the internet has a Klout score of 63.  However, since I first began engaging with him on Twitter and then in real life in 2008, it was quickly clear to me that he would be influential in the community.  He’s doing a lot of good things, behind the scenes, places Klout cannot reach.

Other examples are Christa Wittmier and Jason Genegabus, both with scores of 58.  Genegabus is the Editor of online entertainment site powered by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Pulse.  In less than 6-months he’s blown away his competition growing his community from 24K unique monthly visitors at the launch to a steadily growing average of 40K with complete and inclusive coverage of Honolulu’s food and entertainment scene.  Wittmier, better known as SuperCW is Hawaii’s entertainment and nightlife soul.  She’s been on the scene, created the scene, dictated the scene, and embraces everyone else on the scene with more energy than anyone else…on the scene.

Another example is Ed Morita, @nctrnlbst on Twitter, his score is 59, but his involvement with some of the biggest online and social media projects in Hawaii is not reflective in his score.  My “insider scoop” on his upcoming projects would earn me a hefty return if I were an investor!

Bottom-line, Klout is not an accurate measure of online or internet influence, it’s just a guide, research and the “insider scoop” are still very important tools too.  But, this post is about why you should pay attention to Klout.  It’s simple, because other people do.  All marketing, PR, social media marketers, and the likes should be paying attention to Klout too.  If you’re not, you’re a bozo.