The other day Klout, the social media influence score system had a database issue. Don't worry, it's all resolved thanks to the good folks at Klout showing quick a quick turn around time for a fix, but analyzing what it meant to people is incredibly interesting.
I woke up to find out I was far less influential than I was the day before.
I got into work that day to hear my business partner saying "Hey, why has my Klout score dropped 15 points." I opened up MarketMeSuite to check, and sure enough most people's Klout scores had dropped significantly, many of them to 1! I immediately set up a search pane, and found reading the results endlessly interesting.
I think what's really noteworthy is just how much we've all come to "own" our influence, and how much we feel it and notice it when something takes that bit of success away from us. I especially saw buzz from social media consultants who have to explain to their clients why all their work has resulted in a decrease in influence.
Not sure what it says about me but I was pretty gutted to see my score go from 56 to 16.
As with any major tech glitches, you have to try to see the funny side. On the whole, it seems the community was able to see the humor in the situation...
Here's a few of my favorite #Kloutapocalypse tweets:
A few weeks ago I was able to speak to Megan Berry, the Marketing Manager at Klout who asked a few simple questions about the free service.
What is Klout?
The Klout Score measures influence on a scale of 1 to 100. We also measure influential topics, classifications and offer insights into your influence on klout.com.
How do I improve my Klout Score?
Basically it's about consistently creating engaging content, but you can check out our blog post on the subject: http://klout.com/blog/2011/03/3-tips-for-increasing-your-klout-score/
What type of interactions does it measure?
Klout measures influence on Twitter and Facebook and includes @ messages, RTs, lists, follows, likes, comments, and more. Learn more about our scoring on klout.com/kscore