Klout is a San Francisco-based company that provides social media analytics to measure a user's influence across his or her social network. The analysis is done on data taken from sites such as Twitter and Facebook and measures the size of a person's network, the content created, and how other people interact with that content.^[2] The company has been subject to substantial criticism, both for its business model and its operating principle.^[3]

Klout Score[link]

Klout scrapes social network data and creates profiles on individuals and assigns them a "Klout score". Klout currently claims to have built more than 100 million profiles. Klout is not an "opt-in" service, but individuals who register at Klout can ensure that all of their social networks are accessed and therefore evaluated in their Klout scores. Klout also builds profiles of individuals who are connected to those who do register at Klout.

Klout scores range from 1 to 100, with higher scores corresponding to a higher assessment by Klout of the breadth and strength of one's online influence. Klout scores are supplemented with three nominally more specific measures, which Klout calls "True Reach", "Amplification", and "Network Impact".

True Reach is based on the size of a person's "engaged audience" of followers and friends who actively listen and react to his or her online messages. Amplification Score relates to the likelihood that one's messages will generate actions (retweets, @messages, likes, and comments). Network Score reflects the computed influence value of a person's engaged audience.^{[citation needed]}

The accuracy of Klout Score has been questioned several times^[4] by different researchers.

In regards to their score, Klout in early May of 2012 stated that they serve roughly one billion API calls per day, which is 80 times the data they served at the same time in 2011. Klout also stated that the new API is more "Klout-focused" and less Twitter-focused. ^[5]

Method[link]

Klout measures influence by using data points from Twitter, such as following count, follower count, retweets, list memberships, how many spam/dead accounts are following you, how influential the people who retweet you are, and unique mentions. This information is blended with data from a number of other social networks such as comment, likes, and the number of friends in your network to come up with a "Klout Score" that measures a user's online influence.^[6]

The business model is then based around connecting businesses with individuals of high influence. Companies have paid to get in contact with individuals with high Klout scores in hopes that free merchandise and other perks will influence them to spread positive publicity for them. According to Klout CEO Joe Fernandez, about 50 of these partnerships have been established as of November 2011.^[7]

Criticism[link]

Several objections to Klout's methodology have been raised regarding both the process by which scores are generated, and the overall societal effect. Critics have pointed out that Klout scores are not representative of the influence a person really has, highlighted by Barack Obama, President of the United States, having a lower influence score than a number of bloggers.^[8] Additionally, some social critics argue that the Klout score devalues authentic online communication and promotes social ranking and stratification by trying to quantify human interaction.^[9] The site has also been criticized for violating the privacy of minors, and for exploiting users for its own profit.^[10]

John Scalzi has described the principle behind Klout's operation as "socially evil" in its exploitation of its users' status anxiety.^[11] Charles Stross has described the service as "the internet equivalent of herpes", saying that his analysis of Klout's terms and conditions reveals that the company's business model is illegal in the United Kingdom, where it conflicts with the Data Protection Act 1998. Stross advises readers to delete their Klout accounts and opt out of Klout services.^[12]

Ben Rothke concluded that "Klout has its work cut out and it seems like they need to be in beta a while longer. Klout can and should be applauded for trying to measure this monstrosity called social influence; but their results of influence should in truth, carry very little influence". ^[13]

Notable events[link]

• September 2011: Klout integrates with Google+^[14]
• October 2011: Klout changes its scoring algorithm lowering many scores and creating complaints^[15]
• November 2011: Klout partners with Wahooly for their beta launch^[16]
• January 2012: Klout was able to raise an estimated $30 million from a host of venture capital firms.^[17]
• February 2012: Klout acquires local and mobile neighborhood app Blockboard.^[18]
• May 2012: Klout announces growth of 2000 new partners over a one year period. ^[19]

Similar metrics[link]

• Kred Influence Measurement
• PeerIndex

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website