Klout, the scoring system for social media influence, is shutting down – Business Insider

Posted on May 10, 2018 by TechCommGeekMom

It’s the end of an era, as Klout, the service that measures your social cred, is shutting down.

Source: Klout, the scoring system for social media influence, is shutting down – Business Insider

Wow. A few years ago, it was a very big deal to have a high Klout score. For a while, I worked at it, but after a while, it didn’t seem like it was worth the effort. I think with the evolution of social media, over time, there were too many influencers to really put one person at the top. Klout didn’t measure quality, but rather quantity, from what I remember. So, this might actually be a good thing (except for those working at Klout and those who invested in it.)

(Out of curiosity, since I never deleted the account, I looked at my Klout score. It was a 51 right now, but I think in the past it had been a little higher. Even so, it said that I was also in the top 0.2% of people talking about Content Marketing, top 0.1% of people talking about Content Strategy, top 0.1% of people talking about Online Learning, and top 0.1% of people talking about Technical Writing. Who knew? And that’s even considering that I don’t blog as much as I used to. I guess that’s not too bad as things are waning.)

What do you think? Is this a good thing that Klout is going down, or a bad thing? I think it’s actually good. Include your comments below.

–TechCommGeekMom

About TechCommGeekMom

Danielle M. Villegas is a technical communicator who currently consults for Cox Automotive, Inc., and freelances as her own technical communications consultancy, Dair Communications. She has worked at the International Refugee Committee, MetLife, Novo Nordisk, BASF North America, Merck, and Deloitte, with a background in content strategy, web content management, social media, project management, e-learning, and client services. Danielle is best known in the technical communications world for her blog, TechCommGeekMom.com, which has continued to flourish since it was launched during her graduate studies at NJIT in 2012. She has presented webinars and seminars for Adobe, the Society for Technical Communication (STC), the IEEE ProComm, TCUK (ISTC) and at Drexel University’s eLearning Conference. She has written articles for the STC Intercom, STC Notebook, the Content Rules blog, and The Content Wrangler as well. She is very active in the STC, as a former chapter president for the STC-Philadelphia Metro Chapter, and is currently serving on three STC Board committees. You can learn more about Danielle on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/daniellemvillegas, on Twitter @techcommgeekmom, or through her blog.
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1 Response to Klout, the scoring system for social media influence, is shutting down – Business Insider

  1. Larry Kunz says:
    May 11, 2018 at 11:01 AM

    It’s a good thing. I’ve always been skeptical that you can measure influence with an algorithm, and I’ve always looked askance at Klout in particular. Who were they to say if someone is more influential (and, by implication, better at something) than others? No, I won’t miss Klout. Frankly, I hope the idea of influence scores will die with it.

    Reply

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