You are here: Home / Klout / Klout – Do You Really Care About Your Score? [SURVEY]

Klout – Do You Really Care About Your Score? [SURVEY]

March 22, 2012 By 23 Comments

My current Klout score is 56. I’m led to believe that is pretty good. Does that make me proud and swagger around with an air of social media supremacy? Not really. Sure, it’s nice to have a high number but I find I get way more satisfaction from people reading and sharing my blog posts or thoughts (which of course does effect Klout, but you get me!). Anyway, the validity of Klout has been questioned more than OJ Simpson, with that in mind I’m not going to explore its merits to a granular level at this point. What I am keen to find out is:

1 – Do you take notice of your Klout score?
2 – Does having a low/high Klout score make you feel bad/good?
3 – Do you consider other people’s Klout scores when deciding if they are worth listening to?
4 – Have you ever used a Klout ‘Perk’ or received a discount/preferential treatment or even received free stuff due to a high score?

Would be very interested to hear your thoughts! Please leave answers in the comments section below.

If you liked this post, please do share on Twitter >>>

Enjoying reading The Social Penguin Blog? Why not subscribe to our RSS, follow us on Twitter or join Dave on Facebook.

Related posts:

  1. Social media interview – Joe Fernandez from Klout
  2. Do You Have a Question for Klout?
Filed Under: Klout Tagged With: , , ,
About Mike McGrail

Mike McGrail is the owner of The Social Penguin Blog. He is in the process of setting up a digital marketing and communications consultancy. He likes scotch and leather-bound books. Follow Mike's ramblings on Twitter. He also resides on Google Plus here.

  • Anonymous

    I can’t help but check my Klout score from time to time but checking is immediately followed by lots of head shaking and a small rant about how inaccurate it is. I’ve seen spam accounts with Klout scores into the 20s. I almost never check anyone else’s Klout score and would much rather base my opinion of the strength of their tweets on the actual tweets themselves.

    • http://www.thesocialpenguinblog.com Mike McGrail

      So a frustrating experience then Jenni! I find it strange that I am ‘influential’ on things like ‘Electronic Arts’. Right then…

  • http://twitter.com/JWoHFX J Wo

    Before I did not, but then Hootsuite has it as part of the profile information and I started to look for it. What I think will hook people is the Klout perks. I’m a sucker for free stuff.

    • http://www.thesocialpenguinblog.com Mike McGrail

      Yeah Hootsuite have really made it a visible part of Twitter profile now. Very true on the free stuff, people love it, no matter how crappy the give away is!

      • http://twitter.com/JWoHFX J Wo

        The 3 Perks I have redeemed have all been good stuff. The miniMoo business cards, a free razor and 3 bottles of bodywash all have been put to good use. I guess that enhances the Klout brand when the free stuff is usable. I think social media users are usually more discerning on what they get for free – but that is just an assumption. But being in Canada, i am only eligible for a small amount of Perks. Perhaps there is a lot of crappy products out there.

  • http://twitter.com/robzie81 Rob Zaleski

    It was one of those things that I checked out, kind of thought it was cool, and then forgot about after a while. I went back to it as a challenge against a friend and fellow constant tweeter to see who could have the higher score. Other than that, it doesn’t mean a whole lot to me. I agree with you. I judge my presence by the actual interaction that I get. Klout is a fun thing, but I don’t put too much stock into it.

    • http://www.thesocialpenguinblog.com Mike McGrail

      I hear all the best people have a 56! I think a lot of people see it as a bit of fun. I guess it all depends how much focus other put on it, then perhaps we should ‘worry’ about it.

      • http://twitter.com/robzie81 Rob Zaleski

        I was listening to the Marketing Over Coffee podcast last night and they were talking about someone who was trying to correlate Klout score with likelihood of making online purchases. I don’t think that is going to work out as well as he is hoping, but people are really trying to find a way to take the Klout score and quantify it into a marketing-worthy number. I just don’t see it becoming more than a signifier of how much or little online engagement a person has.

