Now that Klout has changed their algorithm it appears that most people’s scores have dropped significantly. It seems to keep your Klout score high you have to play the Klout game! I have talked to many people that feel that Klout scores just don’t matter.

John Pozadzides of One Man’s Blog says “Whether we’re talking about Klout, Peerindex, or any of the other services that attempt to measure and quantify a person’s reach, the bottom line is – they don’t matter.  I’ll tell you what matters: when you make a recommendation, do people act on it?

For example, Mike Rawlings is the mayor of Dallas – a single city with twice the population of the state of Alaska. Yet Klout says he’s a 38 http://klout.com/#/Mike_Rawlings. Clearly there is a LOT these tools don’t measure.

If you want to play along with Klout for fun – have at it! But if you want to know how you’re doing in the social media space all you have to do is ask your audience and see how much response you get.  That’s how you measure your true klout.”

I also spoke to Lissa Duty about this and here is what she had to say:

“For me, Robin, Klout is a tool just like any other.  I don’t necessarily have a lot of concern about what my Klout score is / is not. Call me crazy if you want! I have been studying and looking at different online scoring systems for a while and they all have a different score / varying grading system. Who determines which one is right or not? It’s the users that make the decision to hire you or not, that matters.

My advice to you and anyone else out there studying Klout scores and being concerned – do your job online, as long as your circle of influence, peers and connections still think you are great, that is what is important. As long as you are getting clients and making money, which is why so many are using social media, who cares what their Klout score is. I do want to disclose, my Klout score used to be 63, dropped to 49 and when I looked a few days ago it was back up to 53. I am still getting clients, speaking opportunities, and booking social media coaching, Klout can’t give or take that away!”

So let’s look at what “clout” truly is about. (According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary clout is influence.) Do you influence people? Do people retweet you? Do you have meaningful (or fun) conversations on Twitter, Facebook and Google+? Do you get business from social media? If you can say yes to these questions than you have “clout”! The true measure of your influence on the web is if you are reaching the people you are intending: clients, potential clients, friends, etc.

I personally have grown my following on Twitter organically; I have never used a service, never followed a “bunch of random people”. I’ve done the same thing on all the social networks I use. I admit I’m more engaged on Twitter — I have more friends, conversation and such. I just don’t play the Klout game.

So what is the Klout game? The Klout game is simply played, you do have to be active on your social networks, and that includes your personal Facebook profile (I don’t use my personal profile, I tend to only update my business page – strike one in the Klout game!). You need to give (and receive) as many +K’s as possible (you don’t understand how they get the topics you can receive a +K for, well neither do I. I recently I received a +K for motorcycles!).  Now you can connect your business page to Klout, but if you manage multiple pages the problem will be they will tap into all the pages and not just “your” page (hey Klout, TweetDeck can let me choose pages why can’t you?).

Even if you play the Klout game your score may drop as Klout continues to change their algorithm. Personally, I’m going to judge myself on how my business grows. Now that’s CLOUT!