Klout: Why I Stopped Caring About My Score


Three months ago, I never would have thought that I was going to write this post.

I checked my Klout score every day, then— I wasn’t obsessed with it or anything, but I liked to see how what I did or didn’t do affected my score. For the most part I watched it rise (I went from low 40s in May to 60 by August), and it was fun to give people +K and watch my Klout topics grow and change.

It was a service I enjoyed, so I checked in on it.

For those of you who don’t know, Klout is a service that measures your online influence across various social media sites and gives you a score of 1-100. The average Klout score is pretty low, so a 50 or 60 is a pretty decent score and anything above 70 is considered very good. For a better explanation of how they determine your score, you can check out their explanation page .

So when they announced they were going to update the way they measured influence about a month or so ago, I thought it might mess with my score, but I didn't worry about it much. If it dropped a few points, I'd survive. Big deal.

The Klout update was released. My score dropped from a near 61 to 54. Ouch.

I tried not to worry too much about it. I figured with some time I'd be able to recover and it wouldn't be a big deal. I continued to use my social media sites like I always did and waited for it to climb back up.

It didn't—in fact, my score continued to drop. Even when I got a lot of retweets on Twitter, my influence across social media continued it's rather ungraceful nosedive.

Or did it?

I hadn't changed much. Sure I wasn't on Twitter as often as before, but I was still sharing the same content and keeping up with my blog and tumbling just about everything I thought was interesting. My following on different social media sites continued to grow, Klout or no Klout. Did my score really affect my influence online?

Honestly? I don't think it did.

True, my Klout score was dropping, which would indicate that my influence in the social media sphere was dropping, but the responses from my readers and Twitter/tumblr followers didn't seem to match my dropping score. It occurred to me that I was putting too much weight on my Klout score.

Is Klout a useful service? I think it is, especially those involved in businesses where social media influence is a big deal. But it stopped becoming useful to me when I started worrying about my nosediving score that didn't seem to change no matter what I tried, rather than what my reception was online. What could have been a useful measurement became instead (to me) a source of stress.

So I stopped caring.

Will I check my influence online via Klout in the future? Maybe. But as long as my readers and followers like you guys keep being awesome, I'm perfectly happy with whatever influence I have.

Do you watch your Klout score? Am I the only one who stressed out about it?

32 comments:

Daniel Swensen said...

I had a busy couple of days when I couldn't spend 30-60 cumulative minutes a day on Twitter, and my Klout started plummeting. My "Network" (whatever that is) has steadily tanked regardless of my efforts. Although Klout denies it, I seriously think that's the "you're talking to too many low-Klout people" function.

Ultimately, to increase my Klout, I have a strong feeling I'd have to stop being myself and try to "game" it a lot more, and I'm not going to do that.

So yeah, I used to think it was fun to check in every day, now I'm a lot less enthusiastic.

Ava Jae said...

I found that a large part of my score dropping (especially recently) was in the network as well and specifically targeting high-Klout score people to talk to seemed too artificial and not something I wanted to do. 

So I'm with you--it was fun at first...not so much anymore. 

Daniel Swensen said...

I just gave you three +K, NOW let's see how little you care!

*screams of evil laughter*
*coughing fit*
Hold on a sec...
*water bottle*
*much quieter evil laughter*

Ava Jae said...

You...did? How? I haven't had any topics for weeks...huh. 

Daniel Swensen said...

You do on my end. Writing, Humor, and Books.

Ava Jae said...

Hmm, strange. Well thanks, lol. +K is like a virtual cookie, and virtual cookies are yummy. :D

Daniel Swensen said...

I always get a little gleeful when I see someone I don't know give me +K. I guess what I'm saying is that I totally lied in my first post.

Ava Jae said...

lol! I'm proud that I resisted the temptation. Haven't even looked, and I don't intend to. ^_^

CoffeeLovinMom said...

I had the same problem...went from 60 to 54.  I had the brag button on my blog but have since taken it off - not really bragging material if it continues to go down.  I haven't changed much as far as interaction either.  Maybe this was one of those fads we will be talking about "remember when"?

Ava Jae said...

Maybe. Its popularity certainly took a hit after this latest update. 

Laurapauling said...

No, I never really cared about my Klout score. I care about followers but I also know that it's just superficial. I do what I do and push ahead. Writing is more important than Klout scores.

BiculturalMama said...

I'm with you here....I had seen my klout score grow from the mid-40's to a high of 69. Then Klout changed its methodology and I dropped to 48. It's been dropping ever since, and like you I'm still doing what I've been doing in terms of social media. I tried to do even more but it didn't seem to help. So now I'm like you, I don't know how great a predictor it is in terms of klout so I'm not caring as much.

Johnetoz said...

Klout is now advertising its "+'s" as well.  I think it is time we all stopped caring about our Klout scores.

South paw said...

