Dear Klout and the data gurus behind the “much improved” algorithm,
I remember back when you first hit the social media scene. We bloggers and heavy social media users flocked to your site, signing up for an account and linking our Facebook profiles. We wondered what our score be. How will we stack up against one another? What did we need to do to improve our Klout? What kind of score did Oprah have? Or Justin Bieber? There was some merit to what you were trying to do. Social is a big deal now and you were trying to create a smart metric to measure that social influence.
As time went by, you introduced Klout topics, more platforms to link up and the ability for your users to award others with +K. This is when my doubts grew. First of all, too many users had at least 1 topic that made no sense (Me tweeting about the Cincinnati Reds?!?). Second, one Twitterer giving someone else a +K for a topic they were supposedly influenced about? Friends immediately ganged up on one another in order to make a user influential on ridiculous topics like Kim Kardashian or boobs. And third, while I think you cleverly created a sense of urgency amongst many users with the giving of +K, most of us knew that it was a move that had more to do with pageviews and publicity than anything of merit or true analysis.
Grumblings in the social media realm grew. #ImaginaryKlout was born. Users began to delete their Klout profiles.
You became the butt of all too many a Twitter joke. And an entire Twitter handle was born in opposition to your inaccuracy.
Just last week your blog announced that a “more accurate” algorithm was being introduced and that the “majority of users will see their Scores stay the same or go up”.
But why did the most heavily-involved and heavily-connected users’ scores actually decrease? And decrease by a substantial amount?
And how do you explain those scores belonging to users who have no clue about Klout and have no other social media presence outside of a personal Facebook account, shooting up to the high 30s? More than a couple bloggers have told me they have a sister or aunt or someone they know who is totally clueless about the term “social media”, who are suddenly sporting Klout scores pretty close to their own?
Here’s my personal case in point.
My main Twitter handle is @BelleBeanDog. I’ve had it for quite some time, logged roughly 38,000 tweets and have over 3,200 followers. I regularly interact with people, have my tweets retweeted and all the important engagement-type stuff. I also have my blog’s Facebook fan page, Google+ profile, Instagram, FourSquare, YouTube AND LinkedIn accounts connected to this Klout account. My Klout score* with your algorithm change is now 52 (Full disclosure: It was 63 before the change, a drop of 11 pts).
A few months ago I started a second Twitter handle, in my own name (cuz face it…am I really going to be @BelleBeanDog forever?). @LizJostes has only my personal Facebook account connected to it. I log, on average, just 1 tweet a day and get ZERO engagement on that account. But with the new algorithm? My Klout score increased to 53* (I think my previous score was 49. I’m not sure since I barely use this account).
Yep, that’s right.
My barely-used-barely-connected-and-zero-engagement @LizJostes Klout score is higher by 1 point.
Not only does this not make sense, but to me it’s the final nail in the casket of Klout’s kredibility.
And speaking of Kred-ibility, how do you think your algorithm will stack up against your soon-to-be-launched competitor, Kred?
Signed,
A heavy social media user who used to think you had some merit
So tell me, what are your thoughts on Klout? Have your thoughts changed over time?
*Klout scores as of 10.28.11
**The Klout score of @BelleBeanDog dropped to 51 as of 10.30.11
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I think the next Kardashian girl should be named Klout.
I love this article… I like Klout – b/c they give me free stuff.
But, I started another twitter handle/FB fan page/Klout acct for my blog by itself, apart from my personal one. I have way less followers, way less interation. And I can’t get my Klout score high enough to qualify for the free things in my division, i.e. health, wellness, etc.
AND my friends topics were all removed for no reason. People who ARE influential in specific areas to me.
I will admit though, I am totally one of those ppl who gives @surferwife Klout on Vodka. HA!
Thanks for the insightful article!
You’re a good friend Maegan. I love your face off for it.
Just when my Klout score started to go up, my life got hectic, I wasn’t tweeting as much but I had more followers, my FB fan page was getting more likes and I was sure it would stay steady. It was at 59 the day before the change and now it’s 51 and honestly I was upset and pissed. I know it shouldn’t matter, but sometimes it really does. I guess I have a lot of work to do.
However if a blog/twitter account like yours can be changed that much, what chance does a little blogger like me have????
My score was 68 FOREVER and then dropped to 55. I’m over it. Klout is BS.
Great post.
I admit I was loving the free stuff, but lately the perks are things that I have zero interest in. My score dropped too because I wasn’t tweeting 24/7. I mean really, who has the time? So I stopped paying attention to it.
Oh yeah, and I’m influential about unicorns. Unicorns!
Klout is crazy. It said I had influence in children and I don’t even have any and I’m pretty sure I’ve never talked about them. I took a break from twitter for two days and it stripped me of all my topics.
Seems funny (I mean strange, not funny). I have a Klout account, but I do not check it often.
I have stopped caring so much about Klout. I couldn’t stay on twitter 24 hours a day just to keep my score up. My score has decreased 11 points since their new algorithm was implemented.
[...] An Open Letter to Klout [...]
So many great points. I had to laugh — last time I hopped on Klout, I was an influential re Wal*Mart. Good grief. That’s what you get living in a small town dominated by mass retailer. You certainly know from which you write. (I guess the same could be said of my knowledge to navigate Wal*Mart.)
