The Official Klout Blog

Archive for July, 2011

How to Get Klout Perks

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

One of the most common questions we’re asked is, “How do I get Klout Perks?” Finding the right Perk for each influencer is not an easy process and we’d like to share the key principles behind our selection process:

1. Everybody has Klout
One of the biggest misconceptions about Perks is that only people with high scores are eligible. That is not the case. Our goal is to provide Perks to the people who are in the best position to speak intelligently about a product to an engaged and interested audience. While some of those people will have high overall Klout scores, it’s just as frequent that it will be somebody with a score in the 20s who has a lot of influence on a relevant topic.

2. Topics are key
Your friends and followers want to hear from you on the topics that you know about. Your topics of influence are therefore an important way that we determine which Perks are right for you. Be sure to check your topic page regularly and ask your friends for +K in the topics that you feel match your expertise—it helps us find the best Perk for your interests!

Behind the scenes glimpse of our Perks selection tool

3. Location matters
If I’m looking for pizza in San Francisco, I turn to the foodies I know who live there. We use your location to help us find the best Perks to match your influence. Help us out by keeping your profile up-to-date and connecting your Facebook account.

4. No spam
Finally, we strive to make sure that you only hear from us when we have something great to offer you, not just another daily deal. We’ve built a variety of internal tools to make sure that we’re sending Perks to the right people at the right time. It’s a delicate balance and we won’t always get it right, but know that we’re working hard to make it better each and every day. And if you haven’t gotten a Perk from us yet, don’t be disappointed—it just means we’re still searching for the perfect Perk for you!

If you’re eligible for a Perk you’ll be able to opt-in on our Perks page which also features a showcase of current Perks you can check out.

P.S. You can help us get you more Perks by encouraging businesses or brands with cool products to get in touch with us.

Posted in measuring influence, Perks | 46 Comments »

Klout Leads to More Sales

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

Online marketplace Addoway gave sellers the option to add Klout Scores in April of this year. Addoway believed Klout was an important component of trust and would help improve confidence in their network, but they didn’t realize by how much. They found “sellers that display their Klout score on Addoway are 5 times more likely to make a sale than sellers that don’t.”

The Klout Score is an indication of the trust your network puts in you and Addoway has shown that consumers value that trust when they’re looking to make a purchase. Fredrick Nijm, CEO of Addoway adds “Klout is valuable information because it indicates advocacy and that trusted relationships have been formed. Bringing value to eCommerce by indicating an individual’s social status will only lead to safer buying decisions, because shoppers can make more confident decisions.”

We’re excited to see Klout used more in purchasing decisions, as a valuable indicator of reputation and influence.

Posted in applications | 7 Comments »

+K for Google+

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

Google+ is probably the fastest growing service of all time, and is certainly the most discussed launch of the year. Benefiting from Google’s unique distribution position, it’s already changing the landscape of social media, amassing 10M+ members in just a few weeks. It took Facebook two years and Twitter three years to reach the same milestone. Here at Klout, we’re taking a closer look at how it can help provide our users with a complete picture of their influence.

Our internal testing of Google+ has already demonstrated some exciting potential. Simple post-by-post privacy is undoubtedly a reason why so many feel more comfortable with who can access their content. We’ve also noticed people are sharing more, perhaps due to a more intuitive interface. A good example of this is the YouTube sharing integration, which allows users to search for videos, pick from their own uploads or enter a video’s URL.

That said, the most engaging element has emerged from the ability to post publicly (even to users who aren’t logged in) and receive responses in the form of in-line comments. Now users can follow and contribute to conversations in a way that wasn’t previously possible. Here’s a great example of the Gmail team using this feature to get suggestions on how they might integrate Google+.

We’ve already started work on ways to assess your influence on Google+, but we need Google to provide us with a system to access and identify your data. We’ve heard an API for Google+ is coming soon and we’ll be ready when it launches.

Posted in other | 55 Comments »

Listen up – Spotify has arrived!

