What is Klout? How to Assess Social Media Influence
The Online Project's tutorial reveals how Klout works to rank your social media influence, and critically assesses where and when the Klout algorithm adds value, and where it doesn't.
Summary
Klout calls itself the "measurement for your overall online influence," but what are they really trying to do? To understand Klout's goal, you have to understand influence itself and the difficulty in measuring social media ROI. In the beginning, social media was measured in followers and fans, and for a time, life was good.
But with companies joining social media sites by the tens of thousands, everyone got followed and eventually tricks, software and spam accounts ran wild. Newcomers were able to create large 'followings' and social media service clients couldn't tell who was legitimate, and who had purchased a great 'friend adder' software program. If we can't count on raw numbers to tell us who's popular online, then what can we do? Enter Klout.