Proof That Your Klout Score Doesn’t Define You

Klout Score, Does It Define You?

The answer to that should be a BIG NO!

Before I jump into this post I want to say that I am not saying Klout Scoring is all bad. I enjoy a little traffic from them and a few social media managing clients have come to me after seeing my Klout stats.

So not all bad, my main issue is Klout not being more transparent on how and what REALLY goes into a person’s Klout Score.

My goal with this post is to help you see that like everything else in blogging and social media, Klout is a tool you can’t control, so stop stressing over it.

At the end of the week the amount of money you made online WILL HAVE nothing to do with what your Klout Score was.

To prove all this, I decided to run a small test and see what would happen. I knew I would be busy moving and would be offline a couple days, so it was a good time to do my A/B test.

I Tested Two Extremes

Write a post that is shared a lot and be very active on all sites.

Not visiting a SM site for 4 days. No tweets, No shares, No Posts…Nothing.

Testing Begins

On Oct 18 my Klout Score was 55 and Klout Score Analysis was 56.20

Then I did my 12 Social Media Tools post that got:

210 Re-Tweet’s
77 Facebook shares
90 LinkedIn shares
16 Google+ Likes

Here’s what happened…

Oct 19 my Klout was 56.21
Oct 20 it was 56.15
Oct 21 it was 56.13

My Score Analysis dropped, but my actual Score stayed at 55

All that sharing and my score stayed the same. Add to that, I was very active tweeting and sharing and chatting with people each day on Twitter and Facebook.

Kinda depressing stats right? Wait! It gets worse!

Now let’s look at what happened when I went MIA on all Social Media sites for 4 days.

Here are two screen shots to show this…

Tweeted on Nov 1 and then Nov 5.

klout scores

Was on Facebook Nov 1 and then Saturday Nov 5.

On Nov 1st my Klout Score was 55 and Klout Score Analysis was 55.24

Here’s what happened…

Nov 2nd my Klout was 55.13
Nov 3rd it was 54.97
Nov 4th it was 54.80

My score analysis dropped, but my actual Score stayed at 55

Remember, Nov 1st was the last day I tweeted or shared or even visited any SM site.

So in Klouts eyes there is no real difference in the day I did a monster post that was shared really well and the 4 days I didn’t even visit any sites.

Again, Kinda depressing right? Buttttt Wait! It gets worse!

During all this I was talking to Klout thru emails because of the “new” algorithm change that dropped me from a 70 to 55 score.

Most of what they had to say made no sense to me, until I got this email from them.

Now at this point in the emails I’m not really a Klout fan, so my smart ass attitude was primed and ready to go

So not sure what I said in my reply is true or not… just how Me, Myself and I see things.

The Emails

Klout

We’ve improved our ability to take into account how *much* you influence someone. For instance, if I rarely like or comment on anyone’s posts, but choose to do so to yours, that is more meaningful than if I like 60 posts a day. For users whose engagement primarily comes from others with high activity, you may see a drop in your Score.

My Reply

lol that’s retarded. So you penalize or see active people as less important than people who are less active? Really? lol

So you penalize people for being active, that is the complete opposite of social media… which is SHARING.

Do any of you have any idea what Social Media really is? Or are you really an add network using social media to cleverly bring in info that you can then sell to advertisers?

haha the way you’re going that is how your looking.. and def not a good look for you.

Your Take Away

I’m not sure how good Klout is at defining who is Influential and who isn’t or what Social Media really is. I just wish they got it right since so many people and companies look to Klout and trust their system.

But the reality is…I don’t really care and neither should you.

You don’t need a site or tool to validate you or if what your doing is working.

Are you getting more shares?

Are people looking to you for advice?

Are you driving traffic?

Are you making more sales or getting more clients?

Are you connecting with new people daily?

If you say YES to any or all of that… then You Are Influential!

Tags: bloggers, FaceBook, klout, klout influence, klout score, klout scores, social media, Twitter

http://www.johnpaulaguiar.com John Paul
You missed the whole point.
The test is accurate whether it is a one day test or a 2 weeks test since Klout tracks measurements daily not weekly or monthly.
Also the results were over weeks.. the test was just those few days for example.. but the results were the same for weeks.
Comparing Alexa with Klout is ridiculous.. two completely separate things.
Pingback: Klout – Bitchin or Something To Bitch About? | Mama's Views + Reviews
http://www.proservicesks.com Frank Woodman Jr
Klout has always been more of a game for me and while I watch my score it’s only because I love to study numbers.
And any real study of Klout shows it to be of questionable value as so many who have high scores only show junk on their time line.
But your email explains that as they send and get a lot of posts and comments from others that don’t do much anyway. So the way to make it with Klout is to be sure to ask questions and get replies and responses from people who don’t do to much. As you said crazy comes to mind.
Anyway I’ll continue to play with Klout but it’s like astrology a game not a science and any real relationship between influence and a Klout score is purely an accident.
PS The last time I posted a comment like this about Klout my score dropped 4 points over night. So maybe Klout does monitor something..LOL
http://www.johnpaulaguiar.com John Paul
haha Frank you have the best view point on Klout.. look at it but don’t stress over it.
Just do what works in social media, sharing – connecting- adding value. you will get great results regardless of whether Klout says your doing well or not.