Klout is the Standard for Influence

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We’re happy to announce that we’re helping Airbnb celebrate their UK launch with a Klout Perk! Airbnb is offering 20,000 influencers in the UK a chance to get away with £50 off. Stay at a studio in Spain for the weekend or relax at a villa in Tuscany for a week. With over 100,000 holiday rentals in over 19,000 cities, Airbnb has something for you.

Airbnb has seen incredible international growth and is rising to meet the global demand by opening several new offices in Europe. Even if you can’t get away, you can still join the celebration by attending the opening of Airbnb’s London office on February 2nd, 2012.

Klout Perks is making major strides on the international stage. We’re very excited about launching our first major UK Perk and we look forward to bringing more exclusive experiences and products to our Klout users around the world.

Where are you from? What Klout Perks would you like to see?

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Everyone makes lists. Whether it’s to keep track of your daily to-dos or remember what groceries to buy, lists keep us organized and efficient. We even use lists to motivate us to live it up and accomplish our goals before we kick the proverbial bucket. But what about Klout Lists? Klout lists are a great way to discover and interact with people in your influence network. Here are 3 ways Klout lists can help you:

1. Interact with the people you care about. We have lots of connections in the social media space, but sometimes you just want to check up on your closest friends. Are you looking to connect with your old college buddies? You might create a list called “UC Berkeley” so you can easily filter your 10 friends you spent those late nights studying in the stacks with to give them +K in “Berkeley” during the Big Game (Go Bears!).

2. Discover new users and grow your network. Klout makes it easier to connect with new people on social media by helping you find influencers in your areas of interest. For example, you can find video game influencers to talk about the latest game releases or tips using our topic pages. Then create a “Gamers” list so you can remember to check out those users on Twitter, explore influencers in their network, or drop in to give a quick +K in Nintendo. You can even give kudos to people who have impacted you lately by sharing Klout lists. For example, Matt Hurst shared a Klout list of journalists on Twitter for #FollowFriday. Don’t forget to include the hashtag #ff or #FollowFriday!

For #FollowFriday, check out my list of journos on Twitter, like @Learmonth, @Alexia, @lizgannes, and @film_girl! #FF klout.com/MattHurst/list…

— Matthew Hurst (@MattHurst) January 20, 2012

3. See how you compare with your peers. You can learn how to use social media more effectively by watching what your friends are doing. Maybe your boss asks you to create a Klout competition to get your team to be more active in social media. Create a “Klout Krushers” list to easily track participants and it will automatically be ranked by Klout Score. Who knows? Maybe the first employee who raises their Klout score by 20 points gets an awesome vacation to Hawaii. Oh wait, it looks like Bob is currently in the lead…

Do you use Klout lists? What do you use them for?

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With over 3,500 partners and Klout integrations out there, it’d be impossible to catalog all of the innovative uses of Klout data across the Internet, let alone all of the fun ones. We’re at a very interesting time in the API space: there’s an amazing amount of data and services out there, and the software development and startup communities are taking notice. While not exactly a new trend, hackathons have been evolving over the last year and a half. Rather than just being a one-off “hack” event, legitimate companies are launching based on the vision of founders and developers at events like AngelHack and StartupWeekend.

This quarter we plan to highlight the cool integrations we see from events like these, as well as more established companies doing something cool. So without further ado:

BitGym's Tron Game

AngelHack was held back in December. An extremely impressive event, had a lot of promise in its format and what it was offering to developers, investors, and partners alike. While the Klout Prize went to HireFluence, BitGym was among the winners for the overall event, with their Tron-influenced game that utilized Klout alongside their fitness game platform. Klout is used to determine the color of your lightcycle trail, as well as the size of your avatar. It’s a clever usage. I really look forward to AngelHack 2.0, being held on March 3rd. Video: BitGym at AngelHack 2011

MarketMeSuite

MarketMeSuite is a staunch supporter of influence metrics and Klout. With their upcoming new release, they’ve reinvented their product as an Inbox for social media, taking the mail management metaphor to a satisfying conclusion: you have multicolored flags you can flag tweets, FB posts, and LinkedIn data with. Content is presented as messages. A user’s Klout score is displayed on a user’s profile when looking at a message.

In the coming weeks and months we’re preparing for a number of new developer events, like Social Media Week, MusicHackDay, AngelHack 2.0, and, of course, SXSW.

What are some of your favorite Klout integrations? What would you like to see?

