Back in April, Wired magazine published an interesting article about Klout scores. Very interesting (and alarming in my opinion). For anyone who has never heard of Klout, It’s a measurement of your online presence and influence. While many are quick to dismiss it, many hiring managers are paying attention to these scores. When hiring managers pay attention, it’s time for those looking for a job to pay attention. Oh, and wait! I guess hotel clerks are paying attention as well.
Klout scores, and yours can be found at klout.com, measure your posts and social interactions on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others. Even if you don’t sign up, you have a Klout score. There is a 100 point scale and anything above 50 is considered respectable. While many think that this is primarily only of interest in the tech world, we have become a global society and even psychologists need to be concerned about their score because of what it measures: influence.
The more influential you are online the higher your score will be. Hiring managers tend to like this because it’s a measurement of you and your activity in a way that makes it easy for them to assess you as far as social networking is concerned. This in turn can mean a lot to the company because if you are highly influential then you could be the kind of candidate that is going to make the company more influential.
At the end of the day what matters to the job seeker is what helps get them hired. Raising your Klout score is as easy as being more active on social networking sites. It’s an easy way to boost your chances for landing a new job.
