Klout is measuring something, they say it’s influence, others aren’t convinced. As far as I can tell, they mostly measure reach and how effective that reach is. Whether influence is the right word for that isn’t that important.

Try as they might, Klout can never be 100% accurate because the idea of “influence” is subjective. You say this, I say that. It’s like debating the “right” length of spaghetti noodles. But, as I’ve said before, even spaghetti noodles can give you a pretty solid idea.

For example, no matter how you define the “right” length of spaghetti, if I say that I am 8 noodles tall and my wife is 7 noodles tall, while it’s not accurate, you still get a pretty good idea. In my opinion, that’s what Klout is great at, giving you a quick, “pretty good idea” of the potential influence/reach of someone. Generally speaking, someone with a Klout score of 15 is likely to be less active on social and have fewer people listening to them than someone with a score of 50. Can we agree on that?

That’s great and all, but…
So, are Klout scores useful? Yes, and I believe that every resort can benefit from them. Not by worrying about their own scores but by focusing on others’. Let me give you an example.

Let’s say you have two guests that come to your resort, fill out a survey as they leave, and both end up having a Net Promoter Score of 3. Something probably went wrong during their visit, right? This type of guest poses multiple risks including a) they may not come back and b) they may tell others about their bad experience. Now, if guest A has a Klout score of 15 and guest B has a Klout score of 50 and you can only contact one of them to resolve any concerns, which one will you contact?

Everything else equal, it would make more sense to resolve the concerns of the guy with a score of 50. He is more likely to share his bad experience and, if he does, the damage will likely be bigger.

The Bright Side
Let’s flip the tables. Again, two guests, two surveys, but this time, the NPS for both is 10. They loved their ski vacations. Who would you want to write a guest blog post about their trip? Probably the guy with a Klout score of 50. He may not be a better writer, but once his post goes live, he’s going to drive a lot more traffic to your site than Mr. 15 which means more people will see him as an evangelist for your resort.

He’s also more likely to post pictures and video during his trip and share his experiences. If you have some rooms in your hotels that are 3G and WI-FI dead zones, you’d better make sure he’s not in one of them.

The Key
You’ll probably notice a word I used more than once in this post: likely. Klout doesn’t give you guarantees, the score tells you who is more likely to have certain habits and reach within the social sphere.

It’s easy to jump on the Klout-haters bandwagon, but if you can let go of those feelings for just a moment, I think you’ll see that Klout scores can really be a helpful tool to have.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.