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About: John is a creative thinker who has achieved significant accomplishments in science, medicine, marketing, and the creative arts. He has been published in the American Heart Association and The American Journal of Physiology and has lectured at Harvard Medical School and The Fashion Institute of Technology. John blogs at http://www.johnnosta.com/ and is an Executive Vice President at Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide

1. How did you get started in social media?

My involvement in social media was a very deliberate choice on my part. As a Chief Creative Officer for a large advertising agency, the digital writing was on the wall and it was essential that I embraced these changes. There were two key drivers. First off, it allowed my competence to grow and become more conversant in new media. Additionally, my involvement gave me a “stronger voice” in the advertising community and resulted in a direct increase in my value in the marketplace. The second driver was the business itself. My clients all were asking about web sites, Twitter, smart phones and alike and I felt that my responses were somewhat removed from the reality of the media–my replies were often canned and not based on direct experience. It became obvious to me that I needed to walk the walk and tweet the tweet. Finally, healthcare was a dynamic and growing part of our economy and business. It was a perfect market where ground-breaking innovations could provide powerful interactions and tools to save lives!

2. What does influence mean to you? Who influences you the most online?

Influence, for me, is the unspoken volume of your communication. And by volume, I mean the “intellectual loudness”. It’s the respect that you’ve earned by providing great content and value over time. And that’s important because the perception of WHO you are can be as important as WHAT you say. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there…is analogous to a brilliant blog post or tweet that no one reads!

I’m influenced by a lot of people and engagement peaks my interest right away. People who retweet or comment on my posts / blogs always get my undivided attention. It might spark a relationship or just fade, but you have to “be there” and “be social”. I’m also greatly influenced by “thought-leaders” in various areas. These are the big thinkers and have the established equity that draws me in. And the secret here is that I don’t limit these personal influencers to a specific topic or category. I get great ideas from physics, art and news—all applied to my area of healthcare communications. The real magic for me is when I make a connection with a thought-leader and build a new relationship. And marketing tells us that the most powerful influencer is one in your specific social network. That’s certainly true for me! Today, I have a robust relationship with physicians, patients, scientists, creative thinkers to names a few. And this makes me a much more informed healthcare marketer.

3. What advice do you have for someone who wants to take their online presence to the next level?

Taking your online presence to the next level is all about building your own personal brand! And branding is something we actually do every day. From the clothes we wear to the words we voice–it all builds a personality that we project into the world. In traditional brand-building, typography is sometimes referred to as the “voice of the brand”. The type face becomes the deep and credible voice of a news reporter or the light and airy tone of a small child. Each word strikes a creative cord that defines us. After all, different people can utter the exact phrase yet articulate completely different messages! Now today, we see the emergence of the e-brand–an electronic personality that establishes you (and your brand) in the e-world…and by extension, the real world (if there really is any difference!). Twitter is your speaking voice, in real-time and broken up in short conversations. It’s not your college essay, it’s not your carefully worded press-release, it’s your short burst of personality.

Connect with John on Twitter at @JohnNosta

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Yesterday, we witnessed the internet go on strike with companies like Google and Wikipedia blacking out their logos or entire websites in protest of the SOPA and PIPA bills in U.S. Congress. This coordinated effort resulted in a surge of engagement on SOPA-related content on Twitter. There were twice as many retweets about #sopa, #pipa, #blackoutsopa, #stopsopa, #blackout, and #factswithoutwikipedia yesterday than in the past 30 days combined.

Out of the clamor against SOPA, we found the most influential voices. Some you may recognize and some you won’t – others, you may find a bit surprising – but these ten influencers had the most reach and impact on Twitter.

If you followed the Occupy Movement on Twitter you might have recognized groups such as @YourAnonNews and @TheNewDeal. Other familiar influencers in SOPA include Wikipedia and its co-founder Jimmy Wales. Wikipedia helped galvanize the anti-SOPA effort with a tweet heard round the world.

English Wikipedia is going dark January 18 in opposition to #SOPA #PIPA.ur1.ca/7j5s2 #wikipediablackout

— Wikipedia(@Wikipedia) January 17, 2012

Jimmy Wales took a more humorous approach to announcing the Wikipedia blackout on his personal Twitter.

