Michael Cohn, founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of CompuKol Communications LLC has a great blog post explaining Klout scores and why it is important. You can find his post here He says, “The Klout score is a metric of your total influence online. The higher your Klout score, the larger and more robust your sphere of influence. The variables that go into calculating a Klout score are interesting and important for business.”
I work hard to provide relevant content and information to my followers on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Klout is one resource to help me understand my true reach and level of influence. According to Klout, I am a “Specialist” and they say “You may not be a celebrity, but within your area of expertise your opinion is second to none. Your content is likely focused around a specific topic or industry with a focused, highly-engaged audience.”
I didn’t realize how competitive I was until I started using social media. I find myself competing for foursquare badges with my daughter. I compete for mayorship’s with co-workers Lorri Wyndham and Charmayne Redd. I compete against Brian Conrey for leaderboard points.
The picture below represents my new competition obsession with Gini Dietrich, CEO of Arment Dietrich. Her Klout score is higher than mine. You can take my word for it or you can click on the picture below to open and see that I’m 20 points behind her. She ranks as a “thought leader.” I’m satisfied at this point being a specialist with 2k followers. I don’t believe I need 18k+ followers to make a difference. But…I would like to catch up to Gini with more points and become more influential in my community!
Watch out Gini, here I come and I just might have some help from “our” friends!
Deb, Consulting Executive (DebCE) 
My Klout score is 29 becasue I hang w/Gini LOL! You do know that Gini Dietrich is THE most competitive person I have ever met. I will sit back and watch the 2 of you LOL!
Oh no! A new competition fo me. Deb, here I come!!
Yes, Patti I know how competitive Gini is and I’m following in her footsteps. Now Robin is following in mine. We can all compete against one another!
I love healthy competition! I’m in! I also don’t think you need 18,000 followers to have a high score. It’s based on what you tweet and who RTs you.
But I will caution your readers to be careful about Klout. It’s not a real measure of influence…except on Twitter. Say, for instance, you wanted to do a Chicago education influencer program and you went to Klout. You found me, Amber Naslund, David Armano, and seven others. Because of our high Klout scores, you ask us to help you promote your new classes. We do because we like you and you pitched us well. But none of us are influential in education or things that parents do for their kids. So your program is a bust and you spent all this money because Klout told you we were influential.
On the flip side, YOU are extremely influential in that space, but your Klout score isn’t as high as mine. So companies would miss you.
I’m not a fan.
Gini, as always I learn something new from you! I think I will still watch Klout as I continue working hard to share good content with my community. If I’m lucky I might catch up and even beat you at the foursquare leaderboard every once in a while.
You usually are ahead of me on Foursquare! I think I passed you this morning when I checked in at the hospital because it’s the first time I’ve been here.