Klout, the San Francisco based company, compares data with other social media sites to determine a user’s influence across their social network. Klout analyses data from various social media sites including Facebook, Twitter and most recently Youtube.

Klout users are given a score between 1 and 100. The higher the score the more influential the user is considered. A high ranking number means the user has a strong influence in their social media community and will likely have many comments, retweets and general participation towards their online activities. Below you can see my Klout score. I’m a feeder of over 3,000 people and am utilizing multiple platforms to their fullest extent, making me somewhat influential.

Many people, including myself, do not care about knowing the strength or weakness of their personal social media influence. However, many nightclubs hiring promoters are should recognize the positives of having an influential social media user on their side. Venues and promotions companies should start “buttering up” these influential social butterflies with freebies and perks in hope that they will spread the word about their parties and events onto their plethora of followers.

Good Side

1. More Influence, The Better – The idea of course is that, in theory, a promoter with more online influence will help your party or event through blog posts, Tweets, Facebook posts and LinkedIn updates because they’ll reach a broader audience.
2. Pre-Qualifying – When promoters come knocking at your door for work and you’ve never heard their name in your life, you can use Klout to at least gauge some level of influence in their claims to be able to bring people to your event. Of course, you should still ask for references.
3. Friendly Competition – Create friendly competition amongst your promoters to fight for the top spot on Klout and award them with extra drink or bottle tickets on a weekly or monthly basis.
4. Ego Trip – Klout plays to the ego of promoters who want to be known as influencers and this will encourage them to take their influence from the streets to the online world.

Bad Side

1. The “Street Promoter Problem” The current Klout algorithm takes little to no account of a person’s offline influence. In other words, Klout doesn’t show that I’m extremely handsome, lovable, and that everyone likes me and that’s why they follow me to my party
2. The “Bottle Promoter Problem” Bottle promoters are different from general audience promoters. Bottle promoters can bring you $10,000 in sales by brining just two or three big spenders. The klout score will not help you determine who is a bottle promoter.
3. Klout can be manipulated – You can earn points for doing certain things to your profile and recommending people, stuff that doesn’t really make you a person people want to party with. So look deeper into the promoter’s social influence.
4. Not Hiring a High Klout - If you don’t hire a high Klout promoter, watch out – After all, regardless of if you want to hire her or not, you want to stay on her good side because his or her online influence can have a impact on your brand.

Should a candidate’s Klout score influence whether they get the job or how you will treat them?

How influential does Klout rank you?