Klout is a very interesting site that scores people according to their influence, and it’s fun to check your score to see whether you’re trending up today. But don’t fall into the trap of focusing on people with high Klout scores when you attempt your influence marketing. You might be missing the more important lesson from Klout.
Nobody’s Klout score means as much as you think it does. I get that my score might be a 63 while Justin Bieber’s is a 92, but if you want to influence people on digital marketing, you might want to talk to me, not the Beebster. My suspicion is that if you want to influence people on the topic of lawn mowers, that neither one of us will be much help.
You’re far better off analyzing which subjects people are influential on than what their Klout score is. Klout scores try to describe people’s influence in general, but the problem is that no one is actually influential in general. That last time you thought someone knew everything, you were seven, and your dad didn’t turn out as smart as you thought. (Just ask my kids if you need to test this.)
You’ll be better off looking for folks on Klout that are influential in your space–and maybe trying to find a few that you can contact through LinkedIn through mutual connections. Better to get some time with a small fish with a warm intro than a big Klout score with a cold call.
