31.10.12 by Jeff

The Importance of a Klout Score?

The Importance of a Klout Score?
I found out yesterday that Booooooom has a Klout score of 80. I didn’t know much about the site so I dug around and discovered that it’s quite a high score. It might even be higher if I could link it to our Tumblr which has 20,000+ followers, but it isn’t my primary Tumblr account so I can’t.

Anyways, I’m interested to know if you guys care at all about a rating system like this. How much weight does this actually carry? Do agencies actually hire people based on these scores? How much work do you photographers get through social media channels? If there are people out there working at agencies or creatives involved with social media, I’d love to hear your opinions!













Comments
  • http://profile.yahoo.com/4JWUMYNKGQLLKPJACGKOAUUPPI Andy Scott

    no no no and no

  • http://supersonicelectronic.com supersonic

    As I understand it the only thing Klout bases your score on is the amount of Twitter followers you have? Either that or it takes into no account the amount of Tumblr followers I have. Or it’s a very low percentage of influence Tumblr has on Klout. Which deems it completely un-useful to saying how much influence someone has to me.

    • http://www.booooooom.com/ Jeff Hamada

      ya especially for you because your site is built on tumblr

  • Dylan Baumann

    It is measured using interactions and how far your content spreads that you create, or if other influential people seem to mention you a lot.

    It is based off of the following:
    Posts
    Posts with Links
    Mentions
    Retweets
    Reposts
    Followers

    • Dylan Baumann

      but yeah… Klout has no real hold on how influential you ACTUALLY are. I have a medium score, but it says I’m near the same level as some of the biggest designers in town despite my content not spreading as far.

    • http://supersonicelectronic.com supersonic

      I don’t think it measures reblogs or likes on posts for Tumblr though, which it should.

      • Dylan Baumann

        It does not, Klout is still very young in its development and recently upped the influence generated by Facebook (it didn’t take into account long conversations / reposts).

        I wouldn’t be surprised if they are currently working on implementing it though

      • http://www.booooooom.com/ Jeff Hamada

        the Facebook data can’t really be that accurate either now with the edgerank issue, it’s another whole thing that I may post about – you may not be aware but Facebook is throttling your ability to reach your own fans on your page and now charges you money you to reach them.

        if you post on your page you can only ever reach 20% of the people that have “liked” it. so for us eventhough there are over 100k people following us on Facebook posts are only ever seen by less than 20k. We would have to pay $200 per post to have a shot at our whole audience seeing it.

      • http://okasha.daportfolio.com/ Dalton Sjogren

        I was totally unaware of this. What a beautiful way (except not) to capitalize and infringe upon peoples abilities to connect with each other.

      • http://supersonicelectronic.com supersonic

        Insanely ridiculous that they do that. So stupid. Greed is a very horrible thing.

      • http://www.booooooom.com/ Jeff Hamada

        it really helps the big companies who won’t think twice about paying and all the little guys who can’t afford it are left out. it’s the stupidest thing they could possibly do, there minute there is an alternative to facebook i’ll switch to that

      • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1382010726 Ian Rogers

        Actually, it’s not 20% but more like 10%. Don’t worry, you guys are in my interest lists, I get all your posts. :)

      • http://www.booooooom.com/ Jeff Hamada

        good to hear! i think i may post about it and let people know they can make an interest list, that’s the only way i know of getting around this problem

  • http://twitter.com/radnidge scott radnidge

    I have no idea what impact social media rankings have on artists, especially ones working in/with traditional methods/materials. Sure, there’s a few heavy hitters out there, but does a high Klout score mean that your art is more popular/you’re more viable as an artist? I find it hard linking the two together.

    • http://www.booooooom.com/ Jeff Hamada

      well i think it could still be related – people curating galleries around the world are looking for emerging talent. one way to gauge talent is based on who is singing their praises, articles and reviews of shows, blog posts, if this score extended to things like that it would entirely plausible that it could help artists land shows in galleries too.

      • http://okasha.daportfolio.com/ Dalton Sjogren

        If only booooooom was a physical curated gallery. That’d be amazing!

      • http://www.booooooom.com/ Jeff Hamada

        one day maybe

      • http://twitter.com/radnidge scott radnidge

        true. I could see it from that angle… used like a talent scout (as horrific as that sounds)… maybe I’m just reticent because I’m so horrible at the whole social promotion side.
        And it would be a very good idea to have Booooooom as a physical space (hint hint!)

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=15304986 Edwa Westerhuis

    It’s a weird oddity. I feel obligated to try and improve my score, and checking out that graph to see if I’ve made it up a notch.

    Reminds me of when I was a kid and we had secret clubs with numbered ranks. To get ahead, you had to do what the big number kids told you to do. Fun at first. But not very creative at the end.

    I wish Klout connected people more, rather than made you focus on yourself.

  • ben cook

    unimportant. i love this site because it is a reputable source for new and interesting work. if you just want to be popular you need way more cat stuff… ill leave the site, but hundreds will flood in my absence.

  • Jackie

    its a good gauge of how large your audience is but not really one of the quality of people you engage with. people who just post inspirational quotes or news links will likely have a high score because of the retweets and click-throughs involved but if they were trying to promote something meaningful to them, i doubt they’d have the same engagement with that same audience. it also depends on how you want to use the info. if it’s to gauge content likeability, promote something or engage in a discourse it’s a good tool but if it’s how meaningful the info is to people, it’s just a good start.

    • http://www.booooooom.com/ Jeff Hamada

      ya i agree – it doesn’t represent any valuable information at this stage because it is purely a numbers thing rather than a quality thing. however it may be really difficult to ever gauge something like that though. how would you do it?

      • Jackie

        i think that comes more from who amplifies you whether it’s retweets, reblogs or just people who want to talk about you or be in line with you. my knowledge of those types of tools is pretty basic though so i’m not sure which, if any, can gauge that. i’m still learning what i want to be when i grow up but i am realizing there’s great strength in building a large and engaged community before launching something and klout can be a useful tool for that reason alone. i just feel like it doesn’t tell the whole story when it’s based primarily on numbers, but it’s still a great tool. and i like how they’re monetizing it over the traditional ad route.

      • http://www.booooooom.com/ Jeff Hamada

        there’s definitely something to be said for finding an audience even before you have the thing to put in front of them

  • http://www.facebook.com/harman.ken Ken Harman

    Took a look and happy to see some nice updates since I last checked. However, that the Facebook settings only allow the influence of a singe FB page is unfortunate for those who manage several pages.

    • http://www.booooooom.com/ Jeff Hamada

      still a ways to go definitely

  • Campbell

    I work for “Sparkol” and we have a Klout score, but im not sure if its really increasing our reach or just a number that seems to never change even if we have been blogging,tweeting non stop. Does you score change?

    • http://www.booooooom.com/ Jeff Hamada

      yea i’ve noticed our change quite a bit but only in the last couple weeks i think they’re constantly tweaking the way it scores you

      • Campbell

        oh ok thats good. I think the new changes are cool, so hopefully with time it will become even more accurate.

  • tyrannosaurus_rek

    Never heard of it before and can’t imagine caring what “score” a site I like gets.

  • Jonathan

    I think the website in itself would get a great score. I think this might be the next ffffound!