MOM 101 response has me dying! I don’t like Klout but I can’ figure out how to get away from it, cancel it, etc.
I always thought it was BS and absolutely resented (and still do resent) my twitter stream being filled with “I gave +K to ___” or “I got +k from ____” It just felt like everyone was giving so much power to this random company. I hate to see the same thing happen with the next Klout and the next and the next.
And now they give out awards for handing out and receiving +Ks. Again, another attempt to drive traffic to their site and to encourage people to keep tweeting about them for publicity.
It also looks like you get +K now just for logging in to Klout. That has nothing to do with engagement. It’s like the game went to their heads.
Considering I am supposedly influencial in Allergies, Tattoos and France, I am really confused about Klout. And my score went from 56 to 46. And even on days when I have really deep long convos on Twitter and Facebook and have great traffic on my Blog, my score isn’t changing. It’s inching so slowly that it might as well not move at all. It went from showing me what I was doing right on some days to being not worth one darn bit.
I had worked hard to raise my Klout score and at one point increased to 69. Then I started having my suspicions and didn’t bother with it at all. I dropped to a 65. When the new algorithms came out last week, I dropped to a 55. Now I really don’t care. I think that actually BEING involved and engaged on social media is more important than worrying about a bogus score that measures our influence on SM.
My 2 cents.
Bernice
Whoa. You nailed it here. Personally, I think the whole thing is set up more like a game and less like a true authority measuring tool. I went ahead and unlinked all my accounts. I just can’t be bothered to care anymore.
I noticed the same thing about my IRL friends and family. They suddenly had major Klout even though they have no idea what Klout is or what Social Media means. Even though they’ve never sent a single Tweet. Meanwhile, my Klout plummets 13 points…
I am with you in that… I just don’t see how this is new and improved with these points!! I dropped 16 points!! Not too happy with the new and improved Klout!
I’m not trying to be rude in the least, but I honestly wouldn’t dwell on it too much. The perks are nothing extravagant and a lot of companies could care less about a Klout score. I think this is something that is going to soon be a thing of the past.
it’s actually too bad klout can’t “get it right” b/c it would be great to measure online influence, even if it is very general.
i never look at my klout score, and now, won’t plan to anytime soon.
I am so glad you wrote this.
I seriously thought I was the only one who didn’t like Klout.
As a natural-born pleaser, it used to distress me to log on and see OH NO! Your score has dropped…..
Who needs that kind of pressure?
It’s hard enough for me to keep track of what candy I’ve sneaked out of my kids’ Halloween bags.
Sheesh.
I do like my free bottle of wine that I got but otherwise, I’m pretty much over Klout.
I liked reading this post.
I’m with you Mine dropped 12 points! Makes me feel sick. What a load of crap.
Fantastic post. Anyone that has a strong knowledge of how algorithms worked and did NOT work over past 10 years knows it’s completely off and VERY game-able. Waste of time, really.
I just don’t know what it’s going to take until Klout either admits it’s way off or people finally give up caring.
I just consumed a LOT of time with a very well thought out post about the issue– thanks in large part to you getting me thinking. Then I searched twitter for “klout”. I think it’s almost THREATENING to people…..they’re afraid NOT to (excuse the language) pimp klout.com. New research came out showing how much it effects twitter’s also…a LOT.
Is your post live? I’d love to read it! Thanks!
Hi Liz,
You can read it at: http://tweetphiladelphia.com/klout-rating-is-misleading/
I wish I had “tightened” the piece more, but know there are a lot of ideas in there that are unique. Hope you’ll leave a comment, I plan to continue visiting your blog.
Hey Liz,
I too kept holding out hope that Klout would be able to pull it together and salvage their Kred-ibility and gave the leadership over there a chance to respond to all of the questions that have been fired at them recently. Especially those from last wThe fall outeeks #kloutchat. I advised that I was writing a blog post and needed a response in 24 hours so that it would still be relevant (Klout chat was on Wednesday, request on Thursday response late Saturday afternoon. Blog posted Thursday Klout 2.0|working through the kinks or not http://bit.ly/vMWuJd). Oh and did I mention that the response I received was basically a rehash from the tomfoolery that is posted on their website & every press release! As the kids say “Time to get some Kred…social media Kred that is!”
Hey Karen,
You would think that Klout would do some testing of their algorithm and check examples similar to my own before releasing an “improved” change and adjusting everyone’s scores (Even historical scores. Which would have been better to leave alone and notate the date of the new algorithm).
Liz,
You would think! But it appears that they are only focusing on what their end goal was which was to get to the Klout Perks portion of the program and make money for themselves!
I have been a dabbler since I first signed up yet I am receiving Klout Perks that even Thought leaders with lower scores than I have aren’t yet receiving…klout is a hot mess.
[...] influence. But the results – including lower scores for some major influencers, seemingly inconsistent scores across accounts, and troubling tips on how to improve your score – caused many to call the entire system into [...]
thanks liz for posting and sharing this! while i’m not sure I’ll shut my account down (what can i say i like free stuff!), I have been greatly confused with the sudden drops off my klout score.
Off to check out Eric’s post too!
kred …. what’s that? Lets talk!
[...] fact, the truth is that most of us saw a huge drop, upwards of 10 -12 points. And some even saw two of their accounts move to within a number or two of each [...]