'Net Features : klout

Klout Moves into Q&A Industry

Allison Howen — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:30:00 GMT

Does your Klout score make you an expert in a certain area? If it does, the social platform may ask you to answer questions through a new program called Klout Experts.

Klout Experts is similar to a Q&A service. It allows Klout users who are influential in a specific topic to increase their authority in that subject by answering topic-related questions that are frequently searched for on Bing. The Klout blog provides this example:

“A person building their influence in photography might be asked, 'What’s the best digital SLR for beginners?' Someone who is an expert about fitness might answer, 'What’s a great exercise routine for someone with bad knees?' We are focused on practical advice that leverages the taste and wisdom we all have about something.”

That said, Klout Experts is currently in a preview period, with the company making the service available to a small percentage of influential users. These people have the chance to share their insights to questions that will be delivered on Bing, and in return, have the possibility of having their answers seen by millions of people who leverage Bing search everyday. It is also important to note that those who are interested in sharing their expertise with the digital world can request early access to Klout Experts by signing up for the waitlist.

Crimson Hexagon Analyzes Klout Influence

Michael Garrity — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 18:15:00 GMT

Klout scores may finally be able to do more than just boost your ego thanks to a new integration with social media analytics software provider Crimson Hexagon.

Now, Klout influence scores will be a standard component of the Crimson Hexagon ForSight platform to help customers better understand the impact of their marketing and business programs with “key individuals” in social media. This will be immediately available to all current Crimson Hexagon users.

Including these popular and dynamic influence scores in the platform will allow Crimson Hexagon to help brands identify their most influential users based on Klout’s unique algorithm that analyzes over 12 billion data points each day across all of the major social networks (as well as various offline influence factors).

Combined with Crimson Hexagon’s deep analysis of social media posts, Klout can help provide in-depth social media intelligence to its customers. Most importantly, ForSight users across various industry segments will now have the ability to make meaningful business decisions based on this key online influencer data.

Klout Ranking System Gets a Makeover

Allison Howen — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:42:00 GMT

You may be less influential today than you were yesterday, at least according to Klout.

The popular online influence rating tool has just rolled out some upgrades to its services, including an improved algorithm that aims to provide users with more accurate Klout Scores.

The new algorithm measures more than 400 signals across seven social networks in order to provide users with a score that represents their real-world influence rather than their social media popularity. According to the Klout Blog, the new score has increased accuracy, measures 12 billion data points on a daily basis and, for the first time, incorporates Wikipedia as a signal.

For example, with the new Klout score, President Barack Obama finally ranks higher than Justing Bieber (what is the world coming to?!). Take a look at how Klout has explained this change:

Klout is also launching a new feature called “moments”, which showcases a user’s most influential social media content in one place. This shows users insights into their interaction patterns, which can help them improve upon their social strategies in the long run. Additionally, the influence ranking platform has also enhanced its site design, which offers a cleaner and more user friendly dashboard. Both of these new updates, moments and the site redesign, will be rolled out to users within the next few weeks, however, all users can obtain their new Klout score today.

Obsessed with Klout?

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 30 May 2012 18:00:00 GMT

Over the past few weeks, I have been obsessed with Klout. No, not clout, but Klout — the Web-based measurement service that gauges just how influential a person really is in the social sphere of the ’Net.

My interest in Klout, by all accounts, had been mild up until now. But my score has gone through the virtual roof in recent weeks, fueling this obsession. That rise was not caused by my incredibly witty tweets, nor was it due to my numerous and strangely compelling Facebook updates. Neither was it because I’ve quickly managed to build an inordinate number of new connections through LinkedIn, Tumblr or Google+.

No, the real reason that my Klout has increased is a simple one. I actually — finally — connected my social accounts to the system. For several months or longer, I had lingered around a wildly depressing and uninspired Klout score of 12. Okay, it was actually 11 — but who’s counting?

Knowing in my virtual heart of hearts that I was, in fact, more influential than that forced me to submit myself fully and completely to the Klout system, throwing my digital hat in the ring to see how I truly measured up. As you might imagine, connecting all your accounts — revealing all of your connections to the world — can do wonders in terms of boosting your credibility with Klout.

My number jumped to a far more respectable score of 56. And there was another benefit — a far more important one.

