Of social media influence and Klout

Remember Technorati Ranks? Neither do I. However, a few years ago when blogging became popular, it was hot property. Nowadays, it doesn’t seem to have the kind of influence it once had. Like Technorati, several brands have attempted to become the gold standard in measuring online influence – Alexa for example. But no single brand can claim to be the authority in measuring one’s influence in the online space.  Even with niche spaces like advertising & marketing blogs, there are several ‘standards’ vying for attention – the AdAge Power 150, several Blog Rank services and so on. There is no single undisputed ‘gold standard’ of influence.

And then Facebook & Twitter happened. Your follower count and number of fans (if you are a brand) then became the measures. Some Twitterati may not admit it but  follower count is a a high and a thing to chase. There are several services that offer to measure your Twitter influence beyond just the follower count. Most of them simply display a number as a grade or score. In this context, Klout seems to be gaining traction. I have a feeling (much like Ravi Shastri) that blog rank badges were sought after by the geeks and tech savvy folk – for display on their blogs & websites. So it was merely a badge and since there were so many of them floating around it wasn’t of great value. But Klout has the potential to change that since it goes beyond a badge – there are real perks available for people with Klout – an early screening of Kung Fu Panda 2 for ‘influential’ parents, for example. And since one can slice Twitter & Facebook users based on topics that they talk about most one can personalize the ‘perks’ – a chance to review a pre-release software or a gadget for techno freaks, early bird tickets for a music concert for fans an so on. It could be of great value to marketers & advertisers. So we could be in for a measure of online influence that goes beyond badges and widgets. What say?