Last week Klout released +K, a feature that adds personal endorsements to their influencer metrics through a rationed social currency. The new release is an attempt to improve the accuracy of Klout as an indicator of influence, but it also opens the door for quantifying categorical impact.
From a marketing perspective, this adds a semantic layer to a scoring system that has a heritage of marking everything with an integer. This means that brands using Klout Perks can now cull through the clutter of high scorers in an attempt to reach the perfect target.
Like anything Klout related, it's still imperfect. Many users report that they hardly know about the topics where they are listed as influential, but Klout hopes to fix this as they improve the system and move their weekly topical influence category changes toward a model that responds to conversation daily. This kind of tinkering is to be expected, but in the long term will Klout's +K work?
The new feature certainly helps Klout from the perspective of site stickiness and time spent on site. What was once a simple score checker for most could be transitioning into a platform unto itself. For now it seems only the social media obsessed would take the time to adopt, but adding a +K button to the menagerie of Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and +1 buttons could easily change that.
Imagine a world where you can +K a person's Tweet or blog comment in the same way that we currently Like brands such as Burberry or +1 search results for Bing. Suddenly we've entered a world where jumping to the top of the real time Klout charts is earning first page rankings on Google. This is where the currency element takes play.
Because each user receives 5 +K points per day (and can only give people repeat subject specific endorsements once every week), the system is more difficult to game than it would be to, say, buy a couple thousand meaningless Twitter followers. Just as in SEO some people will ascend the charts and receive Klout Perks with black hat tactics, but all these rankings point to one undeniable truth.
In this new era of influence brands aspire to speak to consumers like people and people are acting more and more like brands.
