{"id":1098,"date":"2011-06-22T16:48:23","date_gmt":"2011-06-22T20:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tuvel.com\/blog\/?p=1098"},"modified":"2011-07-14T11:17:11","modified_gmt":"2011-07-14T15:17:11","slug":"how-klout-should-be-measuring-social-media-influence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tuvel.com\/blog\/how-klout-should-be-measuring-social-media-influence\/","title":{"rendered":"How Klout Should be Measuring Social Media Influence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Something that I\u2019ve noticed and kept tabs on in recent months is the preoccupation with influence in social media, specifically how to measure it. Since we\u2019re in the business of locating influencers and running campaigns to build relationships with them on behalf of our clients, I\u2019ve keeping a close eye on emerging tools for identifying said influencers and determining, well, just how influential they are (BTW, here’s a really great infographic that maps out influencer ecosystems and roles<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"Klout\"<\/a>One of those first tools out of the gate that so many in the social media world have been chattering about lately is Klout<\/a>. Klout started out as a tool that measured a person\u2019s influence based on Twitter only, which caused a bit of a stir from those who rightly thought that influence should not be determined by tweets alone. So, they added Facebook and, most recently, LinkedIn<\/a> to the mix of profiles that help calculate a person\u2019s Klout score. They also added the ability for others to give you Klout (or +K) in a certain topic<\/a> \u2013 which is certainly a step in the right direction in terms of how influential others think you are. Klout is now starting to emerge as the tool for measuring social influence.<\/p>\n

Well, almost.<\/p>\n

When we think of social media, straight away we think of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, right? But when we talk about social media influence (or, better yet, social influence<\/em>), we\u2019re talking about an animal of different stripes. Social influence isn\u2019t just gauged by the \u201cBig 3\u201d social networking sites, it\u2019s gauged by your entire social sphere and how your network is engaging with you. Influence in a certain topic shouldn\u2019t necessarily be determined by how often you tweet about that topic, either (case in point \u2013 Klout has determined that our own Mitch Arnowitz is influential about ice cream<\/a> and I’m influential about cars<\/a>) – it should take into consideration other sources of content you\u2019ve posted about the topic.<\/p>\n

In terms of how they should be measuring influence, here\u2019s what I hope to see from Klout in the near future:<\/p>\n

Blogs<\/strong><\/h2>\n