Why I deleted my Klout account

We all talk trash about Klout all the time and I still honestly believe it is not a valid form of measurement. I’ve heard this repeated at almost every conference and have heard this sentiment from the top leaders in social media, PR and marketing.

So I decided to do something about it.

I deleted my Klout account permanently because:

1. I refuse to be a number. What does that number even mean? Nothing. Real influence is based on what kind of audience you can move. Klout measures the wrong thing: It was and will not be a valid form of actual influence any time soon.

2. I talked trash about it, but still took free incentives. I did not feel good about this. I never valued it and only used it for free perks that were never that valuable for me. I don’t need a bunch of free stuff. I wanted to be more ethical about saying one thing and actually following another.

3. I never actually used it. I think what they’re trying to do with their scheduling platform and content is okay, but I was not about to actually use it either.

So it’s all gone now (or at least it will be in their 48 hour account deletion process) and it’s one less thing I have to “worry” about and claim.

My good friend, Ben Butler, also has the same sentiments and is deleting his account as well.

Where Klout misses the mark is its ability to measure the “real” quality of created content. It presents a shallow evaluation of the influence of individuals and brands and isn’t something that anyone should be rating performance by. There are other more effective ways that take a more qualitative approach. 

Klout is very tricky about deleting your account and it’s not where you think it would be. I didn’t really appreciate that, but I also don’t like the platform either.

If you find you don’t want your Klout account and want to delete your account too, here’s how to do so:

1. Go to Settings > Privacy

2. Go through the “opt out” messaging

3. Select that you still want to go through with deleting your account even after their messaging that tempts you to keep it

4. DELETE

5. Enjoy your number-free life without Klout