Bring on the EGOsystem + Long Live Klout
Friday, April 1, 2011 at 9:29AM 
One of my favorite sessions at SXSW this year was moderated and orchestrated by Brian Solis. It was called, "Welcome to the EGOsystem: How Much are You Worth?". The panelists included Ad.ly’s Sean Rad and Arnie Gullov-Singh, Klout’s CEO and Founder, Joe Fernandez and Jon M. Chu, Director of Justin Bieber: Never Say Never and creator of The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers.
This session provided insights into Ad.ly's relationship with Charlie Sheen, including how brands can leverage celebrity endorsements with fewer liabilities for both parties using Twitter. Jon M. Chu is continually humbled by the responses of loyal Bieber fans each time he tweets. Joe Fernandez discussed how he created Klout while recovering from surgery. I find it fascinating that Joe's Klout score is 59 and mine is 61. Charlie Sheen's is 94. I get to finally insert my favorite hashtag, compliments of Charlie Sheen, #winning.
There have been times when I've viewed a list and wondered why I didn't rank higher or even make the list at all. However, that is just one algorithm or way of comparing you to others. Regardless of your feelings about being ranked as a number on an influential scale, getting a higher Klout score, more connections on LinkedIn and thousands of followers on Twitter takes a lot of work. Like most of my peers, we hustle like Gary Vaynerchuk and pay-it-forward every day to deliver value to our audience. Numbers alone cannot determine your self-worth. Analyze several quantitative and qualitative metrics to verify and learn from your successes or failures.
Ask yourself: do people reach out to you to hire you as a consultant in your field? Do colleagues seek you for advice regarding problems in your area of expertise? Do you take the time to listen to your audience and provide solutions? If not, revisit some new ways to better engage your social network.
Jenny DeVaughn
Brian Solis was kind enough to post the slides from his SXSW presentation:
BrianSolis, EGOsystem, Klout, SXSW 
Reader Comments (4)
Jenny, thanks for the reminder. Sometimes we attach too much importance to a number. Be it Twitter followers, Linkedin contacts or Foursquare mayorships. We allow ourselves to be fooled into assurance. Take our friend Charlie Sheen(~3.5M followers), who just utterly bombed his first road show appearance and only slightly less bombed(is that possible?) his second one. The one on one impact you make while solving real problems for colleagues and clients, is in my opinion what really matters.
@bryanchaney
Bryan, thank you for sharing this comment and update to the 15 minutes of social media fame by Charlie Sheen.
Who actually cares about any of this. Really? Any of these lists, scores, rankings, etc.
P.S. I don't.
Jerry, I like having an independent source look at these metrics, however, I don't let the numbers influence my activities. We'll always be friends, no matter what our Klout scores are.