More Klout, Less Significance

Earlier this year I was really interested in Klout, a site that measures your online influence by connecting with your social networks. Initially the site worked only with Twitter, but in early March Klout started connecting their profiles with Facebook as well. After liking how Klout measured Twitter influence, I gave their Facebook interface a try. Sadly, once I allowed the Klout app on Facebook, it turned out that they only measured influence on my personal profile (a place I don't strive to be influential at all) and didn't give me any choice to connect my Facebook Like page. Upon learning this I tweeted to them unsuccessfully and later sent them an email to ask when they would start measuring influence on Like pages. Their response:

Thanks for your feedback. Connecting Facebook Pages is something we're already looking in to, but there is no definite timeline for that yet. However, I agree with you that Page integration is the next logical step especially when you think of it from a branding perspective!

This satisfied me for about a minute.

Now, almost five months later, they still haven't managed to integrate Facebook Like pages and we're seeing the site integrate more social networks like LinkedIn and FourSquare. [Facepalm] Really?! Hasn't LinkedIn become spammy enough...? And FourSquare? What kind of clout does one get from posting their location?

"...it's what you do that defines you." - Batman Begins

Klout went from claiming to be the authority on online influence, to making their site into more of a social game about increasing your score. While self-acclaimed "social media gurus" work to increase their scores, there is no reason why actual celebrities would connect their personal Facebook profiles and FourSquare accounts... do you think they want the Paparazzi knowing where they are and what they're doing at all times? Why, then, would they be active on FourSquare at all! Instead of increasing their online influence, adding these types of social networks to the site would only increase their creepy stalkers.

If I worked at Klout, I would be working on integrating Facebook Like pages, and Google+ profiles. If you're listening, Klout employees, take note... and get to work.