Thursday, July 14th, 2011

UPDATE: Wow, everyone loves Spotify! The response was overwhelming and we’re out of invites for the day. We’ll have more tomorrow so make sure to check back!

If you’ve got Klout, then you can have Spotify.

Spotify has been rocking Europeans with their music streaming service for the past few years and we’ve been mighty jealous over here at Klout HQ. Now you can listen to Spotify over the web, on your Android or Apple phones. And we’re not just talking about a limited selection of songs; Spotify has one of the biggest music libraries in the world for free, for you. Awesome.

We LOVE giving you, the influencers, the best of what’s out there, and we like to give it to you first.

We have a limited number of Spotify Free account invitations to pass out. Get yours right now. If your friends trust your influence on music and download Spotify, your account might even be upgraded to Spotify Premium.

Spotify is one of the most hotly-anticipated launches in America this year. We have been lucky enough to get a sneak preview at Klout HQ. Spotify has completely changed the way we think about music, and the way we share our favorite tunes with our friends. We know you’re going to love Spotify – now go get your invitation!

Posted in announcements, applications, Perks | 210 Comments »

Klout Stars: Jay Baer

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

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

About Jay: Jay Baer is a tequila-loving, hype-free strategist, speaker, and author who works with major companies and agencies to successfully integrate social media and content marketing. A founder of five companies, he’s worked with more than 700 brands since 1994, including 28 of the Fortune 500. He’s the co-author of the leading social business design book, The NOW Revolution, and his Convince & Convert blog was ranked as the world’s #3 social media blog by Social Media Examiner. Cited as one of America’s top social media consultants by Fast Company magazine, he’s been featured in USA Today, MSNBC, and Inc. Magazine.

We asked…

1. How did you get started on social media?

“I was originally a political consultant, helping manage campaigns for Governor, U.S. Senate, and President. I moved out of that industry into digital marketing in 1994. Since then, I’ve owned several companies in the online marketing world, including an award-winning agency that I sold in 2005. In 2008, I started Convince & Convert to help corporations and other agencies strip away the hype and successfully integrate social media.

I love social because it’s the perfect combination of online marketing and retail politics. You’re trying to win hearts and minds one at a time, or a few at a time using stories and humanization, but you’re using digital techniques to do so, rather than salacious 30-second ads and cheesy direct mail.

I started my Convince & Convert blog to create a place that straddles the line between social media theory and social media execution, while always trying to show how social is an ingredient, not the whole entree. Same thing for The NOW Revolution, the book I wrote with Amber Naslund (of Radian6). It’s not a book about doing social media, it’s a book about how companies can BE social.”

2. What’s your strategy for the content you produce and share on social media?

“My mom and stepdad were both high school teachers, as was my grandmother. Education (and tequila) runs through my veins. I see my role as that of a translator and coach, taking important social media principles and explaining them in a practical way to people who are very smart marketers and businesspeople, but not necessarily social media practitioners day-to-day. With my blog, my Twitter feed, my twice-weekly email newsletter, and other vehicles, I try to curate what matters and add a heavy dose of my own interpretation and advice.”

3. What advice do you have for someone who wants to take their social media influence and presence to the next level?

“Three things to remember:

First, it’s a paradox, but the more you “sell” the less you sell. You earn the right to promote in social, you can’t buy it. The difference between helping and selling is just two letters, but those letters mean everything. Find a way to genuinely help other people via social media, and it will come back to you five-fold eventually.

Second, realize that social media happens fast, but success is accrued very slowly. If you think you’re going to be able to get involved in social media and have massive influence in two months, you’re kidding yourself (unless you’re a celeb, in which case your influence just needs to be unlocked, preferably from aboard a yacht).

Third, there is NO shortcut. People invariably try to game the system, to increase their Klout score by doing this or doing that. I’m fortunate enough to have interacted with a lot of people who are (at least according to Klout Score) considered influential in social media. And the only thing that is universal among them is that they worked extremely hard to make it happen. I firmly believe that just about anyone can make social media work for them, but you have to love it and you have to put in the time. ”

Want to hear more from Jay? Follow him on Twitter as @JayBaer.

