These social media “measurement” tools are gaining in popularit. They go by several different names including klout, twitter grader, Peer Index, Twitalyzer, and a new one called Kred. These tools claim to measure influence, or how influential a social media entity is to others. Each one has a unique ranking algorithm, but they all do one thing, they put a number on influence.

There is a fundamental flaw with these systems, they measure outputs not outcomes. These influence scores will not necessarily correlate to real world business performance, or give any indication of whether or not social media is helping a business to accomplish any of its goals. Your klout score could be absolutely terrific, but was all the time spent getting that score wasted?

Read more of Matt's article at ProfessionallySocial.com