Hey kids! Tired of the same old influence metrics? You know, click boring stuff like intelligence, expertise, relevance (ho hum) – the stuff your grandpa used to figure out if people were worth listening to?!? What if there were a system that let you make anybody look influential about anything online? Well there is, and it’s called Klout! (And we Beg to Differ.)
Wait Dennis, when did YOU become a unicorn expert?!?
Well, funny story. I never did. And I barely ever even discuss unicorns – apart from this one blog post. But I was young!
No, my Klout page says I’m influential about unicorns because I’ve been hit with a #KloutBomb. Other folks playing #KloutBomb (like Jeff Esposito or Amy Vernon – both excellent targets by the way) told Klout I was influential about Unicorns, and so, like magic, I am!
And sure, all of this *may* just show how hollow and game-like the whole Klout ranking system really is. But rather than railing against it, opting out, parodying it like Klouchebag by the brilliant British wag Tom Scott, or even taking a measured thoughtful approach (yawn), why not just game the Klout game for pure, deviant fun?
And here’s how you can play #Kloutbomb too!
- Go to a friend’s Klout page – preferably not one of those stuffed shirts who actually takes their Klout score seriously. On second thought, yeah, especially one of those! I recommend Jeff Esposito. He adores getting a good #Kloutbomb!
- Click the “See All…” link that appears under “Influential about (X) Topics”. This will take you to their Topics page.
Give them +K. If they’ve already gotten a #Kloutbomb, you’ll see odd and humourous topics like some of those shown at right. If so, just click on the “Give +K” button to add to their score and bump up the #Kloutbomb topics in their list. You get five +K points to give out for every day you visit Klout, so don’t blow them all in one place!- OR: You can add new topics by clicking on the “Add a topic”. So for example, today I gave Jeff a new topic: “Fabricated Rubber Products, Nec (Rubber Toys, Except Dolls)”. But note, this costs you five imaginary Klout bucks, so you can only do this once a day.
- Announce your #Kloutbomb to the world by Tweeting under that hashtag.
- Then, please let Beg to Differ know! Share your favourite #Kloutbomb topics in the Comments below.
Important caveat:
Keep them 1) clean and 2) as obviously ridiculous as possible please!
While it might be fun to tag your boss with “Masturbation” (yes it’s really a topic), this is the public Internet, so don’t be a total jerk or commit professional suicide. Or if you do, just don’t tell them we sent you.
Oh, denvan , I’ve been doing this for more than a year, and it’s great fun.
Okay, so dear planet. Please give all honour and glory to @AmyVernon. She is the true mother of all #Kloutbomb experts.Now if only Klout would allow me to give her +K on the topic #Kloutbombs… hmmm.
@AmyVernon Noooo!!! I’ve used up too many imaginary +K points to add an imaginary topic!
@DenVan That happened to me yesterday, and now I can’t remember what I was going to add for you
I’ve been doing this as well for a few months. I hear tell that @RavenJon is influential about Cats now. 🙂