Let us know what you think of Klout Stars! If you’d like to be considered for a future Klout Stars post about your social media success please email contact@klout.com.

Posted in influencers, klout stars | 16 Comments »

Two Billion is Cool

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

In early 2009 we launched our API before we even made Klout.com publicly available. Our goal was to unlock influence for application developers around the world. Today, we’re proud to announce that we served more than two billion API calls in the month of June. This is four times what we had just a few short months ago. We want to thank all of our 3,000+ partners-developers who have made Klout part of the fabric of the social web and the standard for measuring influence.

Gnip, Klout’s key distributor, says demand for the Klout API just continues to grow. Chris Moody, COO from Gnip, says, “It started with social media monitoring companies and PR firms. Now just about every vertical is asking us about Klout’s API. It just has so much application. Let’s put it this way, we’ll be partners for a long time.”

It’s been amazing to see all the ways that companies are leveraging the Klout API. From hotels instantly upgrading rooms at check-in to call centers routing calls appropriately and thousands of companies using integration partners like Radian 6, Seesmic, Hootsuite, CoTweet, about.me and others to provide heightened levels of customer service to key influencers. Klout has become a must have for any company dealing with support, customer loyalty, and directed offers. It makes us proud to know that with every API call an influencer is being rewarded. We can’t wait to see what innovation the next 2 billion API calls bring!

Posted in announcements, applications, measuring influence | 30 Comments »

Perks Everywhere

Friday, July 8th, 2011

At Klout, we believe influencers deserve to be recognized. If someone recommends a great Mexican restaurant or a new video game to 50 of their friends, that has real impact. More than any billboard because influencers put their reputation on the line every time they make a recommendation. As a company, we believe it is our job to serve influencers and our goal has always been to help them understand and leverage their influence.

A year ago we started experimenting with Klout Perks. The idea is simple: give influencers access to exclusive products and experiences and let them tell the story in their own words. If I tell my network which movie to go to and help studios fill up theaters, doesn’t it makes sense that I should have the opportunity to see early screenings of upcoming films? The key to the success of Perks is authenticity. This is why the Klout Influencer Code of Ethics states “You are receiving the perk because you are influential and have authority on topics related to the perk. You are welcome to tell the world you love the perk, you dislike the perk or say nothing at all”.

Over the past year we have run about 50 Klout Perks and have been lucky enough to work with such forward-thinking brands as Audi, Disney, Hewlett Packard, Nike, and Turner. One thing we’ve learned is that people don’t become influential about a topic without being extremely passionate about it. We are amazed by the quality of conversations that have emerged out of Perk experiences and love the variety of amazing content (such as this Popchips Perk unboxing). It’s time to open the Klout Perks experience to a wider audience so that we can reward even more influencers.

You’ll notice that Klout Perks are a more integrated part of Klout.com. This is still a work in progress but we want users to know which Perks they qualify for, which Perks their friends have received, and have a glimpse at Perks that are coming soon. Under the hood, we’ve completely rebuilt the way we select influencers and launch Perks. We believe that every person that creates content online has influence. Our new system allows us to run more Perks with an even higher resolution of topical targeting. You want to introduce your product to women in 20 markets who are influential about sports, health, and nutrition? Klout can do that. I couldn’t be more proud of the Klout team for what they have built.

While we’ve done some amazing Perks in the past (free tickets on Virgin America, a laptop from Hewlett Packard or a weekend in a Audi A8 to name a few), I am excited because we have some truly spectacular Perks coming soon!

I will wrap up by saying that the integrity of the Klout Score and our goal to be the standard for influence online is the foundation of our company (participating in Perks, or not participating, does nothing to your score). We simply believe it’s time to recognize more influencers. Make sure you are registered on Klout.com to see what your Klout can earn you. We have an awesome Perk coming early next week to kick it all off!

If you are interested in running a Klout Perk for your business or brand please reach out to partners@klout.com.

Posted in influencers, Perks | 180 Comments »