My Klout Score Just Dropped by 16 Points–Should I Care?

Social Media 3 Minutes

Klout has changed its scoring algorithm and your score dropped. Now what?

Klout measures influence.Today I went to check my Klout score–knowing the day before was one of my most active days on Twitter ever–only to discover my score had dropped by about 16 points. Odd. At first I thought I had misread the number. Not the case. I noticed my score for the past 30 days was lower across the board. My new Klout graph indicates my score has been steadily dropping during the past 30 days, which is in contrast to what it has been indicating (steadily increasing). I then found Klout’s blog “A More Accurate, Transparent Klout Score.” They’ve changed their algorithm–drastically hurting my score that I worked so hard to increase.

Not really a big deal since I never really bought into the system in the first place. I did, however, view it as a way to gauge how effective my tweets are. For the past couple months I have been scouring the internet for the best blog posts and articles relating to public relations, social media and marketing. Everyday, I search for the best and most relevant articles I can to share with my followers. I not only do this to hopefully get a few retweets and maybe open up some discussion on the topics, but I also do this for my own benefit to learn more about the PR and marketing industries and stay up-to-date on current trends.

In case you have made it this far in my post and have no idea what Klout is, it’s really pretty simple. Klout is meant to be a way to measure once’s influence across an array of social media sites–namely Twitter. Klout touts itself as being “the standard for influence.” From here, I think this blog post on compete.com sums it up best:

Klout scores range between 1-100 – 1 being a sign that you may have gone to Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn once in your life and 100 meaning that there is some godly aura floating around you, your name is probably Justin Bieber, and that people literally eat up every word you say for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (See: Justin Bieber Cereal). Most celebrities have Klout scores of 70+, with Justin Bieber at 100 and Lady Gaga at 93. Companies partnering with Klout.com are already giving away “Perks” to a certain number of influencers depending on their Klout number and which topics they are influential about.

It may seem completely ridiculous that Justin Bieber has a score of 100 and the President of the United State has a measly score of 88, but that’s how Klout sees it. How Klout has actually become the standard for measuring the online influence for individuals and brands alike is beyond me. I would imagine they were able to secure major investors, do some killer PR and get the right “perks” out to make their mysterious algorithm seem credible.

Justin Bieber has a Klout score of 100.
According to Klout, Justin Bieber is more influential than the President of the United States. Fascinating.

I think I will just let Klout be and look for other means of measuring personal success in the social media realm. I will continue finding relevant articles and creating my own content my connections will appreciate. After all, I’m really only on Twitter for two reasons: 1. to learn and 2. to build my social network and meet people with similar interests.

Further reading about Klout:

*Top image: SFgate.com

Published by eric_wheeler

I'm a social media specialist and a graduate of St. Cloud State University with a Masters Degree in Mass Communications with emphasis in PR and Advertising. I did my undergraduate work at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, majoring in the same field. My interests include social media, marketing, photography, running, and traveling.

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3 thoughts on “My Klout Score Just Dropped by 16 Points–Should I Care?”

  1. I’d have to agree with you, Eric. Your Klout score is a great reference point and motivator to engage with your audience more and be active on social media, but shouldn’t be taken as the only indicator of influence.

    From a business standpoint, it seems silly to only interact with or pay attention to people who are deemed ‘influential’ by such an arbitrary algorithm. I think if you have the mindset that all of your fans, followers and customers are influencers (since they are) and treat them as such, you’ll see more success and have a much more loyal fan base.

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    1. Well said, Brittany. Thank you for reading. One of my favorite findings is that Klout believes I am ‘influential’ about cars because I purchased a used Hyundai about nine months ago. I actually know almost nothing about cars and have probably never tweeted about cars other than a photo I posted of me standing next to my new ride.

      Thanks again,

      Wheeler

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  2. Pingback: Social Media Crisis: The Case of Klout « Wheeler Blogs.

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