Klout Rating Changes: “Will It Drop My Score?” and other critical answers you need now!

When’s the last time you took a vacation?  Do you remember where you went?  Who was there with you?  The most scenic place you saw?  Or did you miss it, glued to your smartphone or other electronic device, afraid that your Klout rating would drop if you really unplugged from it all?

(I admit, I’m busted!  I didn’t unplug totally on our recent trip to Maui, either!)

To address the dreaded Klout “vacation effect,” as well as other concerns about how Klout measures social media engagement, the team at Klout announced some major changes to the way their algorithm affects your Klout rating. 

I know we see change almost daily in social media, right?  Sometimes it’s hard to see the good in the changes developers continue to make to each of the social networks.  But in this case, I think the Klout rating enhancements really are a good thing.  These Klout rating changes serve to strengthen the way this particular website measures the true influence of leaders in social media. 

Here are the most impressive changes, according to the Klout.com blog

Klout Rating Changes in a Nutshell:

1. Real-world influence:  Did you know that under the old Klout rating system, Justin Bieber had a higher Klout rating score than President Barak Obama did?  Politics aside, this is a bit bizarre to say the least! To remedy this kind of skewed score, Klout has increased the number of data points it analyzes.   They have also put into place the first ever inclusion of real-world influence data through including Wikipedia into the score. More on this in a moment. 

    

2. Moments to remember:  Billed as an effort to be more transparent, the new “Moments” feature showcases your most influential social media activity.

    

3. Streamlined site design: The Klout rating site’s refreshed design is built to emphasize your best content from across your social media networks. 

Data Point Analysis:  More is Better!

If analyzing 100 social media signals is a good measure, analyzing 400 is better, right?  Enough said!  The number of data points going into determining Klout rating is also up from 1 billion to 12 billion. 

What’s your real, real-world influence?

Sometimes it seems like social media is its own little world, doesn’t it?  And the question for boosting your Klout rating didn’t exactly help that a lot for many people

With this revision to the Klout rating algorithm, the development team at Klout has made its first effort towards measuring real-world influence.  Two of the ways it does this are through LinkedIn and Wikipedia.

LinkedIn Titles

Learning how to use titles to your advantage in LinkedIn is going to be huge in boosting your Klout score.  Your title in LinkedIn is a signal to them of the real-world value you provide.  And your recommenders  give you credibility also – your score is computed in party by who recommends you, not just what they say.

Klout Rating Boosted by Receiving +K

Haven’t we wondered if all of that +K sharing on Twitter and Facebook was really doing any good?  Straight from Klout themselves, “receiving +K increases your Klout score by an amount that is capped in every 90-day measurement cycle to protect the integrity of the Score.

Your #1 Key To Boosting Your Klout Rating

With all of the changes that Klout is rolling out, what’s the one thing that will make the biggest impact in boosting your Klout impact? 

Producing and distributing valuable content for your customers.

It’s not much different than my advice for any other platform that’s made any other change.  Each social media platform and tool continues to make strides in rewarding users who create value and penalize those who try to game the system. 

The Klout rating changes recently announced are part of a larger move by mature social networks to continue to be relevant by measuring who truly has influence and who is merely trying to nudge up a score.  Will these changes make a long term difference (not just wreak havoc with scores)?  Only time will tell. 

I’d love to know – did your score rise or drop with the new Klout rating changes?  What do you think of the changes?  Leave me a comment below!

About Author

Kim Garst

Kim Garst is a renowned marketing strategist and speaker who is trailblazing the use of artificial intelligence in digital marketing. With over 30 years of experience as an online entrepreneur, Kim helps entrepreneurs grow their business and authority online by using AI technology. She is leading the way with proven AI frameworks that help entrepreneurs build authority in their space.

She is keynote speaker and an international best-selling author of Will The Real You Please Stand Up, Show Up, Be Authentic and Prosper in Social Media.

Named by Forbes as a Top 10 Social Media Power Influencer, Kim is well-known for her skill to simplify complex technology and make the use of AI understandable for business growth. Her relatable, actionable advice helps guide new entrepreneurs to harness the power of AI to succeed in digital marketing. Kim is leading the way in combining human and technological skills to create a new model for AI-powered marketing.

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