I hadn't heard of it until this post. I'm tempted to check it out but at the same time I don't need something else to pull my attention. LOL

Peter said...

Klout is a very clever marketing ploy, but utterly pointless and meaningless in the real world. It is designed to prey on people's natural desire for acceptance and validation (particularly strong amongst us authors) and adds a dash of competition and vanity to round it off. Why would you need a score for your online influence? What does that even mean? It won't increase your sales and it won't get your next book written. Check out my blog for more views on the subject. http://www.petercarroll.ravencrestbooks.com   

Ava Jae said...

Writing is absolutely more important than Klout scores. It's always good to remember what comes first. :)

Ava Jae said...

It's too bad because I enjoyed it before it became frustrating to watch. I realized I wasn't benefiting from seeing it drop every day without any real solution besides gaming the system so...

Ava Jae said...

I was telling someone earlier that the +K's are like virtual cookies--fun to hand around and receive, but that's about it. 

Ava Jae said...

lol if you've gone this far without it, you're probably fine. :) 

Angela said...

I came to this same conclusion last week. I have too much pressure on me already to do well at Social Networking. I don't need a service to bring down my mood when my klout drops because I take a weekend off to spend time with family (gasp! the nerve of it!).

Thanks, but no thanks. Not drinking the Kool Aid on this one.

Ava Jae said...

Exactly! That's something that always kind of annoyed me about Klout, and now after the update it's only more apparent. 

Susankayequinn said...

I'm not sure I ever cared, but Scalzi's rip on it made me discontinue my account (honestly, I wasn't sure how I ever got one in the first place). Stressing out about these things is one of the things I worry least about! :)

Ava Jae said...

Stressing out about it is silly and unnecessary--something I learned the hard way. :D

Chitownchica said...

When I first joined I checked it daily and my score was a 64 without even trying anything, had tons of influencing topics too. I stopped checking, but did just now and I am at a 47? Everything has taken a nosedive, but like you my networks have grown considerably and I am still just doing what I'm doing. Makes me wonder about the reliability of their service. 

Ava Jae said...

The way they measure everything is completely different, so a lot of people saw their scores drop. If you pretend that the service before the update didn't exist, then the score is (according to Klout) more accurate now than it was before. Because I've found that my score continues to drop, I've just personally decided not to worry about it anymore. No need for added stress. 

Jane Steen said...

Y'know I was just about to unfollow you (just trimming non-followers, nothing personal) when I saw this link. I had EXACTLY the same experience. I loved Klout. It was such fun to watch my score go up the more I engaged with people. I was at 59 and looking forward to 60.

And now, it drops and drops (48ish) while my Twitter numbers grow, I get RTs all the time, etc. etc. So I don't check it very often and have stopped giving +Ks (so has everyone else, I think). If I'm typical, then Klout's in a whole lot of trouble.

As a last ditch attempt to understand what's happening, I've unhooked everything but Twitter from Klout. I'm expecting my score to keep dropping for a bit as Klout catches up with that. Then logically it should start climbing - if it's only looking at Twitter. If (as I suspect) it's based on how much you suck up to people with +Ks/high Klout and on how much attention you give to the stupid Perks, then it will continue to fall.

Do me a favor and follow me so you don't fall off next time I trim! I enjoyed your post.

Ava Jae said...

I don't auto-follow back for a few reasons, but you are now followed. :) 

I'm curious to see if your Klout starts to go up now that you've removed your other services. I think part of the equation involves the Klout of your network, so should be interesting...

Ellen Christian said...

Totally agree! I dropped from a 72 to a 56 and it still continues to drop regardless of how active I am. I've decided to stop worrying about it and focus on improving what I do.

Heather - Acting Balanced Mom said...

I agree as well - I went from a 74 to a 52 and now it fluctuates even more... like everything else I think the readjustment was an opportunity to break away from the hold it had on me and just go back to doing what I was doing before...

Ava Jae said...

I think shifting your focus from improving your Klout score to improving your connection online is probably a smart one--at the very least it should be less stressful (at least it has for me). 

Ava Jae said...

It's a shame, because it was useful until it started stressing me out...

Jane Steen said...

"Ultimately, to increase my Klout, I have a strong feeling I'd have to stop being myself and try to "game" it a lot more, and I'm not going to do that."

Yes yes yes. I tried creating a list of high-Klout people so I could see if they were really worth sucking up too. But they were pretty banal tweeters on the whole. So then I started thinking, why do I social network anyway?

a) to find people who are interested in the things that interest me. Do I care what their Klout score is? No.
b) to identify people who might enjoy my books once they're published. Most of my potential readers are fiction lovers not social media gurus (who would typically read non-fiction is my guess). So most of my readers will be low-Klout. 
c) to spread some love around in general. Do I need Klout for that? No.

Now someone please tell me how to stop checking back in just for a peek once in a while. Because I'm not sure I should.

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