A major flaw in Klout's social media influence service

Comments

  • edited October 2011
    This is indeed a major flaw. On some other blogs about Klout, I have in the past expressed my objection to whom Klout determines either A) Influences me or B) I influence. I had a smilar problem. Klout was saying I was influenced by a firm we avoided the like the plague. Someone with bad social media habits, and wannabe experts in our industry. I will say who influences me, thank you very much!
  • edited October 2011
    If I follow an org that I despise, or counter an org that I despise, I might still be influenced by them, right? If so, a good metric would include these influences?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited October 2011
    If I follow an org that I despise, or counter an org that I despise, I might still be influenced by them, right? If so, a good metric would include these influences?

    If you count "bad influence", sure. But is that what marketers really want? Is that information helpful to Klout's customers?

    "Hey Klout, we want to know about the bad influences too.."

    I don't see it.
  • edited October 2011
    Hey DJ Meph,

    I'm the Marketing Manager here at Klout and wanted to reach out to you. We are a growing startup, working hard to add in the features and support desired by our users. We will definitely be adding many more privacy features in the near future. I thank you for bringing up the concern and hope you can be patient as we work hard to add the robust set of tools as larger companies such as Twitter have.

    Cheers,
    Megan Berry
    Marketing Manager, Klout
    @meganberry
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited October 2011
    Thanks for reaching out, Megan :) We always appreciate company reps coming on to engage directly with interested readers and community members.
  • djmephdjmeph Detroit Icrontian
    edited October 2011
    Thank you Megan, I do understand you're going through the same growing pains as any startup would. Considering it had to come to this public criticism, which I imagine is pretty embarrassing for your company, I hope you will also look into the apathy, deceit and punctuality of your customer service department.
  • edited October 2011
    @primesuspect so, lets say I represent an anti-broccoli group. And I campaign in social media about how I despise the pro-broccoli movement. I would expect a third party measurement group to say that I am influenced by or influential about broccoli - for or against. Maybe even listed as influencial about the pro-broccoli movement?? Let me know if I am missing the point.
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited October 2011
    Everyone wants to be a Rockstar.

    The internet has become this magical wonderland where ordinary people come to feel important. It's the real draw of social media for 90+% of the people who participate in it. Everyone want's validation weather it's Dad's approval, or a high score on Klout, it caters to that same human need.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited October 2011
    Rick, I don't think you're missing the point, but I think that Klout needs to make a distinction about what influence actually means. For now, I think they do that by being able to sell those influence metrics to potential advertisers.

    To follow your example, why would the PRO-broccoli movement pay Klout to be able to connect with anti-broccoli folks?
  • edited October 2011
    I think I am belaboring the point. But, in the Broccoli example, (intentionally absurd)I can't imagine a better strategy for the pro-broccoli movement than paying for, engaging and then perhaps influencing the opinion of the enemy?
  • djmephdjmeph Detroit Icrontian
    edited October 2011
    you should tell the community manager that shall remain nameless about your strategy, rick. he would probably think it's the most revolutionary idea ever.
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited October 2011
    <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TRW27fyvwCs&quot; frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

    Did someone say broccoli??
  • edited October 2011
    This is an interesting post, I hadn't considered this issue before, but I can see it being a problem. Frankly, the Twitter solution isn't great either, blocking a person because of placement on a list doesn't seem to be an ideal solution. Inherent functionality that must accompany lists in any social network are (a) Ability to easily see which lists I am on, and (b) Ability to remove myself from lists others create. Neither Twitter nor Klout do either of these very well (e.g. Twitter has private lists). Sadly, as blogs such as RWW have noted, Lists have not been a priority for Twitter, and this priority has seemed to flow to other companies.
  • djmephdjmeph Detroit Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Did anyone notice that my Klout score went down like 11 points after I wrote this?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Everybody's did. You happened to publish this on the day Klout re-structured their scoring scheme :D
  • djmephdjmeph Detroit Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    damn
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Funny, my Klout score just went up infinity percent.... oh wait, that's because I just now signed up.
  • djmephdjmeph Detroit Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    I received an email response today from Klout. One month after I posted this article. Nearly five weeks since my last email response to them.
    Hi Norman,

    I am sincerely sorry for the delay in response.

    You are correct that there should be options for users to prevent getting added to undesirable lists. I am sorry I did not fully understand your perspective before. We appreciate your feedback and we will definitely keep that in mind as we build out new features.

    I'm sorry again for the delay in response -- it is completely unacceptable on my part and I take full responsibility for this. You deserve a much better experience than this. Please let me know if there's anything else I can help you with,

    Lan

    They have rolled out some changes to the service, but nothing to fix this issue. I'm not sure if anyone has abused the list system yet, but they are apparently working on a solution the the problem.

    Again, I understand that these are the common growing pains of working for a startup. I work for a startup, myself. I applaud them for taking the issue seriously but remain skeptic that this will ever lead to real change.
  • djmephdjmeph Detroit Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Keep in mind that the reason I emailed them in the first place was because they were ignoring my tweets.
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