Klout Expands Influence Scoring To Professional Social Network LinkedIn

Leena Rao

Leena Rao is currently a Senior Editor for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... → Learn More

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011


Klout, a startup that measures influence on Twitter and Facebook, is expanding its product today with the addition of LinkedIn. With the launch of Klout scoring for LinkedIn, you’ll be able to add your LinkedIn account to your Klout score and see your influence on the professional social network network itself.

For background, Klout evaluates users’ behavior with complex ranking algorithms and semantic analysis of content to measure the influence of individuals on social networks.

On Twitter, Klout’s influence score is based on a user’s ability to drive action through Tweets, Retweets and more. On Facebook, Klout will examine how conversations and content generate interest and engagement, via likes, comments, and more, from the network’s nearly 700 million users.

While Klout declined to give specifics on exactly what they are anlyzing (i.e. Likes, Tweets); the startup said it will analyze your interactions on the LinkedIn, who you are interacting with and engaging, and what types of content you are sharing with contacts. It’s important to note that simply having more connections on LinkedIn won’t get you a higher Klout score; it’s about the quality of those connections.

If you have your LinkedIn account synced on Klout, your influence on the network will soon be added to your overall Klout score.

Founder and CEO Joe Fernandez says that LinkedIn integration was one of the most requested features for Klout users. The company says that some users aren’t as active on Twitter, but are active on LinkedIn, and this is a way to make Klout scores more accurate. But in case you don’t really engage on LinkedIn, Klout says that your overall influence score won’t go down. In most cases users will see a score increase, even for infrequent LinkedIn users, says Klout.

Now that LinkedIn has over 100 million users and is also encouraging more sharing and engagement on the network, it probably makes sense for influence on the professional network to be measured. I’d be interested in seeing how any Klout users actually are interested in measuring their ‘Klout’ on LinkedIn.

Company: Klout
Website: klout.com
Launch Date: August 2008
Funding: $40M

Klout measures influence based on the ability to drive action across the social web. Any person can connect their social network accounts and Klout will generate a score on a scale of 1-100 that represents their ability to engage other people and inspire social actions. Klout enables everyone to gain insights that help them better understand how they influence others. Klout also provides people with opportunities to shape and be recognized for their influence.

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