Klout is the social media measurement tool that measures influence – how many followers, how much interaction and the style of interaction that a person has in their personal or business social network. As Klout takes over the world, it’s interesting to see their API (the button that updates all over the internet) showing up. E.g. Klout updates an influencers score but you see it on Salesforce or in a Reuters newspaper article. Klout integrated into the Browser. See the K button below: Klout is fed into most of the main social media monitoring systems. MORE >>

Here I go again: Klout does not equal Clout. Yesterday Klout introduced “the new Klout.com.&#. My initial reaction (and it’s also in the comment that I left over on the Klout blog post, since I didn’t think it fair to simply write about it here and not comment there as well) is … that it’s very pretty. But if Klout is going to bill itself as “the standard for online influence,&# it’s got to do more than score people based on how frenetically active they are on Twitter and Facebook. Klout. It’s ridiculous. Katie. MORE >>

In particular, I’ve aimed my arrows at Klout. But within the last year, there is a new player, Kred, which hasn’t quite caught on the way Klout did. Despite my krotchey Klout reaction, I’ll admit to using Klout, PeerIndex and Kred scores into baseline, weighted influence measurements for analytics purposes. So while I’m still wary, I’ve found a way to balance their usefulness and defects for measuring social campaigns. Recently, several high profile social media people have removed themselves from Klout all together. Blech. MORE >>

It was the little guys, the Little Lights Urban Ministries ( Klout Score: 10 ) and For Love of Children, Inc. Klout Score: 37 ) that won most donors and most donations, respectively. If people were betting on popular nonprofit brands and influencers with big Klout scores to win the day, they would have lost a lot of money. The first was PostSecret ‘s Frank Warren ( Klout Score: 69 ), who won the Care2 Individual Fundraiser Award with his IMAlive fundraiser, which in turn triggered a third place finish for Most Donors for the Kristin Brooks Hope Center. MORE >>

Earlier this week, I received a very large package, courtesy of Fox Studios and their recent influencer outreach campaign for their new Fall television series, Lone Star. The campaign, a creative use of data compiled by Klout , provided targeted Twitter users (those that fell with a certain range of Klout scores) with a Lone Star watching kit. But besides getting this free stuff and a unique chance to see a hyped new show before friends and family — what can marketers take away from this campaign? If it’s a good show, the outreach campaign will amplify that. MORE >>