Klout

Social media influence and how to measure it, if that's even possible, is a red hot topic. A recent guest blog post from Simon Caine - I Hate Klout - kicked off a flurry of comments and twitter conversation - increasing his influence, perchance? Joanne Jacobs, one of those commenters kindly agreed to share her blog post and recent presentation on Influence & Marketing on Chinwag.

Last night I spoke at an event in London for marketing and PR practitioners on influence. I quite deliberately constructed a presentation which I knew would not be popular; I wanted to challenge marketing professionals on their focus on influencers as a mouthpiece for brands. Or perhaps more accurately, I wanted to tell them to stop what they were planning/doing and really think about why people are influencers to begin with.

I guess the title says it all but this would be a really boring blog post if I just wrote “see above”. I am sure I am not alone, but from the legions of people who seem to use and put stock in this service I feel very much Han Solo.

First off I want to say on paper the idea for Klout is great. A 'measure of influence' would be a great thing for me to have in my day to day job. But it’s not something that can be quantified…particularly not the way Klout does it.