I keep an eye on my Klout score and watch for major shifts in score, one way or the other. They can sometimes indicate that I'm neglecting a network, or perhaps some of my recent activity is being better received. I recently noticed a 4 point uptick in my score and that is definitely out of the ordinary. I didn't see any major changes though in my online activity, nor did I find any evidence or announcements from Klout on algorithm changes, so the new score was a mystery. Until today.

Klout announced in an official blog post that Instagram activity is now impacting your Klout Score. You may have already connected your Instagram account, and the changes are being rolled out gradually so some, like me, may have already noticed a change.

In an official blog post, Klout has announced that it is open for business(es). According to the announcement, "Businesses will be able to look at an easy-to-read dashboard that tells you, at-a-glance, whether you are engaging your influencers on the networks where they are most actively exerting their influence and on which Klout Score ranges you could stand to amp up your efforts. Most importantly, Klout can tell you which topics your audience influences others on, helping you maximize your content efforts to drive consideration for your brand."

Klout, the Social Media Measurement score and website, now factors Facebook Pages into each users score.

Mashable reported that, "The new feature allows you to connect your brand or organization’s page to your Klout account and then have activity for that page help grow your Klout score."

For many Klout users, this addition has been a long time coming as they were forced to choose between their personal Facebook account or their business page. Some might have more followers for their page but more interaction with their personal account, and with no real insight into how Klout Scores are measured, it was anyone's guess which way to go.

If you have a Klout account, you know that each day you are given a set number of K's which you can use to indicate topics other users are influential in. The giving and receiving of K's is an activity that generates a lot of user activity and keeps Klout users coming back daily. Now, LinkedIn is doing something along the same lines.

In a blog post, LinkedIn explained, "With just one click, you can now endorse your connections for a skill they’ve listed on their profile or recommend one they haven’t added yet."

Each time you endorse a skill for one of your connections they will receive a notification. It also generates activity for your profile that others can see.

It's too early to judge whether or not your connections will be impressed by your number of endorsements but initial opinions seemed to suggest that would not be the case.

Klout released version 1.7 of their iOS mobile app today. This minor update allows users to edit their Klout bio, topics and influencers directly from the app. 

If you weren't already using the Klout for iPhone app, you should, as it was already a great tool for monitoring your current Klout Score, as well as seeing notification of how other users had given you "K" for a topic and being able to reciprocate. If you aren't familiar with Klout at all, it's a free website service which monitors your activity on various social networks and uses that analysis to generate a Klout Score which ranges from 0 - 100.

Klout, the Social Measurement service, has revised their algorithms again. In the past, this has resulting in widespread confusion and often disdain for the service. Klout purports to analyze a user's social activity and correlate that into a score that can then be compared with other Klout users. Changes to the algorthm have previously resulting in huge changes in a user's score, leaving one to wonder whether or not the score is, or was, accurate at all.

This time, however, things are a little different.

The social networks Klout, Foursquare and Yelp all released minor updates to their mobile apps. 

Klout for iPhone

Version 1.6

This update includes: