I still could not care less about your Klout score. Really. Fashion brand Bal Harbour rattled my belief in social humanity as it re-defined VIP status. Someone thought it was a very good idea to go for a social-score based on Klout to determine who could attend, or not. For its Fashion’s Night Out party in Florida, you needed a Klout score of 40 or higher to get in. Now, wait a minute, many traditional journalists, who don’t know Klout from a clout, were restricted from attending? Surely that will propel Bal Harbour to the top of the social likability charts!
What happened to the old-fashioned pressroom, where a rookie journalist could sip coffee next to a Pulitzer winning heavy weight? Or the blogger lounge where a starting tech blogger can shake hands with @guykawasaki?
How did Klout become the official VIP rating anyway? Because their website says it is? Let me be clear: I have nothing against Klout. I have a Klout score and apparently it is high enough to get me Champagne and caviar at the Bal Harbour Shops Fashion Night Out, thank you very much! I would have been welcome there, except, I’m not influential in fashion. Not credible. No role model. No fashion kudos whatsoever. The whole Klout craziness is a bit tiring, and extremely worrying. If agencies and brands are using this score to determine who is important, influential and thought leading, we are far away from home.
It’s already starting: every single day I get multiple requests on Twitter, Facebook and mail from bloggers, Twitterati, Google+-ers and tutti quanti to ask me to give them a +K score on Klout: “Can you please give me a +K on Klout for my blog”? A system that can be heavily influenced by simply begging people to vote-you-up seems a shabby standard anyway.
So no, I will not +K you because you ask. Maybe I will if you deserve it.
So please, leave me now while I bask in the luxurious glow of having a Klout score way higher than 40. That gives me VIP status in Florida. I made it. My star is shining. (You can +K me on writing, blogging, social media, etc…. some of my light might shine upon you, so it’s totally worth it)