Editor's note: you can follow Website Magazine Editor-in-Chief Pete Prestipino on Twitter, Facebook and even Google+.

In the few weeks since my raging Klout obsession began, I have posted more frequently to Facebook (doing so at both peak and off times — hint, hint) and now I engage with the status updates of others more often, liking and, more importantly, commenting on what is shared by my friends and followers. Even though some of them, by the way, have ridiculously low Klout scores.

I have reintroduced myself to Twitter (although, I must admit, my hectic schedule is not always tweetfriendly), and now I make a genuine effort to retweet what I believe my own followers would find interesting or entertaining. I try to balance that with a few interesting highlights from my own life — both personal and professional, of course — along with my newfound commitment to using the platform as a way to complain or congratulate other people and companies for a job well done.

But that’s not all. Google+, the social network I once thought was good only for shoring up search results positions, has also seen an influx of activity from me — as have both my LinkedIn and Tumblr profiles. I have to admit, I’ve gained more from these networks than I ever thought possible in the form of new friendships as well as exposure to ideas and information.

Needless to say, my increased participation has been well worth the investment of time. But I’m not done yet — not by a long shot.

As I have become more focused on engaging in activities that I likely should have been doing all along, my Klout score has slowly — very slowly, actually — inched upward. Who would have thought that by committing to more and deeper social connections you can develop and increase your Klout (and clout)?

Make no mistake; I know that true “reach” and “influence” is nearly impossible to measure. I have seen firsthand where those with incredibly high Klout scores in the 70- and 80-point range couldn’t influence me to drink a glass of lemonade on a hot day. But for me, my Klout score is less about others and more about me — what I can become, what I want to become, what I will become.

I check my Klout score every morning — sometimes even before I get out of bed. It is now a constant reminder for me that what we are is not what we will become.

It requires a commitment to increase your Klout score as much as it does to improve you life. But in the end, the commitment is worth it.

If only for the perks.

Gaining Social Kred; Watch Out Klout!

Allison Howen — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 18:00:00 GMT

Watch out Klout — there is a new social influence rating system in town — and it goes by the name of “Kred.”

Kred, a social scoring system that measures a user’s influence and outreach, was launched today by social analytics company PeopleBrowsr. Kred provides its users with a complete score based on their influence and outreach within affinity-based communities.

"Kred is built on the fundamental belief that we are all influential somewhere," says PeopleBrowsr CEO Jodee Rich. "Kred asserts the importance of trust and sharing in human relationships. By allowing individuals to be recognized as influential about their passions, Kred shifts the attention on social networks from celebrities back to the true heart of human relationships — connections with trusted friends and subject matter experts."

Kred calculates the dual scores of influence and outreach by analyzing a person’s ability to inspire action, as well as monitoring the level of user's interactions with others. Influence metrics include replies, retweets, likes and new followers; while outreach metrics include conversation initiations, interactions and spread of content.

Additionally, Kred scores emphasize the importance of close networks with similar types of people by offering scores for communities that are formed around interests. Engaged community members will have a higher score than an unengaged community member, regardless of the number of followers each member has.

Kred also recognizes influence from the offline world, by allowing users to add real life recognition and honors to their scores. Examples of offline influence include athletic achievements and club memberships. However, it is not clear how Kred can confirm these offline achievements.

The service is free but currently sign-ups have to be processed, and it could take up to seven days to receive an invitation. Furthermore, invitations won’t start being sent out until October 6.

So the question is — would you rather have Klout or Kred?

Google Plus Influences Klout

Allison Howen — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:00:00 GMT

After Google’s announcement that Google+ is now open to the public, Klout wasted no time with integrating Google+ into its services.

“As the fastest growing social media destination of all time, Google+ quickly became a highly requested feature,” says Ash Rust in Klout’s official blog. “With its intuitive handling of privacy and sharing – bridging the public/private divide – it’s captured our attention from the start.”

Klout will measure Google+ users' ability to drive action and influence others. Although getting added to circles won’t increase someone’s Klout score, getting comments and +1’s on posts from influential users will.

Connecting a Google+ account to Klout is currently available on the Klout dashboard, next to the Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn icons.

Klout Introduces Topic Pages

Allison Howen — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Klout has announced a beta version of Topic Pages, which aims to provide more context about a topic.

“Users are more than a single number, and Klout’s more than just a score,” says Chris Makarsky on the Official Klout Blog.