Student warning!Do your homework early.Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday! #sopa

— Jimmy Wales (@jimmy_wales) January 16, 2012

In the midst of SOPA protest, some new influencers emerged on the scene. David Shares had a Klout score spike, going from 34 yesterday to 63 today after he burned up Twitter with a warning:

If #SOPA passes, there’ll be NO YouTube, Twitter, Google, Wikipedia, Facebook & Tumblr, #SOPAstrike today and End Piracy, Not Liberty!

— David Shares (@DavidShares) January 18, 2012

And possibly the most surprising of them all is YouPorn, asking the Internet to save porn by stopping SOPA.

Save Porn, #StopSOPA! Please RT.

— YouPorn (Jude) (@YouPorn) January 18, 2012

These ten influencers have had the most impact on the SOPA conversation recently and they are certainly ones to watch as the debate continues. Like many influencers in this movement, Klout believes in the power of free expression. #stopsopa

How have you been following the SOPA debate? Who has influenced you about SOPA and in what way?

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Klout is ecstatic to announce our partnership with 2DaysInSeattle.com and Seattle’s Convention and Visitor Bureau! SCVB thinks their city is great and are willing to prove it by providing 30 influencers plus one guest each with free travel to Seattle, hotel accommodations, and $500 to spend on whatever they want in the city! Influencers are also granted the option to check out the brand new Gauguin exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum for free. The 30 lucky influencers will get to spend their 2 days in Seattle on February 4th, 11th or 18th. All eligible recipients need to be people who live in Portland, Vancouver and San Francisco and are influential in travel & tourism, art, culture, food & wine.

This is a very exciting Perk because this is the first time people are being rewarded with such an extensive travel package just for being influential! We can’t wait to see these influencers journey to Seattle, follow their adventures on www.2DaysInSeattle.com and by using the hashtag #2DaysInSeattle!

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Our Klout Stars series highlights top influencers and how they got to where they are today.

About: Jessica Gottlieb is an award winning mom blogger in Los Angeles. You may have read about Jessica in the New York Times, LA Times, or the Wall Street Journal. You might have heard Jessica on NPR or seen her on The Daily Show. She is a featured panelist on the web series Momversation and a YouTube partner. Jessica has a robust following on Twitter and Google Plus.

1. How did you get started in social media?

I’m not sure that I ever “started” in social media. When I was in college (and dinosaurs roamed the earth) we had an intranet with some pretty fun usergroups. I suppose that’s the baby pool for social media.

Before moving to professional blogging I was an eBay Powerseller. In order to make the most of my time on eBay I had created communities both within eBay’s walled garden (eBay groups) and outside (email marketing and forum participation). I’m not convinced that Social Media is a recent trend so much as that it’s a recent name.

2. What does influence mean to you? Who influences you the most online?

Influence can be positive or negative. For instance, this week a Girl Scout video influenced me to buy Girl Scout Cookies. I HATE girl scout cookies, but I hate the message of the proposed boycott more. Influence is an unwieldy sword and trying to manage it could be a full-time job. It’s probably best to respect the fact that we all influence someone and trying to not be a jerk is a good start.

My mother is my biggest online influence. She’s a voracious reader and before I wake up in the morning, she’s already found the best news stories of the day and delivered them to my inbox.

3. What advice do you have for someone who wants to take their online presence to the next level?

I’d advise you to think about WHY you want to have more online influence. Do you have something to sell? Do you have a political agenda? Is it just feeding your ego? There’s got to be an endgame to all of this, and if you don’t have a goal in mind it’s easy to spin out of control. Spend your energy wisely.

Connect with Jessica on Twitter at @JessicaGottlieb

Why do you want to increase your online influence?

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Our Klout Stars series highlights top influencers and how they got to where they are today.

About Alister: I’m Alister Cameron and I call myself a Blogologist. I’m an Aussie who grew up on US air bases in West Germany (among other places). I’m on the wrong side of 40 and I’ve been into computers since 1984, when I was recording BASIC onto cassette tape on my trusty VIC-20. I’ve been working online since 1995, when I built my first website (it was awful!). I’ve built a stack more awful websites since then, and a few good ones too. After many years of consulting, I’ve just started as the Head of Digital for WorldVision Australia, which I’m really excited about. I’ve been a child sponsor since 1989 (hint: they need the money more than you do!).

1. How did you get started in social media?

In late 2006, I made a spontaneous decision to get serious about blogging, which I had been doing very casually since about 1998.

