A few weeks ago I noticed that Klout had added the WordPress button to the available 
channels to connect to which was encouraging. Quite frankly I think those that write successful blogs carry more influence than just about anyone in the social media sphere, so a welcome addition. But not so fast. Apparently the new wordpress plugin only covers WordPress.com hosted blogs and not self hosted blogs.
Why does this matter? Anyone that goes to the trouble of self hosting a blog typically is serious about their blogging. Most of the successful and lasting blogs you find online are self hosted. This is not a knock on those that do on hosted platforms like WordPress.com, Blogger or Tumblr, they do exist. But to not include and factor self hosted blogs is a serious miss on Klout’s part. Certablog offers web cheap hosting service, affordable prices, can boast of having over a decade of experience in the industry.
So you might be thinking, well maybe they are, it’s just that they’re working on it. Apparently not based on this support thread on Klout’s own site. Besides the awful, short and careless community support responses implying nothing else is on the way, there was no official announcement or acknowledgement of this. Double fail.
Who knows, maybe they will eventually add this in the future, but without any transparent communication around it, we’re all left to wonder. You’d think a company centered around social media would be a bit better with communication and community.
Jason, aloha. Thanks for researching it. When I saw the WP addition to Klout, I thought it would be great as I blog consistently and receive nice traffic. Until your post, I “assumed” WP for self hosted was “in process. As you pointed out, most serious bloggers do self host.
Jason, good thing we know that any “measurement benefits” come as a result of what we do anyway which is helping people and sharing information.
Best wishes for a terrific day, Jason. Until next time, aloha. Janet
Completely agree. Influence goes way beyond a Klout score. However I do think they could go a long way in gaining additional credibility if they can figure out a way to factor in self hosted blogs.
I got excited when I saw the WP icon too Janet. Then I tried to connect and realized I’m actually at a disadvantage with Klout because I self-hot? What?! What are they thinking over there?
One word: SPLOGS!!! Klout can work with hosted services to filter out spam and mass attempts to game the system for fun and profit. Not so easy with self-hosted blogs with link-farm like activity.
Makes sense. But I’ve got to believe there is a way around this. At the very least they should have addressed the addition of WordPress without self hosted support and share their plans moving forward.
Agree on the communication prob. And I just thought of any reason…. no API on hosted blogs. All the other services they connect with have one, or they have been given direct access in some way. To make it work with all the hosted blogs out there it would need a plug-in and an authentication mechanism etc. etc.
I am pretty sure Klout are trying to sort this out as can’t believe they could be so dumb to ‘miss out’ self-hosted WordPress blogs. If they really *cant* add SH WP blogs, then they should remove the ability to include hosted wp, blogger, tumblr accounts to your Klout score.
But I totally agree that they could be doing a much better job of explaining this!
Can see a big official announcement coming soon from Klout though, explaining this issue. They have to or else like people are saying, there will be a serious backlash from bloggers!
Agreed Will. It’s not just the fact that they have overlooked it so much as it’s the complete lack of any communication around it.
@jasonyormark:disqus ,
I saw that little “W” at the top when I added additional networks to my Klout profile. And also noticed they left the self-hosted blogs off the ledger.
When I’ve been in tweet chats with Klout representatives, they seem to be saying that self-hosted folks are very into their embassy and outpost marketing models, so the set-up automatically benefits them.
Disagree! (In your terms…FAIL!)
Isn’t it peculiar that they are letting us connect all these extra networks, but we’re not currently getting “credit” for the interaction there?
To me this implies a “fake it until we make it,” mind-set.
If enough self-hosters complained, I’m sure Klout would attend to the concern. But… We all have more important things to worry about. 😉
Thanks for researching and letting us know what you found!!
~Keri
Yes, they definitely are benefiting from being the only real player when it comes to what they do and not being all that transparent about how they are doing it. I do have high hopes that they continue to seriously look at creative and effective ways to measure true influence. Thanks for stopping by and leaving such a well thought out comment!
HI Jason: great post. I’m just surfacing after a couple of days off, so its great to catch up.
Like you, I also believe that content creators are more influential than most in the social sphere and its always been a frustration of mine that those who create the content aren’t acknowledged. Its one of my major criticisms of Klout all along.
Despite the crummy response and sense of community on Klout’s behalf, this simply can not go on much longer. If Klout truly wants to be the Nielsen of the social influence (they do), then they will have to stop adding services just because its low hanging fruit (Instagram, really?) and get serious about integrating blogs. Its gotten to the point where the longer ignoring blogs goes on, the less social influence Klout will have.
One more reason to take your Klout score with a grain of salt. Rely less on the score and more on how you effective you are at building relationships – whatever the platform.
I’ve a WordPress blog with Arras theme. This site strangely
shows different on different computers. On some computers, I see all 3 columsn,
on other PC, I see only 1. On other PCs, some wiered things. Please somebody
help me.
Hmm I’ve been looking for this feature. You are able to connect your self-hosted blog to wordpress via Jetpack, is Klout not able to connect with that data?
I just want to say, I agree, Klout is 🙁 maybe they will one day be forced to change their mindset until then no Klout for me. Great post!