Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Why Klout's Social Influence Scores Are Nonsense

Posted by Soulskill on from the another-system-to-game dept.

jfruh writes "Klout is a new social media service that attempts to quantify how much 'influence' you have, based on your social media profile. Their metrics are bizarre — privacy blogger Dan Tynan has been rated as highly influential on the topic of cigars, despite having only smoked one, decades ago. Nevertheless, Klout scores have real-world consequences, with people deemed influential getting discounts on concert tickets or free access to airport VIP lounges (in hopes that they'll tweet about it, presumably)."

8 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. A product for a problem that does not exist by h2okies · · Score: 5, Insightful

    and will likely never will. From the last /. on this if people are hiring you based on your "klout" you should probably be looking elsewhere for a better managed place to work. If you are looking for free shit all the time then I guess a higher "Klout" score might actually be worth something to you...

    --
    Beware the Lollipop of Mediocrity, Lick it once and you suck forever.
    1. Re:A product for a problem that does not exist by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You could think of Klout as performing the valuable public service of identifying the sort of people who would take Klout seriously, sort of like those chemical attractant baits used on flypaper and similar insect traps.

  2. Kout's real strength.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    .. Is to judge one's ability to brown nose and game pointless metrics.

    So yes, they're able to pick ideal middle management candidates.

  3. Never heard of Klout by Spy+Handler · · Score: 4, Insightful

    and after it disappears as many dot-coms do, you won't have to hear about it again either.

  4. Backward News. by SolitaryMan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This "news" is kind of backwards. It would be news if it turned out that it *does* make any sort of sense.

    --
    May Peace Prevail On Earth
    1. Re:Backward News. by garcia · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There was a recent job posting for some marketing company (I forget the name; I'm sure if you do a Google search you'll find it) that wanted a Klout score above 35 to be hired.

      1. I have a 48 Klout score and while I work with marketing data analytics, I am not influential on any topics, at all.

      2. If someone needs to have a 35+ on Klout, that shows just how irrelevant this number is for a marketing gig.

      3. The fact that companies are interested in this number means someone is trying to make it relevant and thus the entire thing is scary as shit.

      --

      While Klout apparently believes I'm most influential in the "Twin Cities", "Food" and "Games" and one could make an argument for the first two, the third is just batshit crazy.

      Klout is meaningless and should be completely ignored.

  5. Caste system. by wcrowe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Social warfare is getting to be bad enough. We don't need to further relegate people into different classes. Do we really want some sort of Hindu caste system? Klout needs to be Klobbered.

    --
    Proverbs 21:19
  6. privacy blogger Dan Tynan cigars by sumdumass · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Did anyone else read this and think it was just some sort of inside joke or coy insult to insinuate Tynan blows a lot of smoke up things?