Klout Announced for Businesses: So What?

Two weeks ago, Klout, the online influencer platform, announced that they are rolling out their services for brands. Despite the announcement, which to be honest, got the exact publicity it deserved, brands shouldn’t put much thought into the change.

For those of you unfamiliar with Klout, the platform gives users (and now brands), a Klout score from zero to 100 based on their ability to spread messages across social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and so on. Klout also identifies users as “influential” on certain topics like technology and marketing.

The idea for brands to start using Klout is to help then identify these influential users and hopefully encourage them to spread the brand’s news, essentially, creating an advocate. 

According to their website, “the science behind the score examines more than 400 variables on multiple networks beyond your number of followers and friends. It looks at who is engaging with our content and who they are sharing it with.”

I give Klout credit for at least mentioning that the score has much to do beyond the numbers of likes and followers. To be honest, if it didn’t have that one line, I am guessing half as many users would be on the network. However, to me that is just not enough.

Let’s say I am the word of mouth marketing master of the world, but maybe, I don’t like Twitter. I choose to only spread my voice offline or with news articles on LinkedIn. Given the fact that I don’t share everything online or with a few of the major networks on there, my Klout score might be lower than expected. See something wrong?

The other issue I have with Klout is the fact that our entire society feels the need to attach a numeric value to everything we do. It’s sad enough that CMOs and Presidents still like to concentrate on the number of likes, followers, and pins, but now, some want to just put an overall number on their social media marketing. In the real world of marketing, companies and marketers do not do this. Ask any real thought leader in the marketing arena and I guarantee they put little if any thought into one’s Klout score.

Brands looking to find influencers don’t need a system like Klout. They need only the same tactic that has worked for hundreds of years and will continue to do so in the future. Build relationships with your fans. Listen to your fans. Find out what they like to read and then guess what? Read the same and garner a relationship with those writers. Instead of looking at Klout, look at your advocates.

There is no need to research influencers on platforms like Klout. Just ask the people who really know your brand.