Updated on 11/14/11. Originally posted on 11/13/11
I have a confession. I am obsessed with checking my Klout score. I check it almost daily. Perhaps it is my competitive nature, but when my score drops I get a little bit disappointed.
This was a 49 just the other day. I don't know what happened. I'm so upset.
Klout.com is a way to measure your online engagement. You can link it to several of your social media profiles: Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Blogger, LinkedIn, FourSquare and more. It uses an algorithm to calculate a score that expresses your online engagement by factoring in Tweets, reTweets, mentions, likes, comments and more. Klout will also tell you what areas you are influential in.
The topics I'm influential about.
So, what’s the point? Well, there is actually a lot of speculation as to whether or not your Klout score really means anything at all. Some people say that it should only be one way you measure influence while others argue that it is the only way. Recently, Klout changed the way they measured your influence. There was outrage over the changes as many people saw a drop in their score by over ten points or more.
Honestly, I may obsessively check my Klout score, but I don’t let it influence the way I use social media. I’m not going to go out and begin Tweeting constantly or begging for likes or comments just to increase my score. I use it as way to monitor my social media use and see when maybe I’m getting a little lazy in my engagement. I enjoy seeing which areas Klout thinks I’m influential in as well as checking the scores of my friends.
So, what about you? Do you check your Klout score? How do you feel about the changes?
