I Do Not Think Klout Means What You Think It Means

Twitter Fail Whale by Yiying Lu http://www.yiyinglu.com

Now don’t get me wrong, Klout is very important in a social media setting. I do not need to get into a fight about how important it is. In fact if you would rather read about how awesome it is to have “Klout” you can read this great blog post by a great guy named Robert Caruso. Klout has its place.

I am here to talk about those who think that because they have “Klout,” the world should move for them. Twitter is a great site for sharing information. It can really bring around a lot of collaboration and I have met some wonderful people there. It can also be a place to complain and (maybe) get your way. I follow one such twitterer that had an issue with @Southwestair.

This person was hoping to make an earlier flight, that had space available, home. Unfortunately the ticket she had from Southwest did not allow her to change and she figured that a quick tweet would change that. I understand business and the fact that if the flight had room they would not be losing any business by allowing her on. I will say that they have every right to deny her request, and they did.

This is where it gets fun. She then caused a frenzy with her followers because of, what she felt was, a snub of a very loyal and “important” client. Without getting into much detail, this twitterer regularly throws around her Klout number since it is in the 70’s. Great. She spends a lot of time online. Not a bad thing. I know many people with those kinds of scores. That does not mean you should get anything and everything you desire.

Look at people like Scott Stratten (@UnMarketing), he loves to joke about how he is a big player in a semi-relevant online site. He has a huge and very loyal following but does not demand special treatment (but regularly gets it). He is someone to emulate online. He understands Klout’s importance but does not rely on it for his work. He relies on his work. Thanks for the great example Scott.

Klout is a very important tool to help understand what goes on online. People need to understand that it is just a number. Yes it can help your business but do not rely on it for special treatment.

What do you think? Did Southwest make the right move by standing there ground? Maybe, maybe not. Sound off in the comment.

Experiment Done

I just wanted to start off by saying “thanks” to everyone that helped out with this little experiment I did. Now for the back story.

I was recently emailed about a position for a Social Media Manager I had applied for before getting my current position. They mentioned that they were going to be going through the process of hiring and wanted applicants to make a video describing why they are a great fit for the position. Since Social Media is all about community I thought this would be a question better answered by friends.

My next thought was that Twitter is ruled (in the most part) by services like Klout and Empire Ave that push a lot of self-promotion. I wanted to test the waters to see if people would help promote someone they know and have worked with.

That is where the last post came in. I found out that even through all the self-promotion, Social Media is still about community. There may be a lot of self-promotion that has infiltrated but people still care. Friends are still there to support you, even if they are not sure what you are working on.

That is community. Working together is what it is all about, thank you for your help with this little experiment.