There has been much discussion around the launch of a localized social mashup I developed using Klout, the standard of social influence.

It is received with both excitement by innovators and criticism by the usual naysayer crowd.  Although in its current state, Klout is not perfect, it is a fantastic initiative and a really impressive start!   Its important to put into perspective how technology advances, search engines in the early days were flawed but years later they are now a standard for finding relevant information.  As an early adopter (First Tweet from Hawaii @Rob) I have been able to spot trends and I am confident that Klout will play a significant role (albeit potentially evolved role) in the near future.  As Tom Webster of Brand Savant put it “while I don’t know that ‘online influence’ is where (Klout) are going to end up, they are going to end up somewhere useful – I truly believe that.”  Well said.

I think the most important thing to realize is nobody is suggesting that we make friends or hire consultants based on their Klout Score. You are in for trouble anytime you allow a formula to be the only factor in an important decision, that said, an algorithm can pick out information that humans may gloss over. Example: After reviewing Hawaii Klout, there were a number of influencers who I had not crossed paths with and now follow and am engaged by… thank you for uncovering them Klout!

As the #1 “Search Engine Optimization Expert” in Google I understand algorithms intimately and how easily they can be gamed and I am able to look at the data as if it was the opinion of someone rather than the official ranking of social influence.

The same way that a PageRank or MozRank assigns a value to a website, a Klout Score assigns a value to an aggregate social profile. In the early days search engines based their rankings on things like keyword density (the social equivalent to frequency) and still use inbound links (the social equivalent to @ mentions) to determine a page/domains value. As search engines have evolved they have become more keen to contextual factors and do not award keyword rankings solely based on the PageRank of a domain.

I have had my head down a bit and haven’t chimed into the conversation as much as I wanted because I am in the process of launching a next generation site which will be announce shortly.