On the day in December that Time Magazine announced their 2006 Person of the Year (if you recall, it was “you”), I came up with the idea of creating an unofficial Person of the Year seal, which a whole bunch of other bloggers happily pasted into their blog sidebars and webpages. Not being a complete fool, I created a cool-looking graphic and ready-to-copy HTML code, which included a couple of links back to my own blog. Within a week Google found hundreds of blogs with the Person of the Year seal linking back to my blog. Google started ranking my blog for pretty much anything I blogged about, and I was immediately hooked on blogging as a way of doing effective SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Not long after that I registered a Twitter account and did nothing with it for a couple of years. Then at some point in 2008 I decided I needed to grow my Twitter account and have been consumed with Twitter ever since. I have well over 300,000 followers now, but who’s counting?!

2. What does influence mean to you? Who influences you the most online?

An old mentor of mine once made the very profound point that the more influential you want to be, the more narrowly you have to focus. I guess parenting is the ultimate supporting evidence of the wisdom of that statement. In my case, I’m a single parent of four kids, and I am completely sold on the idea that my best chance to change the world is to establish four young lives on a solid footing.

Strategically, I teach business to build their brand and buzz in a very broad and indiscriminate way, while at the same time laser-focusing on those few individuals or stakeholders who matter the most. Social media lets you do both incredibly well!

In my early days of blogging, when I felt like a total newbie, I was blessed to have a few leading bloggers who took the time to encourage me and help me make sense of things. Darren Rowse and Liz Strauss were both very kind to me, and years later, you can see what quality thought leaders and “stayers” they both are.

3. What advice do you have for someone who wants to take their online presence to the next level?

There is so much I might like to say but let me make just two obvious points.

Firstly, obsess more about your customer/reader/follower than your product/blog/content. One thing I wrote many years ago hit a nerve and I’m proud of it. It’s in reference to blogging, but it applies to everything online. I said at the time, “The real reason why nobody reads your blog is this: massively successful blogging is about establishing and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships. It’s all about who you know.” So take the time to be personal. Engage the little people. Be kind. Listen.

Secondly, I’d remind you of what the sociologists call “participational observation”. This is the idea that you can’t really properly (and deeply) understand something unless you, as it were, roll up your sleeves and get stuck into it… personally. So everywhere I go, and everyone I talk to, I ask the same questions. Are you actively on Facebook? Do you have a YouTube account and have you tried creating silly personal videos? The social web is passing many people by simply because they’re not getting close enough to it to ever understand it. And when authenticity means everything (and it does), looking and sounding like a faker is not good enough.

Connect with Alister on Twitter at @alicam

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The 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas started earlier this week. Over 3000 companies will be attending in full force with newest and flashy gadgets for the upcoming year. The biggest news so far is that this will be Microsoft’s last year at CES. Apple has historically been a no-show and it appears that Microsoft is starting to follow suit.

Personally, I’m excited to hear about the newest innovations for televisions and handheld devices. It amazes me how fast the technology improves each year and how the devices we use become even more awesome. I remember my first cell phone in junior high. It was a brick and had a tiny 1″ x 2″ black and green screen that could only make calls. Now we have touch-screen smart phones that can surf the web, video chat and play music. Oh the future we live in!

Regardless, it looks like what happens in Vegas, won’t stay in Vegas! Without further ado, here are the top 10 companies from this year’s CES conference!

Be sure to check out our CES Klout Perks:
- Monster Cable Perk: VIP Guest access to concert and after-party with legendary band Chicago!
- T-Mobile Social King Perk: Be part of the CES 2012 buzz and you could win a great prize pack from T-Mobile.

Are you at CES this year? Who/what was your favorite thing featured this year?

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We are proud to announce that T-Mobile has partnered with Klout to crown the very first “T-Mobile Social King of CES!” Participate in this special edition Klout Perk for a chance to win the ultimate T-Mobile 4G Prize Pack, including the Samsung Galaxy S II with a year of service, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, and a T-Mobile 4G Mobile HotSpot.*

All this can be yours if you just use your Klout to get the most +Ks in CES 2012. If someone else happens to out-Klout you, don’t worry – there will be 2^nd and 3^rd place prizes awarded!

The “T-Mobile Social King of CES” challenge starts today. To enter, visit T-Mobile’s Perk page. Whether you are attending CES 2012 or following all the news from home, you can participate for the chance to win and claim your “Social King” crown.

Good luck influencers! If you need help, please reach out to @KloutPerks or email help@klout.com