Is Klout The New Poll?
There are a lot of polls out there, based on miniscule sample sizes and quoted as gospel across the news networks. And, fair enough, there's something to polling. But what about influence? The folks at Klout have a lot of data on a lot of people, including those hoping for the republican nomination. Earlier this month, CNN gave a campaign tech score card, but it's changed since then. After Iowa, and now New Hampshire, this is shaping up to be a two-man race, even on Klout.
Ron Paul
Klout Score: 78
Klout classifies Paul as a "Thought Leader:" -Images: Klout.com
Some of Paul's influential topics:
- Liberty
- Economics
- Money
- Constitution
- Libertarian
Funniest influence topic: "Drag Queen" is being shown. One can assume this is people mistaking him for RuPaul or tweeting about the name similarity to RuPaul, unless there's something he's not telling people...
Mitt Romney
Klout Score: 82
Klout classifies Romney as a "Taste Maker:"
Images: Klout.com
Some of Romney's influential topics:
- Barack Obama
- Conservative Politics
- Economics
- Homophobia
- Republican Party
Funniest influence topic: "Flip-Flop-(fashion)" is being shown. Klout doesn't seem to have a topic for political flip-flopping, so it looks like +K'ers got creative. Unless, of course, he's just a flip-flop footwear fanatic. I should add that just because you're influential in topic doesn't mean it has a negative connotation.
A note on influence:
"Homophobia" influence could mean the candidate spoke out against it. Klout doesn't show sentiment.
Klout Is Interactive Polling
It's clear that both candidates are duking it out, both on the debate floor and the net. Who will come out on top remains to be seen. In this socially connected world you have more than one way of registering your opinion. Polls are one, voting is another. But Klout is definitely an interesting and interactive way to monitor and connect with the candidates, and even decide what you think they are influential with, even if some of the crowd-sourced topics can be a little funny!
-One interesting note, at the time of writing this article Mitt Romney has signed into his Klout account, while Ron Paul's has not ever been signed in, indicated by the greyed out Klout icon on his profile.