What are the Pros and Cons of “Scoring” Your Social Media Influence? Ask Klout!

Measuring social influence and engagement in numbers is a new alarming trend that’s starting to emerge. We talked about SocialMention in a previous post but Klout is another noteworthy player. However, this post is NOT a review of Klout! Instead, I want to raise the issue of the pros and cons of the whole social scoring fad.

First Things First! Just a Brief Hint About Klout…

The Klout Score is the measurement of your overall online influence. The scores range from 1 to 100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Klout uses over 35 variables on Facebook and Twitter to measure True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score.

True Reach is the size of your engaged audience and is based on those of your followers and friends who actively listen and react to your messages. Amplification Score is the likelihood that your messages will generate actions (retweets, @messages, likes and comments) and is on a scale of 1 to 100. Network score indicates how influential your engage audience is and is also on a scale from 1 to 100. The Klout score is highly correlated to clicks, comments and retweets. – Klout.com

The Pros of SIS

• It will force you to take social media more seriously which is the RIGHT thing to do anyway
• Your SIS can instantly boost your credibility
• If used correctly, it could yield excellent PR and marketing opportunities

The Cons of SIS

• If you are new in the social media scene, your SIS will probably be very low (a fact you wouldn’t want to share with the world if it was up to you!)
• People really buy into social media scores which means that you may want to go the extra mile and hire some social media strategist or even a Klout Coach!! to help you out
• SIS will give e-gamers a new gift on a silver plate! If you’re not a big fan selling lists of Twitter followers, you wouldn’t feel so happy when they bust the Klout scores jargon!

Funny Predictions of how Far SIS can Go in the Future ( and by Future I Mean Two Hours from Now! )

• People will be discriminated upon based on their SIS after inventing the SIS-face-print machine!!
• SIS will replace resumes in applying for marketing jobs!
• Search results will be ordered by SIS
• And if you are not very happy about the whole SIS thing, here is a prediction that will make your day! Many companies will jump in the SIS game and invent different ways to measure it and zillion scoring criteria until it becomes utterly confusing and people will give it up!

People devour new trends and fads but most of them are easy-come-easy-go! How do you see the future of SIS?