Social media scoring service Klout has undergone changes in lieu of a few updates made yesterday – about 300 of them in fact.
In case any of you are unfamiliar with the service, here’s a quick review: Klout analyzes your activity and how others interact with you on various social media sites including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and others in order to give you a quantifiable measurement of how socially influential you are – your “clout,” if you will.
Many of the updates come from newer ways to interact on social media that previously weren’t measured by Klout, such as Facebook mentions. Receiving +K from your friends on Klout will now increase your score instead of simply adjusting measurement algorithms. The importance of such interactions has also been re-evaluated, changing how much each interaction affects your score.
To the delight of many, Klout also now includes a Moments feature where you can see your most recent content and how engaging it was. This feature can also be used to view your most influential posts and tweets over a three-month period, and allows users to see what exactly is making their score change.
The service is also bringing some real-world factors into its analysis, such as your job title and Wikipedia page. Wikipedia pages are measured by Page Importance, number of Inlinks to Outlinks ratio, and total number of Inlinks.
All these changes have caused most users’ scores to fluctuate, so we can all breathe a sigh of relief as Barack Obama’s measure of influence has now risen above Justin Bieber’s.
So How Are Marketers Making Use of This Information?
It’s pretty clever, really. Businesses are starting to target the most vocal, influential individuals on social media and are giving them free stuff. Back in May, Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific started allowing any users with Klout scores of 40 or higher into their Business and First Class lounges, regardless of the class stamped on their ticket.
More recently, Los Angeles nightclub Playhouse started giving users with scores of 50 or higher discounts, VIP treatment, and even free admission depending on the time they arrive.
The business gains are clear: These influential users will like, tweet, check-in, or post about their experiences with these companies in what is considered to be the best content a brand can get their hands on. It’s the kind of marketing that users are eager to participate in, and really, what better marketing is there?
Interested in increasing your clout in other ways? Check out how to spice up your Facebook Page with MailChimp and Instagram.
