My experiment with Klout

I gamed it from 30 to 70. Never registered for or received perks. My stats go a long ways to proving that at worst, Klout has no credibility and at best, it is a game that should not be used for anything other than entertainment. I became alarmed when well known “experts, pros, presenters, vendors” began making statements like “….make sure to check the applicants Klout score and if he/she does not score at least a 50 then show them the door”. Are you kidding me? If I had failed miserably on Klout then my reporting would have been taken as sour grapes. To be critical of it I had to be in the middle of it and had to have some degree of success. It indeed stole a lot of time away from other things but I felt it important enough to render an opinion “from the inside”

Klout’s website was broken during much of my 6 month experiment. Their ineptness in maintaining their site was overlooked as folk’s vanity overcame their good sense of judgment in my opinion. Rarely did I notice anyone mentioning how messed up their website was. My thought was “how can anything that broken be relied upon to render any reliable statistics?”…Well it can’t and here is the proof.

“Top +K Recipients” for Thomas A Kelly as of 10-16-12 (Klout now only lists the top 5 recipients in each category)

Chevrolet Motor Company # 1

Magazine (what the hell is that anyways?) #1

Search Engine Marketing #3

Social Marketing #3

Motor Sports #3

Auto Industry # 4

Online Presence #4

Overall “Klout” in the top 1000 at #404

My “True Reach” peaked at 14,000

My “Amplification” peaked at 100

I was labeled “Pundit”

No one knows me better than me. I can assure everyone that the rankings for me in every category are bogus. There are thousands upon thousands of folks who should be placed ahead of me in every category if it were possible to accurately rank. I now will now cease any activity on Klout and take my rightful place much nearer the bottom of every category I am ranked in.

In all seriousness I come back to the “gurus” need to be very careful when they toss out statements like “….if they don’t have a score of…..show them the door” Let this be a lesson before you speak on the next topic…you bear a lot of responsibility when you speak to our community. Thanks for reading. Tom

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Comment by Thomas A. Kelly on October 17, 2012 at 6:21am: If I were to proclaim today that social media is dead in the world of automotive, my bogus proclamation would be given the consideration it deserves.....NONE…. If a Ralph Paglia or any one of the many respected leaders in our industry were to make the same statement....many would pause and give consideration to the argument and some would just follow. Kinda like the old E.F. Hutton commercials...."when he speaks, everybody listens"....along with that reputation comes a responsibility to have a good understanding of any product you endorse. Any heavy hitter who would suggest that a less than "50" Klout score is an automatic disqualifier in a job interview has little knowledge of the product (or owns stock in Klout). I posted a link to this blog on my FB, Ed Brooks' had this to say:

"Dale Pollak's Klout score is a fraction of mine. That tells you all you need to know about Klout's validity..."

Can you imagine showing David Pollak the door because of his Klout score?

I have no particular quarrel with Klout, it is what it is....my concern is with a few the "E.F. Huttons" going off half cocked.

Thanks to all for your comments.

Comment by Ralph Paglia on October 16, 2012 at 7:39pm: Fascinating look at Klout, but what I find even more interesting is the cause and effect around the statement your unidentified expert made about showing an applicant "the door". As irresponsible as such a statement is, it seems like too many people seek a single reason to hire, fire, use, enroll, purchase or participate in a process or activity. Life and business are a lot more complicated and nuanced than any single measure will ever bear witness too, Klout or otherwise. For me, Klout is like many other ranking systems, a game or online version of a sport, yet with some degree of relevance to professional activity. It simply is irresponsible to base any judgement around hiring or purchasing services based on any single measurement point. Every system that includes automatically calculated ranking or evaluation can be gamed with enough effort.

Comment by George O'Sullivan on October 16, 2012 at 7:06pm: I am glad that I have resisted the Klout urge. Thank you Tom, for allowing me to claim victory with my procrastination.

Comment by Timothy Martell on October 16, 2012 at 1:00pm: Tom, well done sir! Perhaps the thing to do would be to publish a step by step guide to actually gaming klout! If you think about it, it will generate website traffic, be shared like wildfire on social media and completely ruin Klout in the process! Everyone will be a 70+ and perhaps they will have to change their methodology to something of greater value to remain relevant.

I pay almost no attention to klout. I do not even follow klout scores any more. Its worthless.

Comment by David T. Gould on October 16, 2012 at 12:53pm: Thomas, your time and input on this topic is valued. Thanks friend. DTG

Comment by Shannon Page on October 16, 2012 at 12:24pm: Thanks for the look behind the curtain Tom. ;-)

Comment by Keith Shetterly on October 16, 2012 at 12:22pm: Nancy Simmons Klout'd Jae Chang. Thomas Kelly Klout'd Thomas Kelly. I'm starting my own "influence-ranking" site.

MyKlown.com or maybe MyKlod.com...

Seriously, Tom, I'm concerned at your findings. I thought you were a PUNDIT! :)

Comment by NANCY SIMMONS on October 16, 2012 at 10:13am: I agree Tom! It is a game to me, which I do not take seriously... I lost my Facebook account profile due to a hacker and was pushed from a score of 69 to 10...I increased my score from 10 to 71 in about 45 days, only to beat Jae Chang..LOL...That was my mission! It can truly be a game!