Don’t get me wrong, I love Klout perks. I’ve gotten some good chit over the past few years – anything from wine openers to T-shirts to smartphones worth $700.00.
But lately, I’ve been hearing a lot about social recruiters and companies looking to Klout to determine one’s “influence.” Heck, I’ve even heard rumors that financial institutions are using Klout to determine one’s credit worthiness. That takes the cake for me.
If you have been in a dark room hiding for the past year or so and don’t know what all the Klout is about, here’s a little info.
I’m all about online influence, relationship and community building and I glance at my Klout score from time to time. But I really don’t take it seriously. In fact, I haven’t invited a single person to join Klout (that I know of). See below. I find the picture to be quite funny and don’t think I will ever invite anyone on Facebook to join Klout – ever!
I think the reason that companies should not weigh in on someone’s Klout score for a potential job (accept perhaps in Digital Footprint and Management in Social Media but only in this area and since my Klout is somewhat good :) ) is that it can be manipulated as written in this post “Klout Myth Busters: Thoughts From The Experts.” I like what one dude says in this article:
Klout is a naive measurement that takes a 3 dimensional universe of influence and reduces it to a one dimensional snapshot. Like all other algorithmic people-scoring utilities, it only works as a very general indication of a person’s importance in the social media universe. (BAM!)
It’s funny how we take this whole thing so seriously and any new technology that comes along. There are some great tools out there that can truly assist in online recruiting, sourcing or whatever, don’t get me wrong, and I’ll be writing about those in the weeks to come.
But perhaps we should go back to “oldschool” methods of honing in on those skills that help us in determining the best fit, the best candidate and skills set or pull a dang credit check to determine if you should give someone a loan instead of looking to something like Klout!
What’s your whole thought of Klout and online influence? You’re the expert, you tell me?
Photo Credit: DeonDesigns
This post originally aired on HRVirtualCafe.com.