Klout changes its influence algorithm … again. Do you care?

Klout sent the social media world into a bit of an uproar this week when it tweaked how it measures influence. According to Klout, influence is the ability to drive action and is based on quality, not quantity.

When someone engages with your content, they assess the action in the context of the person’s own activity. Klout uses three metrics in its “PeopleRank” algorithm: how many people you influence, how much you influence them, and how influential those people are. I’m still not sold on using an algorithm to measure influence. But, there are folks out there who do use Klout to prove how influential a person is. In announcing the adjustments, Klout said:

A majority of users will see their Scores stay the same or go up but some users will see a drop. In fact, some of our Scores here at the Klout HQ will drop—our goal is accuracy above all else. We believe our users will be pleased with the improvements we’ve made.