Have you heard of Klout? No? Then you might be becoming unemployable. If you don’t have a klout score you will be passed over for some jobs, and the number of recruiters using Klout as a measure of worth is growing.
Thankfully, I am scaremongering because this situation is happening mainly in the US rather than in the UK. Thank goodness, right? Klout is an influence measurement service. You gain a score based on how influential you are on sites like Facebook, Twitter etc. I have a personal dislike of Klout – I think its scoring is flawed (it has been telling me for months I am influential about cats and John Terry) and I think it is way too early for anyone to take it seriously as a true measure of worth when so many people actually have never heard of it, let alone signed up to use it.
Blogger Neville Hobson wrote a post this week pointing out a recruitment ad that actually stated you could only apply for a job if you have a Klout score of 35 or higher. This is not a scandal when you consider the job on offer was as a community manager – a job which requires an understanding of, and ability to build and manage an online community. There are many people, however, who do have those skills but who do not use Klout, and this struck me as a perfect example of a subject I covered yesterday on the blog of our sister site, Vertical Leap – How to be social without being public.
If you work in marketing in any shape or form, and specifically online, you need to be using the social networks that the majority of other people use. You need to practise what you preach. People who work at Asda probably sometimes shop at Tesco; people who work at Marks & Spencer probably wear clothes from New Look or Matalan. Social media is one sector where you cannot avoid using your own merchandise, proving to others that you believe what you say.
I hope recruiters in the UK don’t start using social networks as a sole measure of people’s worth, but I think you’ll agree that it would be equally short sighted for potential employees to not realise the significance of how they use social networks. That means not only using them is important but using them responsibly too. There are some great social media marketing tips in the Red Rocket Media Downloads section.
I haven’t heard of Klout before but am in the property management industry in a marketing/training role. How do I find out what my Klout score is? And how do you get your social connections to boost your score if you are in the market of making employment changes so you are more desirable as a candidate?
You can just register on klout.com with your facebook or twitter account. It has been buggy lately, due to some of the new features they are rolling out, and might not always give you the most accurate reading.
This is an uncomfortable story for many, but thank you for sharing this Klout score / job correlation. A hiring manager first mentioned this to me a couple years ago (applicants’ Klout scores were compared during the initial screening of resumes). I teach Electronic Marketing at Florida State University and have developed a class project related to improving students’ social media engagement and influence. A nice byproduct of the project is student Klout scores increase. Do I think Klout should be used in hiring situations? I see negative and positive aspects depending on the context and a few other variables. Anyone soon to enter the job market in any industry where social media plays a role should be aware of Klout, PeerIndex, Kred and other similar measures of social media engagement and influence. Again, great story and thank you for sharing. On Twitter @toddbacile.
Hey, my Klout score is 35! I guess I’m ready for that job. It would probably be high if I used FB.
They are probably missing out on some excellent candidates by eliminating those with sub 35 scores, even given the job title in this case.
One wonders if Fiverr gigs will start to show up, promising to up the Klout scores of potential job candidates……
I absolutely hate Klout. It’s a thinly-veiled MLM scheme masquerading as a legitimate social network.
When Klout works, you should join. But the score is extremely erroneous and invalid. It currently does not work well with Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and even with Twitter it has major problems.
My advice – STAY WAY
I think any company using Klout as a measure of someone’s job worth is putting emphasis on the wrong measurement. I’m sure those companies are the same ones that think the ultimate measure of success for a social media marketing campaign is Page Likes and Twitter followers.
I get why this company would be using Klout score as sort of a gatekeeper, and especially for this particular job; but Klout scores can fluctuate so much and for so many reasons. It really should be taken with a grain of salt.
In my country (Denmark) Klout is on a beta version and it does not show the real picture of your activity. The say: “Interactions are actions taken by people on social media to engage with you and the content you create. Klout collects these from the original network, typically within 72 hours, displays them on your dashboard.” My lattest feed on Klout is from September 23… and I am very active on several social media. So there is room for improvement, I’d say, before Klout can be used to anything!