{"id":101076,"date":"2025-01-29T08:46:54","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T13:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crazyegg.com\/blog\/?p=101076"},"modified":"2025-01-29T08:46:56","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T13:46:56","slug":"klout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crazyegg.com\/blog\/klout\/","title":{"rendered":"What Was Klout and Why Did It Matter?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Klout was an analytics company that gave social media users a “Klout Score” between 1 and 100 based on their activity on social media platforms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founded in 2008, Klout seemed like it was on the road to lasting success. It was even acquired by a company called Lithium Technologies in 2014 for a whopping $200 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But four years later, on May 25, 2018, Klout went dark. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A History of Klout <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Klout owes its existence to one of the most objectively awful medical procedures a person can undergo: jaw wiring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2007, when he was 30 years old, a businessman named Joe Fernandez had to have his jaw wired shut for three months as part of a surgery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fernandez ate by blending soup and spraying it through his teeth with a syringe, according to an interview for a 2018 article in The Ringer<\/a>. Unable to speak, he had to rely on social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, to stay in touch with the wider world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s when Fernandez got an idea. What if word-of-mouth was measurable in some way? What if you could assign a numerical value to a person\u2019s social media influence? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With extra time on his hands, Fernandez decided to test his idea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He wrote a script to pull data from then-Twitter\u2019s then-open API. Then he used an Excel sheet of Twitter handles to create a scoring system based on each user\u2019s follower count, engagement levels, and overall influence on Twitter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the scoring system, 1 signaled extremely low influence <\/em>and 100 signaled extremely high influence<\/em>. By mid-2008, after his jaw had healed, he shared the prototype for Klout with some friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rise of Online Influence<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

According to Fernandez, his friends thought the idea was stupid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in 2008, the word influencer <\/em>didn\u2019t really exist, after all. It didn\u2019t have a spot on Dictionary.com until 2016<\/a>, and it was absent from Merriam-Webster until 2019<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did a quick Google Trends analysis<\/a> of the search volume for the word. It was basically irrelevant between 2007 and 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Google<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But Fernandez was ahead of the times. Maybe he sensed that influencers would soon become incredibly<\/em> relevant. Maybe, by building Klout, he helped make <\/em>influencers influential. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His friends might not have loved the concept of a social media scoring system, but the idea quickly gained traction with social media users themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Klout website looked something like this on November 11, 2009<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screenshot<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On the left-hand side of the screen, you could see recent influencers\u2019 \u201cK Scores,\u201d or Klout Scores. You could also see which topics said influencers were influential about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the right-hand side of the screen, users could sign up for a Klout account to track their influence on Twitter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By April 2010, the search term \u201cKlout score\u201d went from a flatline to a tiny peak on Google<\/a>. And by June of 2012, it had exploded in popularity.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Google<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Clearly, people wanted to know how much influence they had. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Klout quickly left the beta stage. Soon, you could see your Klout Score based on your LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter presence. You could even earn Klout Perks if you had a good Klout Score. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Klout Perks included free products, access to exclusive events, big discounts, and even travel opportunities for social media users with the most, well, clout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All from companies who hoped to get some exposure from the social media users\u2019 content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sounds a lot like the influencer of today, does it not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what Klout.com looked like in January 2012<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screenshot<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By late 2012, Microsoft had invested in Klout. Celebrities knew about their Klout scores, and some even had Klout accounts. Forums like Quora and Reddit regularly hosted discussions about Klout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is where I found information on what constituted a \u201cgood\u201d Klout score. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Was Considered a Good Klout Score?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

40 was an average Klout Score, 50 was a good score, and 70+ was amazing, <\/em>according to the discourse in one Quora thread.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screenshot<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But no one could figure out the exact formula for how Klout scores were calculated\u2014or if they were even remotely accurate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Quora thread above, blogger David Fitzsimmons says, \u201cRather bizarrely Klout scores me at 61 and says I am an expert on Iceland (never been) & being a Mum (I\u2019m male) among other things. Perhaps most weirdly I am an expert in toilets.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Fitzsimmons\u2019 blog is still live. You can see the full breakdown of his Klout experience<\/a> there.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This cheeky Business Insider piece from 2011<\/a> breaks the scoring system down a little more. It appeared to have three main components.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alyson Shontell, author of the Business Insider piece, compared her scores with Justin Bieber\u2019s. At the time, Bieber had an overall Klout Score of 100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n