Social Media,
New in Social Media: Klout and Instagram
If you’ve seen your Klout score go up recently ‘ like in the last couple of days ‘ your Instagram account probably has a lot to do with it.
The loudest word on the Social Media street right now is Klout’s integration with the photo-sharing giant, Instagram; because the website that measures your social influence will now analyze your Instagram activity into your overall score, with your most popular photographs showing up in your Klout Moments.
It’s a phased roll-out, so all users may not see the changes right away.
Notable Changes
Previously, Klout has received a lot of criticism for not having enough, well, clout to make a lasting impact on social activity or influence. For example, they don’t factor blog activity when they show you your score.
However, the website has made a few notable changes that might just cause digital marketers everywhere to sit up and take notice.
1. Bing Integration But the news doesn’t end there. Klout’s also partnering up with Bing for individual influence to begin showing up in search results. This feature is currently limited only to celebrities and influencers of note. 
2. Limited Negative Influence Based on the new changes, any social presence of yours that you choose to integrate with Klout won’t decrease your overall score, it will only increase it. Look for a change of 1 to 5 points when you connect Klout to Instagram. Not bad for a day’s work, eh?
Impact on Social Marketing?
Sure, it’s too soon to tell, but given Bing’s persistent efforts to emerge as a strong competitor in the Search arena and the astronomical number of images uploaded every day, perhaps we’re finally seeing what might prove to be a strong collaboration.
Quite a few people in the industry feel that Klout’s way of gathering influence is arbitrary and not comprehensive enough. In that light, does it make sense to rush and sign-up or revise Social Media plan offerings? Not right away. But it’s definitely a move worth monitoring.
How often do you gauge your Klout score or consider it before you develop a strategy? Do you think it’s a valuable tool? Let us know in the comments!
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