Do You Check Your #Klout Score? #SoSlam

The topics of social scoring and digital influence are definitely on the rise, but do they really matter?

Back in April at the VIP SocialSLAM party, we asked a few social media pros what they thought:

When I first heard about Klout, my immediate reaction was that it’d be something to die out rather quickly and that it seemed to lack validity (to @misscarlamay’s point). For one thing, I can’t stand when things are spelled incorrectly on purpose, ‘clout’ starts with a C! Whether it’s Klout or another form of influence scoring, once I thought about it as a broader issue, I don’t see the concept of ranking digital influence going anywhere anytime soon. I don’t hold a lot of stock in my Klout score &ndash’ it’s currently a 48 and one of the topics I’m most influential on is ‘bacon’, and rightly so as it’s one of my favorite things in the whole wide world! But I’m also listed as being influential in ‘veganism’ simply because a trickster co-worker of mine gave me a 1K in the subject. So what the hell does that even mean?

I completely agree with the general consensus of our experts in the VIP video: it is CRUCIAL to put value on the connections and making sense of the enormous sea of online chatter when it comes to influence (like @thinkjose and @JayBaer said), so the concept definitely has a future even if the basis for the score needs some fine tuning. And, I also think businesses need to better understand the concept and not just learn about the power of WOM through negative experiences. For some it’s just not exactly relevant to their clients or customers, like @mitchjoel said.

So, what do YOU think about social scoring? If you think it’s purely hogwash and could go for a good laugh, I highly recommend checking out Klouchebag.com, “The Standard for Asshattery.’’ I’m “Facepalm Central.”