Topic Pages will provide insights for the top influencers in specific topics, regardless of a person’s Klout score. Also, Topic Pages will show content that has recently influenced others, as well as +K recipients, which is when Klout users vouch for each other’s influence on topics.

Additionally, Klout will add more analytics, trends and related content in the future of Topic Pages.

Currently the beta preview is only open to users who opted into the Topic Page perk last month; however Klout is continuing to let more people in everyday.

Does Everyone Have Clout? Or Klout?

Allison Howen — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:00:00 GMT

Klout, a tool that measures social media influence, has announced that the site now provides Klout scores for 100 million people. The site notes that this is important because it shows that 100 million people are sharing their opinions, hopes and dreams on the social web.

The 100 million users of Klout currently are ranked based on their influence within 10 different social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Foursquare. However, Klout expects to expand its influence metrics to more social sites in the future, as well as give its influencers new features to help them better understand their Klout scores.

Although Klout is a valuable tool for people, businesses and other entities that are concerned about how effectively they are using social media, (Klout measures a user’s network influence, their ability to generate actions and discussions and their audience reach) the real question is — how much clout do the 100 million Klout users have? For example my personal Klout score is 14, meaning that just because you sign up for Klout doesn't mean that you are a great social media influencer.

Klout Adds New Ways to Factor Score

Allison Howen — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 17:30:00 GMT

Klout, a tool that measures online influence, has added five additional avenues that help factor the Klout score.

Online impact had been monitored by Klout through social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare and YouTube before, but now Blogger, Flickr, Instagram, Last.fm and Tumblr are also included.

The long term goal is to assess the total amount of influence a person or business has on the Internet, through as many ways as possible.

Some of the aspects Klout takes into consideration when computing a Klout score include engagement with audience, the ability to generate discussions, activity and audience size.

Tools like Klout can help a business monitor their social media campaign as well as the influence that they are having on their audience.

Eight Great API’s For Your Next Website or Application

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:56:00 GMT

What a Web you work on! Technology from a wide variety of companies and industries is freely available for you, a designer/developer, to capture and leverage for your own or your clients benefit.

If you’re a company considering publishing an API, taking a look at the successes of others might encourage you to complete that project. iContact for example just announced the winners of its API Challenge, a content for partners and customers that asked them to build an integration between third party apps and iContact. The result, in addition to greater exposure for their service, was a lot of new mashup technology that can be used by the greater Web community (not just iContact clients).

Let’s review a few other great API’s for your next website or application now:

NameCheap Website Management Tools: The API for NameCheap, which offers a domain name registration, enables developers to build web or desktop apps that integrate with their NameCheap account. Users can access account data from NameCheap.com and offers features like domain check, registrations and renewals from within applications.

Hexillion Whois Query Service: Another from the domain name category, the Hexillion Whois API provides a programmable interface to the Whois system, automatically querying the correct Whois server, and breaking the Whois record details out into separate fields. The API, which returns XML, is built for higher volume use.

CheddarGetter Subscription Payment and Management Service: The API from online billing and subscription management system CheddarGetter makes it possible to accept and track payments and integrate the service into their website or app.

Spreedly Subscription Payment Service: The API from Spreedly gives web apps a way to handle subscription-based services. The service works through many payment gateways, including PayPal and SagePay, to complete transactions.

Zendesk Help Desk Service: Help desk system Zendesk’s API allows developers to hook into Zendesk and connect it to third-party applications. Whether you're writing a plugin for an application or planning on hooking some internal application into Zendesk, the API can do it for you.

Amplify Content Analysis Service: Amplify is a web service that brings “human understanding” to content. Using its patented Natural Language Processing technology, Amplify reads and understands words used in text, identifying the significant topics, brands, people, perspectives, emotions, actions and timescales and presents the findings in an actionable XML structure.

Klout Social Metrics Service API: Klout allows for impact tracking of opinions, links and recommendations across a social graph, by collecting data about the content created and how people interact with that content (as well as the size and composition of the network).

Proximic Content Advertising Service API for Publishers: The Proximic API allows publishers to display ad units and track the performances of their pages against days, URL referrers, ad unit formats, or ad groups. The Proximic web service also gives software developers direct access to the basic and extended functions needed for contextual advertisement publishing and reporting purposes.

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