I’m by no means the only one who has called BS on the concept of influence; others have done a much better and thorough job of pointing out the problems inherent in the current crop of influence-measuring tools. When even the CEO of Twitalyzer says “to use Twitalyzer (or Klout for that matter) to make any decision about an individual other than broadly how they use Twitter as a tool is a mistake and does disservice to the individual, Twitter, and our analytics platform.” …you know there’s a problem. Yet, like so many things in life, hype is prevailing and PR firms, brands and even employers are looking to Klout scores and the like and bestowing swag, brand ambassadorships and even jobs on those who confusing algorithms have deemed “influential.”
Who wouldn’t want to game this system?
Tomorrow night at 10 pm ET some super smart and cool people will be chatting about Internet Fame and the True Impact of Influence on BlogTalk Radio. Danny Brown will be hosting the show, and Tamsen McMahon, Lisa Thorell, Allyson Kapin, Rich Becker and Olivier Blanchard will be chatting live with him. If you’re so inclined you’ll be able to call in and participate in the discussion too.
Be there or be square! And in the meantime, what do you think of all this fuss about Klout and influence and the rest of it?
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