Klout.com is a scoring service that measures your social media participation and assigns you a score. The higher the score, the “better” you are at social media interactions, influence, etc. I used to have a pretty high score and get the Klout “Perks” and enjoy knowing that anyone seeking to check up on my social media skills for employment or other reasons would see that I know what I’m talking about. (I know that’s all relative, but some people genuinely put stock in the Klout score).

I enjoyed using Klout and benefiting from my high score. I’m pretty good on Twitter, but my Facebook is where I get tons of comments, and have more influence (in my opinion). And it would seem that way to Klout as well because without my Facebook being attached to Klout, my score has fallen about 30 points.

Why don’t I just connect my Facebook to my Klout account again you ask? Why, I would love to… only I cannot. I alerted Klout via Twitter that after I switched to beta klout (which is now just regular Klout) that my FB got disconnected and when I tried to reconnect it, it wouldn’t “stick”. The person manning the Klout Twitter account asked me to email contact@klout.com to explain and they would get me all sorted out. I did that. Nothing was resolved. That was May 17th.

Then on May 23rd I got a sex change operation and moved to Utah. Well that’s what Klout would like you to think. You see, now I am Paul Jewkes from Utah and I like to talk about snow sports and travel, and Utah. Someone at Klout forgot to follow the number one Ghostbusters rule: Don’t cross the streams!

Here are some of my emails with Klout, and the screenshot of what happens when I try to connect with FB on Klout. Did I mention Paul and I met on Twitter over this because he is stuck unable to connect to LinkedIn because of ME! Yet all Klout wants to say is to delete my cookies and login again. Um… my cookies are not in UT and neither am I! Poor Paul has now un-signed up from Klout over this.

May 17 – Email TO Klout FROM me:

Hi my Klout name is abourland. I am using the beta version, and had used the old version for a long time before this. Since I’ve been on the beta version, Klout has been leaving out the FB part of my scores, asking me to connect the account. I have done this several times, and even seen my FB stuff be re-incorporated into my score. But then it all starts over again. I have re-added my FB acct several times now, but today it still asked again.

I mentioned this on Twitter, and the person running the Klout twitter account asked me to email the details to this email address.

Help? :)

Thanks!

May 17 – Email FROM Klout TO me (Autoreponse)

Thanks for emailing Klout! We love getting feedback and are here to help with any trouble you’re having but we do ask that you check out support.klout.comto make sure we haven’t already answered your question.

If it’s not there, just reply again to this email and we’ll help you out.
May 17 – Email TO Klout FROM me (blank email indicating, yes I have a problem)
May 18 – Email FROM Klout TO me
Hey Anna,

Can you try connecting in a different browser? Let me know if that helps. Thanks!

May 18 – Email TO Klout FROM me
Not sure how that would make a difference. It’s just the addition of my FB account to Klout – not really a browser-specific thing. But I closed Firefox and logged in via Internet Explorer to give it a shot. I got the usual “72 hours” message saying that FB would be added and incorporated to my Klout score. Something tells me, it won’t be connected.

Maybe your beta Klout doesn’t properly handle FB accounts w/stricter privacy settings? It works fine on old Klout.

May 18 – Email FROM Klout TO me
Thanks for letting us know about that bug! I have sent this along to our tech team who will look into it. If anything changes please let us know. Thanks!
May 23 – Email TO Klout FROM me
There are new developments here. First, you removed the “login” link. So I had 2 options to login: “Connect w/FB” and “Login w/Twitter”. So I chose connect w/FB. It said welcome Paul Jewkes w/my pic, but NONE of my info. Woah, what?! (See 1st screenshot). I am not from Utah, I do not tweet about St. George, etc. When I logged out and then signed in w/Twitter, it did the whole “hey connect w/your FB acct” like before. I thought, ok I’ll try again. I tried to connect it and got the message that I need to merge w/Paul Jewkes acct (see 2nd screenshot). I did try the “change account” link and re-entered all my login info… and no dice. I should note, your homepage says “Anna Bourland, 5 of your friends have connected via FB…” etc. So I am logged in properly, and one of your pages knows who I am. I don’t know who the heck this other guy is! I used to have nearly 60 Klout… now I’m down to 49 and nothing I do is counting. What’s up!? :(
May 25 – Email FROM Klout TO me
Hey Anna,

Can you try logging out and then logging in first with Facebook instead of Twitter? This often solves the problem. Thanks!

May 25 – Email TO Klout FROM me
Megan, I have tried that SEVERAL times. Something in your system thinks I’m Paul Jewkes on Facebook, and it keeps messing everything up. I am WAY past the basics here. I have a tech background and def don’t need cache clearing or login/logout w/Twitter vs FB or FB vs Twitter advice. Please don’t let it be 3 more days with no reply.
May 31 – Email FROM Klout TO me
Hey Anna,

Thanks for letting us know about that bug! I have sent this along to our tech team who will look into it. If anything changes please let us know. Thanks!
….
I’ll spare you the rest of it… want to know why? It’s just more emails asking me if I’ve logged out and back in again, and if I’ve cleared my cookies. And emails from me re-explaining everything and sending more screenshots of my photo with Paul’s FB friends, info, etc.
The gaps in their responses are at about two weeks to a month after this point. While I don’t believe it’s a big deal in the grand scheme of things, I wonder how so many people can consider Klout to be such a standard (yes many people do) and they are not really helping the people they score. I think one thing has changed and I doubt I had something to do with it (though I suggested it in a previous email to Klout) and that is that you won’t have a Klout score unless you actually sign up for Klout. It used to be that you could type any username and see their score, and HootSuite would display a score for EVERYONE. Maybe it still works that way, but in looking around a bit, it appears that the Klout score section of HootSuite is just two dashes (–) if the person hasn’t signed up. And I’ve seen some people asking others to sign up for Klout so they can compare scores – used to be you could just do that – the other person didn’t have to sign up.
In an email to Klout I said this wouldn’t bother me so much except you leave no way to opt out of being scored yet, my service and scoring with you is broken so I’m stuck with that inaccurate score out there. I’ve recently seen this change to where it looks like you can opt out. Do I really want to opt out? No?
My latest email to Klout was today. I informed them that I clicked on the “Merge Accounts” link and let them call me Paul Jewkes BECAUSE at least it’s showing MY friends and MY influencers, bio, topics, etc. (Previously it completely changed me to Paul and had his St. George, UT info, etc). So now perhaps they need only change my name? Oh Klout, what’s going on and why can’t you answer a simple email or tweet?
Thanks!