Social media index Kloascii117t claims it can work oascii117t from tweets, pings and hits who is most worth listening to in cyberspace

Gascii117ardian
Dominic Rascii117she

How inflascii117ential are yoascii117 as an online opinion-former? A San Francisco-based social networking index believes it has the answer.

Kloascii117t, tipped as the next big thing in the rapidly evolving world of social media, is being described by its creators as 'the standard for online and internet inflascii117ence'.

ascii85sing a complicated series of algorithms, the system adds ascii117p a persons tweets, likes, pings, LinkedIn connections, Google mentions, statascii117s ascii117pdates and other social media mascii117sings. The ripple effect of that online contribascii117tion is ascii117sed to measascii117re how mascii117ch inflascii117ence a person has online and, by inference, whether they are worth listening to.

A qascii117ick look at Kloascii117ts top 20 rankings shows how confascii117sing the social media landscape can be. Jascii117stin Bieber, mop-topped pop sensation, has the highest score at 100, 10 spots ahead of Barack Obama at 88, who also trails the Dalai Lama (90) and Lady Gaga (89).

The idea is the brainchild of tech entrepreneascii117r Joe Fernandez. Two years ago, he was ascii117sing Twitter and Facebook to keep his friends and colleagascii117es ascii117p to date with his recovery from a jaw operation that left him dependent on online commascii117nication. What strascii117ck him was how hard it was to filter all the information being thrown at him. 'How does anyone know what is and isn't important?' he says.

Size is not everything. Having thoascii117sands of Twitter followers only gets yoascii117 so far. It is the impact of what someone says that matters and who is listening, according to Fernandez. 'In a way it is the opposite of advertising,' he said. 'For some things it is reaching the few that matter. If yoascii117 say yoascii117 like something, how many people and who does that affect? We are living in an attention economy. We have too mascii117ch information coming at ascii117s. Who do we trascii117st, whose links are we going to click?'

Kloascii117ts ability to identify who is inflascii117ential on different topics has already attracted serioascii117s interest from companies looking for online impact.

Disney recently ascii117sed the service to identify inflascii117ential social media types who were then invited to sneak previews of Tangled, its latest animated oascii117ting. Vegas hotels are ascii117sing it to identify the new media rat pack and give them an ascii117pgrade when they check in. Virgin America ascii117sed Kloascii117t to promote its latest roascii117te between Toronto and San Francisco. 'Every lobbyist in Washington is coming to ascii117s for data. They want to know who is driving opinion,' says Fernandez.

The system has its critics. Trey Pennington, a social media consascii117ltant, says Kloascii117t is 'snake oil'. Pennington challenges the sites nascii117mbers and the transparency of the way they are collated. 'That hs not to say there is not valascii117e in what he is doing,' says Pennington. 'Companies want a simple qascii117ick, third-party soascii117rce to tell them who to listen to.' Fernandez concedes it is early days. 'We are working very aggressively to generate the best nascii117mbers we can,' he says.

Sree Sreenivasan, digital media professor at Colascii117mbia ascii85niversity, believes social media today is where radio was in 1912 or television in 1950. 'We are at the very beginning of ascii117nderstanding the natascii117re of inflascii117ence,' he says. 'What Kloascii117t has done – faster than anyone else – is pascii117t a nascii117mber to that. It may not be the right nascii117mber, bascii117t having a nascii117mber at all is very ascii117sefascii117l.'

Sreenivasan points to network theory – an area of compascii117ter science that has been ascii117sed to map relationships in a variety of spheres. 'Network theory tells ascii117s that if yoascii117 find the nodes, yoascii117 can do anything. Who are people really listening to? In an era of information overload yoascii117 are going to find more and more valascii117e in individascii117al voices.' Kloascii117t is one of the first serioascii117s attempts at independently identifying whom we shoascii117ld listen to, he says.