Klout

Klout.

An imaginary word.  It is intended to evoke the feeling and meaning of the word clout. The definition of which is:
Informal . pull; strong influence; muscle, especially politicalpower: a wealthy campaign contributor with clout at city hall.

Klout is an interesting web presence that measures your social influence.  Using a complex array of algorithms and computational models (my words) it simplifies your online life into a numerical score between 1 and 100.  Higher is better.

For lack of something better to do I joined Klout a few weeks back.  My score debut was a whopping 10.  To me that was just a few steps above internet using amoeba.  I mean seriously, I have published articles on the web, I have a FaceBook account, I even use Twitter from time to time.  I had to have a higher score than an amoeba! It turns out I did and that the score can change.  A mere two weeks later it is a more respectable 45.  I mean I am not starting a cultural revolution with a 45 score, but I am also not an internet noob or nobody.  I also noticed that a few Tweets, a few Facebook posts, especial tagging others seemed to vastly improve my score.  In the interest of full disclosure, an average score is 40, so I am just about one slime mold better than average.  Upon reading that my vast ego deflated ever so slightly.

That got me thinking, how does Klout compute this score of my internet influence?

Klout looks at social aspects of your digital life like FaceBook, Blogger, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and the like.

Being the competitive type I immediately set out to raise my score. I actually took the time to see if Twitter has any value to me what-soever.  The early verdict is no.  I started a blog - i.e. this one, I signed up for Flikr, etc.  It will be interesting to see if my score continues a slow rise as all of my new digital foot prints percolate throughout the cyber worlds. I certainly hope it does, if only for the sake of science.

I personally think maintaining a high Klout score would be rather time consuming and boring an not an inconsiderable responsibility.  Think about it.  If I commanded a Klout score of say 90, writing blogs, posting family pictures of FaceBook and a few Tweets is a colossal waste of influence. With a score like that I should be rallying people to end world hunger, or at least save some whales, not posting Halloween costume pics.  So my hope is that my score does rise a bit, just so I can honestly say I am not average and then plateau so I do not have to shoulder the responsibility of saving all those whales.  Those http://www.seashepherd.org folks do a great job at it, and I fully support their cause and hope they have a higher Klout score than myself.

If you are vaguely interested in Klot, then check them out.  Perhaps you can even call me an influencer.  I promise I get no kickbaks or payment from them.  I get to live in my delusional bubble I actually have some internet influence, and after-all - that is what we all want.


Check Klout out :  http://klout.com/#/corp/what_is_klout