Some firms are looking at social media influence scores during the hiring process – it’s an intriguing modern twist on recruitment
By Todd Humber
You’ve got the education. You’ve got the experience. But do you have the clout — or more precisely the “Klout” — to land that new gig?
Some firms are taking the Klout score of candidates into consideration during the hiring process. Salesforce.com, for example, recently had a job posting for a community manager that listed a minimum Klout score of 35 as a requirement.
One job currently on Workopolis — for a digital marketing manager at WSI Milton — calls for candidates to have a “good” Klout score.
What is Klout?
According to Klout.com, the score measures influence “based on your ability to drive action on social networks.”
The website, which launched in 2008, crunches social data numbers to give users an idea of how influential they are in the realm of social media. It currently measures more than 400 signals from Facebook profiles, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, foursquare, Klout and Wikipedia when calculating the score.
“Inspiring your friends to talk about and try a new sushi bar down the street after you post a photo of the incredible sushi you had is an example of influence,” the site says. “The more engagement and action you inspire with the content you create, the greater your influence.”
How the website crunches its numbers is unknown — the algorithm used is, unsurprisingly, a secret. But there’s no doubt things like the number of followers you have on Twitter or the number of Facebook likes you have plays a factor. So too does the number of retweets or comments you get. But it’s not always about quantity. Generating 100 retweets from 10 tweets will get you a higher score than 100 retweets from 1,000 tweets, according to Klout.
Klout says: “The best way to increase your Klout Score is to create content that people want to respond to and share.”
Measuring your Klout
Calculating your score — which ranges from 1 to 100 — is easy. Simply go to Klout.com and sign in with one of your social media accounts and you will, instantly, get the score.
The average score is 40. Canadian HR Reporter’s Twitter feed — @hrreporter — has a score of 56. (I guess it means we’re qualified to work at Salesforce.com.)
On the Klout dashboard, it shows your “most influential moments” from the past 90 days. According to the dashboard, the article Stuart Rudner, our employment law blogger, wrote on a former Walmart worker in Windsor, Ont., being awarded $1.4 million in damages lit up the Twitterverse.
It also reveals the Klout scores of some of your followers, depending on their settings — that can be an interesting way to find out which of your followers has the most influence.
A good recruitment method?
So now that we know a little bit about Klout, is it a good way to filter candidates?
It certainly seems logical for some positions. If you’re looking for a community manager, or someone to really boost your social media presence, then it only makes sense to look for a candidate with a proven track record of success — a high Klout score could be a good indicator.
What do you think? Have you ever taken a Klout score into consideration? Will you in the future? Enter your thoughts in the comment box below.
Todd Humber is the managing editor of Canadian HR Reporter, the national journal of human resource management. He can be reached at todd.humber@thomsonreuters.com.