We were pleased at Aid Watch to discover Klout, an online Twitter “influence” scorecard. Could this help us settle some scores left over from the Twitter War we just had? We plan to use this as a rigorous new metric with which we will evaluate our efficacy in aid criticism and progress towards achieving our Meme Development Goals (MDGs), which were arbitrarily and haphazardly made up designed at the 2011 Laura-Freschi-and-Vivek-Nemana-Sitting-In-the-DRI-Office Summit (2011 LFVNSIDRIO Summit).
Klout employs such measures as followers, list memberships and retweets to present a comprehensive global metric of Twitter and social media effectiveness. Table 1 lists the Klout scores of various thought leaders in development:
| Twitter Handle | Klout Score |
|---|---|
| justinbieber | 100 |
| nickkristof | 85 |
| ONECampaign | 71 |
| viewfromthecave | 68 |
| bill_easterly | 65 |
| dambisamoyo | 61 |
| m_clem | 61 |
| paul_hewson | 60 |
| earthinstitute | 58 |
| jeffdsachs | 54 |
| aidwatch | 53 |
| endofpoverty | 49 |
| mcarthur | 48 |
| vnemana | 10 |
We regret the low positioning of Aid Watch, with a Klout score of 53. This fact is partially – but not entirely – offset by Bill Easterly’s higher placement of 65. (Please don’t tell him that @viewfromthecave is way higher).
Nevertheless, Aid Watch will implement a 4-point comprehensive plan of reform to achieve 3 indicators on the way to the MDGs: 1) enhance our social media influence 2) improve our Klout metric and 3) elevate progress towards the MDGs:
- Intensive Social Mediafication: We will increase investment in our twitter account in order to promote intensive tweeting in an effort to “shock” the Klout metric into growth
- Retweet incentivizing: Drawing upon pledged support from imaginary donors, Aid Watch will offer a free multicolor wristband to anyone who retweets our tweets
- Aggressive List Creation: We will establish an independent commission to create and monitor Twitter lists in which Aid Watch may claim membership
- Randomized experiments on tweets: Tweets will be subjects to RCTs in which the popularity-potential of tweets is rigorously assessed
On a side note, Vivek Nemana’s disappointingly low Klout score of 10 has elicited reactions including “angst,” “shame,” and “humiliation.” We recommend an intensive “shock therapy” regiment of savvy Tweets and follower-count obsession in order for Vivek to escape the Klout trap.
10 Comments
You should be in p.r. bill, this is a beautiful spinning of the numbers. ONE, Paul Hewson, McArthur, Earthwatch, Jeff Sachs really should be considered together. You haven’t trounced anyone, just shown people how to spin. This is like Greenpeace saying it has more influence than Exxon. OK, head-to-head, that could be true. But Exxon, BP, the Koch brothers, et al ?? Come on. Can you share some of the drugs you are taking because you are clearly delusional. Which reminds me, the aid community has you to check on them, but who, pray tell, is checking on you? We need an EasterlyWatch website to correct your sloppiness.
Sam,
Actually Bill didn’t write this post; I did. But you really got us good on our blatantly unscientific sampling meant for humor purposes alone. Thanks much for the P.R. wishes, though!
Best,
Vivek
There should be a campaign to retweet every post done by “View from the Cave” (generally worth doing anyway) until he can overtake nickkristoff” which will restore order to the universe.
Justin Bieber is unassailable of course.
Sam, You seem to be having a problem comprehending “irony”. In return for a large donation to Aid Watch, we would be happy to enroll you in our Parody, Irony, Satire, and Sarcasm workshop. Just don’t think about the acronym.
comment-watch, just asking that comments make contextual sense.
Sticking with today’s theme I hope everyone has had a laugh at this by now: http://www.malcolmgladwellbookgenerator.com/
Based on this post and comments, there are a few conclusions that should be made:
1) I am the only person on the list without a book or movie. Clearly, Klout is saying that I should have a book deal by now. So, let the bidding begin.
2) Klout score is relative to intellectual aptitude
3) Aid Watch must write a “How To” for readers who are new to this blog. Satire can be hard.
4) There is a marketing opportunity here. Hipsters loved the Jen vs Angelina t-shirts and the Twilight campaign for Team Edward and Team Jacob was ubiquitous (note: It covered a Burger King in Austria last year). So, someone must immediately print shirts for Team Easterly and Team Sachs and make twitter ribbons for avatars. The only way to settle this is to make a profit off of it. I suggest that the shirts have plain letters with a head shot of the respective scholar. Brooklyn will thank you.
5)Since I would wear my Team Easterly shirt proudly and using the argument of Sam, my Klout points would then go towards Easterly.
6) Klout, please feel free to sponsor my blog.
Klout score is relative to intellectual aptitude? Please, Tom, some of us are highly sensitive to our Klout insufficiencies as they already stand. You’re really just rubbing salt on those wounds.
I second the Team Easterly/Team Sachs shirt idea, as well as ewaffle’s proposal. Brooklyn needs more oversimplified trends. Need there also be a Team Kristof?
excuse me. everything on this blog is a joke really.
Sheer brilliance. Nice work guys.
But seriously… Team Easterly shirts. I would buy one.
(…and another. For a poor shirtless African.)
I am surprised Colbert has not done a segment on Klout yet. If he did, his writing team need only borrow this post for the script. He would be very disappointed with a score of 87 and would probably declare Twitter War on justinbieber and be a signatory to the 4-point plan.
Other notable Klouts for both Tom and Bill to overcome
MCHammer 74
SarahPalinUSA 74
berlusconi 29
3 Trackbacks
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by William Lark, TWINFLUENCE.ME and OpenEye Group, Conduit Journal. Conduit Journal said: Twitter Klout of Development Folk http://bit.ly/fIzyVi [...]
[...] more: Twitter Klout of Development Folk AKPC_IDS += [...]
[...] commitment to you who are already tweeting away: we will not judge you based on your Klout rating. At least one attendee with a Klout rating higher than Bill Easterly will be in attendance, in case [...]