Klout, if you’re not familiar with it, is a web-based service that attempts to quantify your online influence, by tracking your social networks and activities through sites like Facebook and Twitter. By monitoring your online interactions, Klout tallies up a score for you out of 100, and adjusts it on an ongoing basis.
Users of the service enjoy various “perks”, ranging from promotional vouchers to free tech gear; Microsoft, for example, gave away 500 Windows Phones to those with a desirable Klout score.
Having raised significant sums in its last round of funding back in January, Klout is now working on extending its own influence with more high-profile tie-ups and perks. Klout has established a partnership with Cathay Pacific Airways, which will grant access to the airline’s premium lounge at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to those with enough Klout to qualify.
Anyone with a score of 40 or more, and who has the new Klout iPhone app installed, will be eligible to enter the VIP lounge. You don’t have to be flying in first class, business class or even premium economy; in fact you don’t even have to have a ticket with Cathay Pacific – the offer is open to all passengers in SFO’s “A” boarding zone, as long as they’ve got the Klout for it.
A Klout spokesperson told VentureBeat: “This is just two weeks after we rolled out the mobile app. It’s a great example of how the app will help users benefit from having their Klout wherever they go.”
Cathay Pacific is also pretty pleased with the arrangement, and sees it as a chance to show off its service offering to potential new customers: “By partnering with Klout, we have the opportunity to invite travellers who typically may not fly with us to experience our ground products and services, in hopes that they may one day choose to visit us again.”
If you don’t have the requisite Klout score, and you can’t afford to buy your way into the premium lounge, you can still press your face against the window and stare inside – or just check out this vid of what the lounge has to offer:
Of course, you may remember that we ran some experiments on the service back in January, in which we discovered that Klout isn’t so much a measure of real influence, but rather the result of a sophisticated algorithm that largely tracks your consistency. Check out how Neowin’s Brad Sams managed to boost his Klout almost overnight by targeting specific metrics with deliberate activities.
And if this whole Klout business isn’t really your thing, you might prefer to check how much of a Klouchebag you are instead.