  • http://twitter.com/ToyotaEquipment Kyle Thill

    It does provide some insight to others, but we don’t participate simply because it seems to be more about #klout than anything else.

  • Anonymous

    I only recently started taking note of my Klout score. And the score defintaly makes me feel good when it it up and down when it is down.I don’t consider other people’s Klout scores – you can tell whos influential by your engagment with them. However Google Chrome Klout (beta) displays peoples scores when I am on Twitter. No Klout perks for me since I am in the high 40′s.

    • http://www.thesocialpenguinblog.com Mike McGrail

      Interesting to hear that it makes you feel up or down. Do you actively look to do things that would improve it? Nice to hear another person saying that the interactions you have are the best gauge of influence.

      • Anonymous

        I haven’t activly looked for things to improve it other than just being more active with my social media accounts in general. Do you have any suggestions?

        • http://twitter.com/mike_mcgrail Mike McGrail

          I wouldn’t get too hung up on trying to increase it, just share good info, be social and you should be ok.

  • http://twitter.com/MarcHindley Marc Hindley

    I only ever check Klout, when I see the word somewhere, or they email me. I think that sums up how much I believe in it. I don’t see the score as having any credibility in itself, but I do think the relativity to other people’s score has some relevance. If someone has a higher score than you, they’re almost certainly doing something better than you, but you’re never really sure what, so it remains a novelty to me until it convinces me that it has some ‘Klout’ itself

    • http://www.thesocialpenguinblog.com Mike McGrail

      So you only use it when something makes you recall it. I think a lot of people probably take that approach.

  • http://renaissancechambara.jp/ Ged Carroll

    1 – Do you take notice of your Klout score? No
    2 – Does having a low/high Klout score make you feel bad/good? Not particularly
    3 – Do you consider other people’s Klout scores when deciding if they are worth listening to? No
    4 – Have you ever used a Klout ‘Perk’ or received a discount/preferential treatment or even received free stuff due to a high score? No

    • http://www.thesocialpenguinblog.com Mike McGrail

      Thanks Ged! That’ll be a no then!

  • http://twitter.com/nksocialmedia Nicolas Kokolski

    I would never consider Klout to be the be all and end all of how I see myself or on how the world sees me. It is just a guide and nothing more. Useful sometimes, interesting certainly but not to be taken as a judgement on your social presence. There are just too many outside influences that it cannot take into account.
    Like others have commented, I only really look at Klout when they contact me or somebody mentions it.

    • http://www.thesocialpenguinblog.com Mike McGrail

      Thanks Nicholas, so you are uncertain of the validity of the data? I guess it is quite an interesting presence over all, it all depends on the individuals view of the scores and their value.

  • http://twitter.com/rpvega Rodrigo

    Hi Mike!

    I am aware of my Klout score but it’s not something that I actively try to improve …. I guess for me is something that is just good to know. I don’t use klout as a proxy to decide who to follow or not. Nevertheless, I have taken advantages of some of the freebies offered in there. For a brand or business however, it could be a good measure to have a look at but I guess it would be more important that this is tied up to specific indicators on a case to case basis.

    • http://www.thesocialpenguinblog.com Mike McGrail

      What perks did you use Rodrigo? So you think it may be a good reference/benchmarking tool?

  • Anonymous

    1 – Do you take notice of your Klout score? Yes
    2 – Does having a low/high Klout score make you feel bad/good? Yes, but i need to get rid of that feeling…
    3 – Do you consider other people’s Klout scores when deciding if they are worth listening to? No
    4 – Have you ever used a Klout ‘Perk’ or received a discount/preferential treatment or even received free stuff due to a high score? No

    …after all i didn’t trust the kloud score, allthough i check it sometimes…

    • http://twitter.com/mike_mcgrail Mike McGrail

      Thanks for answering!