Klout changed again

Klout algorithms updated
Klout changed again; it’s using an amended scoring algorithm and is rolling out  new website features slowly over time (and, of course, will roll them out to you faster if you troll for users for them — 10 users gets you “priority access.”). My score changed with the new algorithm, increasing by about three points — I had been hovering in the 57 range, and now I’m sitting at 61 (and, according to them, have been as high as 62). Each of the last two times they’ve adjusted their algorithm, my score has increased.

I still don’t know what I think about the Klout score. Part of the new website features they’re rolling out supposedly includes a “moments” engine that shows how specific activity affects your score, and that’ll be interesting to see.  Measuring influence seems to be a difficult proposition, and to its credit Klout acknowledges this. But, as of right now, Klout claims I’m more influential online than writer Ron Marz – which just seems patently ridiculous to me.

Also, the new scoring algorithm still does not seem to be counting any influence from Facebook pages. I have Klout set up for Bemidji State‘s social presence as well; BSU’s score is 47 today, and it’s 100% derived from Twitter — even though the Facebook page I maintain for BSU is a) appropriately connected to Klout, according to everything available to me to check there, and b) has nearly 8,000 fans, had a post today that is pushing 200 likes, and had weekly reach that was just under 40,000 during our coverage of the Bemidji storm in July. And yet this is having no impact whatsoever on the score. Whether this is a Klout issue or a Facebook issue is unclear to me and, frankly, at this point I’m not sure I care. It just strikes me as another checkmark in the “no” column when asking “should I really care about Klout scores?”

I pay attention to what Klout is doing because, as someone who has social media as a significant portion of my job responsibilities, I feel like I have to. But it’s increasingly difficult to treat it as much more than a curiosity. It’s certainly difficult, at this point in time anyway, to consider treating it as something to be taken at all seriously.

Finally, my “style” changed from Specialist to Broadcaster with today’s update as well. I’d be very curious to get more information about how they assign you to the categories; perhaps that’s coming in the new website tools as well.