I've been Googling my name for a while...way back towards my Harrisdirect days. I always thought it was important to see what's being written about me because when someone is trying to figure out your credibility they Google you. Way back then it was called G-Cred and I wrote a post 4 years ago about it (you know that reminds me, maybe I should start pumping out some of my best posts from years back).
Earlier this year I read an article about Klout and signed up; my Klout wasn't very high so I didn't pay attention to it. However, very recently I was asked by a reporter doing a story on politics and social media, what I thought about using Klout. Well, my reply was, once I can figure out whether someones Klout is conservative, republican, tea party, liberal, democrat, etc it's not the most useful in a primary race. Sure it can be used for non-partisan campaigns, but in the midst of a Republican Presidential Primary, not so sure.
So I logged in again and I L-O-V-E it. I like the fact something is measuring a person's social media reach. It's kind of similar to a QB's Passer Rating with the main difference being that you don't have to be a person with a doctor's degree in math to figure Klout out. I can actually see the results of working my social media and I even got some perks - one of them was signing up for Zinio which was a cool magazine app for your iPhone, iPad, or web. BTW - you can use this link to get a $10 credit towards your first magazine subscription on your Zinio app.
Then, I checked out some of their API notes and yes you can do some analysis and find people in an area who have high Klout. Still not sure about using it today for Presidential Politics, but I think it is an area to explore.
I'm also not too sure about Klout's business plan or revenue making model going forward, but right now I don't care too much. I'm generally interested to see the changes to Klout and it is kind of fun to figure out ways to improve your own Klout. Is it the new GCred? Well right now I don't see anyone replacing Google for determining a person's credibility but I do think Klout is a fun way to see how good your social reach is (BTW the average Klout score is 20).
PardonMyFrench,
Eric
cool i am learning all the time
Posted by: Nicola McCulloch | October 23, 2011 at 07:20 AM