Klout

A new service aiming to help media and PR companies determine which influencers can best amplify their messages launched today, with Mark Cuban as lead investor.

Known as Little Bird, the San Francisco startup was founded by former ReadWriteWeb reporter Marshall Kirkpatrick. Cuban led the $1 million round, along with additional investment from the Social Leverage Group, Hubspot co-founder Dharmesh Shah, and former Twitter engineer Blaine Cook.

For now, Little Bird is in private beta. In an e-mail to CNET, Kirkpatrick explained that the service is mainly used to help companies with their social-media or content-creation strategy. "For example, … Read more

Microsoft is making a "strategic investment" of an undisclosed size in social-media vendor Klout, company officials announced on its Bing Community blog.

On Bing, Microsoft is going to display Klout data -- including a person's Klout score and topics they are "influential" about -- on the new Bing Sidebar pane for those users who can and want to see this information. And on Klout, "highlights from Bing will begin surfacing in the 'moments' section of some people's Klout profiles," a Microsoft spokesperson said.

This new partnership is related to Microsoft's ongoing … Read more

Has it come to this? Do we need corporate CRM tools to manage our individual relationships?

The startup Cloze has launched a utility that scores every relationship you have with your e-mail contacts, based on when and how you communicate with people. The scores look like Klout numbers, but they're personal to you. Cloze uses those scores to rank your people, flagging the top-scorers for followup when you don't respond to their messages. Creepy? Maybe. But fairly handy.

Cloze was designed as a work tool. Founders Dan Foody and Alex Cote said they wanted to create … Read more

Klout has released an iPhone app that allows users to track their Klout score while on the go.

Klout tracks your influence over various social networks, offering perks for true "Influencers" as well as advice on how to increase your Klout and influence.

After installing the Klout app on your iPhone, you'll see there isn't a whole lot to it. You are able to view who has given you a +K and in what topic. You can then view that individual's profile and share the +K with your social networks. You won't be able … Read more

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--It's nearly 10 a.m. in the City Council chambers here, and 43 people are waiting for their turn to speak.

These are not citizens with civic matters on their minds; divided into two lines that stretch out from either side of the podium in the center of the room, these veterans of Google, Cisco, NASA, Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo, Microsoft, Boeing, Sun, and others, are here looking for a new lease on their professional lives.

One by one, they lean into the microphone to introduce themselves. They mention where they've worked in the past, list their skills, … Read more

Klout is an online service that measures your influence by analyzing your interactions on social networks. If you have a public Twitter account, your Klout profile is automatically created, regardless of whether you signed up for the service or not.

Other Internet services, like search engines, can access your Twitter feed as well, so Klout isn't unique when it comes to gathering your Twitter data. Klout, however, allows you to opt-out of their service. Here's how:

Step 1: To begin the opt-out process, go to http://klout.com/corp/optout and click on the Twitter or Facebook link … Read more

John Doerr has been called the "world's wealthiest and most well-connected venture capitalist" by Forbes. The Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner has been an early-stage investor in some of the best-known companies in the tech industry, including Google, Amazon, Sun, and Zynga, and he has 109,000 Twitter followers.

I'm a fairly prolific professional journalist writing for a national publication and covering a wide range of topics from startups to Lego to aviation to NASA and more. I have 6,250 followers on Twitter.

I'm happy with my place in life and how my … Read more

Klout is a service that uses social networks to measure your influence over others. Scores are tabulated for each user on a scale of 1-100. The higher your score, the more influence you have, according to Klout.

Twitter.com doesn't display Klout scores, but if you use Firefox or the Chrome browser, it's easy to remedy with add-ons. If you use Firefox, install the Firefox Klout add-on. If you use Chrome, install the Chrome Klout extension.

The next time you visit Twitter.com, you'll find Klout scores to the left of the Twitter handles.

Clicking on the … Read more