We’ve written about Klout a few times in this blog. As I have said before, I really don’t care about my Klout score and am generally ambivalent about Klout’s existence. Like most automa
ted measurements, Klout is an imperfect ranking system and each user’s score should be taken with a grain of salt. I strongly believe that determining influence is highly objective and usually effected by situational conditions.
While I may not agree with Klout as a flat out ranking system, I do find it useful for reaching a large swath of people with common interests easily, and that makes it a good tool. As a company we have leveraged Klout Perks for multiple clients and have been pleased with the results.
In the few times Convertiv has used Klout perks we have gone after a large base of people to introduce them to a product or a website that they might be interested in using. In each case we wanted to reach 1000 to 5000 people as opposed to a small group of influencers. In these situations we received a very positive ROI on what we wanted people to do, whether that be sign up, download, or buy. Furthermore, the cost per acquisition or action was in line with our other paid marketing efforts. Plus our clients received a boost in mentions across key social media outlets and an increase in followers. (However, I was actually disappointed regarding the total number of followers gained versus how many people interacted with the brands.)
While I wouldn’t use Klout to define the absolute top five influencers in a specific space, I have and will continue to use it for identifying larger groups of people based on a common interest, location, or other factors.
How have you used Klout?