(Klout brand logo, courtesy wikimedia commons)
Before I begin to lay out the framework for the case studies that I will use to dive deeper into my exploration and qualification of the phenomenon of microcelebrity, I thought it would be pertinent to write a post about the concept of “klout.” Thus far, my glossary of terms contains authenticity and microcelebrity (see my previous blog posts), and klout is a key concept that is inherently connected to both of these ideas.
The word “klout” is derived from the English word “clout,” defined by dictionary.com as “pull; strong influence; muscle, especially political power.” In recent years, klout has come to colloquially mean social influence. The modern, Web 2.0 concept of klout.as well as the new spelling, were created by Klout, a San Francisco-based start up company whose website and mobile application measure social media users’ online social influence. By utilizing social media analytics software, Klout assigns a numerical value between 1 and 100 that provides a holistic assessment of a users’ overall pervasiveness.
While Klout by default starts with Twitter, it is not limited to this medium: many different social media profiles that a user has are factored in when determining a klout score, including YouTube, Instagram, Flickr, Blogger, Tumblr, Last.fm, and many more. Overall klout score is determined by scores in three subcategories: “true reach,” “amplification,” and “network impact.” True reach is determined by the size of a users’ participatory audience that actively engages with their content. Amplification refers to the probability of the likelihood that content will garner actions, i.e. that the users’ audience will like, share, and comment on it. Finally, network impact describes the calculated level of influence that a user has over their engaged audience. Together, these factors indicate the users’ overall sway in their niche online community.
Klout is heavily utilized by businesses because of its capacity for commercial use. In terms of products and services, klout measures how socially pervasive those goods are, which directly correlates to brand image and sales numbers. In our heavily networked participatory culture, social influence is perhaps the key to successful business ventures and can often determine whether a business succeeds or fails. Commercial industries must command mastery over social media to maximize their klout scores and thus maximize sales and branding potential.
Businesses are far from the only users of Klout services—individuals also measure their klout scores. The Klout company’s business model operates on a Perks, or rewards, system. Users who reach certain levels of klout become eligible for experiences (such as vacations, concert tickets, etc.) and items (smartphones, digital cameras, designer clothing, etc.). The more klout that a user amasses, the more rewards, both in materials and recognition, that Klout gives them.
What makes the concept of klout so interesting is that it is a socially crafted word that has come to mean much more than the company for which it is named. Urbandictionary.com hosts one solitary colloquial definition of the term: “the measure of how much influence one has.” Not only has klout come to mean much more than both the analytics term (Klout company) and original English dictionary word (clout), but it has transcended its virtual boundaries. Now, klout is synonymous with social influence, in the real world and online.
A clear example of what klout means in today’s online ecosystem can be seen in the “Yung Klout Krew.” a group of early twenty-something club kids in San Francisco (Klout’s home base). These users regularly receive rewards for their influence scores and are well known in the area mostly for their online personas. One member of the Klout Krew, a twitter user named BoyTweetsWorld (@boytweetsworldx), perfectly embodies the concept of klout. This user does not have very many followers (relative to a standard of twitter fame and following), posts irreverent and vulgar tweets, and rarely if ever mentions his professional work (if he even has any); however, he commands one of the highest klout scores of the group, has a highly engaged audience, and regularly publicly communicates with celebrities on his account.
The idea of klout has now become embedded in popular social culture. Street vernacular and Hip-Hop culture have adopted and developed the idea of klout beyond its initial chains to online analytics. Now, klout is a widely socially established idea. Not only does klout relate a users to their online audience, but it also gains the user respect in the real world. On a non-virtual level, klout can be considered congruous to “street cred.”
This is where I can draw a clear link between klout and microcelebrity. Part of the definition of microcelebrity is that their fame comes from their unique developed personas and mastery of specific social media platforms unlike traditional celebrities whose fame originates from their professional endeavors. As previously stated, microcelebrity’s fame is directly measured by the amount of influence over their audiences and niche online subcultures through their unique voices, not by their professional prolificacy. High klout thus becomes an inherent attribute of any microcelebrity.
Now that I have linked microcelebrity and klout together, where does authenticity come in to play? Here things get a bit trickier. It is assumed that in order for a microcelebrity to gain fame and following, they must have some level of authenticity. At the same time, though, a users’ authenticity is called in to question if they do not have a widespread influence. This has led me to formulate a question that I will be exploring throughout my ethnographic study: does klout determine authenticity, or does authenticity determine klout?
Klout Company in the News:
http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/12/5404856/klout-controversial-service-that-measured-online-influence-reportedly