New iPhone App Will Make You a Klout Addict

I used to step on the scale every morning to check my weight, then I’d log into Klout.com to assess my Klout score. Unfortunately, the number on the scale slowly crept upward while my Klout score dropped.

For weeks, I obsessed about reversing these trajectories. And with a lot of dieting, exercise, and tweeting, it worked. Then I went to Italy for two weeks, ate whatever the hell I wanted and didn’t tweet at all. You can guess what happened.

The moral of this tale? Don’t obsess about your weight or your Klout score, because doing so is guaranteed to make you crazy. However, you probably won’t heed my advice, so, without further ado, here’s my take on the new, free Klout for iPhone app. (Current version 1.0 is optimized for the small iPhone/iPod touch screen but it runs on iPads too).

A Klout score, if you’re not already obsessed, is based on how influential you are across a variety of social media channels including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Blogger, and foursquare. A high Klout score not only gets you bragging rights, but also actual perks. For example, some Las Vegas hotels automatically upgrade customers at check-in simply because they have Klout scores.

The Klout app is designed primarily to be a Klout-score-obsession enabler. You don’t even have to open the app to see what your current score is; an icon on your home screen displays it.

You can elect to receive push notifications when your score changes and when you get a +K, which means someone has designated you as influential on a certain topic. And you can see the topics on which you’re considered influential, along with lists of people who influence you and who you influence.

And that’s it. Unfortunately, you can’t create a list of other social media account holders so that you can follow their Klout scores, as you can on Klout.com. However, another free iPhone app I’ve used, SocialScore, lets you create one list of social media accounts to track.

The Klout for iPhone app doesn’t let you view or claim perks or add more social networks to your profile. For that, you’ll need to log into Klout.com.

As a way to keep you addicted to the Klout score “krack,” Klout for iPhone does its job all too well. My advice: As with your weight, check your score once a week. Don’t obsess about it. Seriously.

Oh, and if it’s not too much trouble, please follow me on Twitter and retweet all my tweets so I can jack up my Klout score.