Online reputation score tools are becoming more and more popular, but do they actually serve a purpose?
Klout
Klout gauges how much you drive action from different social networking platforms. Your score consists of three things: true reach, amplification, and network.
True reach is the number of people you reach. Amplification is how much you influence people. Network indicates the influence of people within your true reach.
Scale: 0-100
Social Networks: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Foursquare, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, Blogger, Wordpress, Last.fm, and Flickr
Identified
Identified lets you know how “in demand” you are based on your professional background. Your Identified score is measured on three things: educational background, work experience, and network.
Educational background includes the schools you have attended, what you studied, when you graduated, and your degree level. Work experience includes the companies you have worked for and the positions you have held. Network is the breadth and depth of your network, plus the quality and strength of those connections.
Scale: 0-100
Social Networks: Facebook
PeerIndex
PeerIndex allows you to see your online authority by the impact you make--how much social and reputational capital you have created on the web. There are three factors to your score: authority, audience, and activity. Authority is the measure of trust, meaning how much others rely on the content you place online.
Audience is not only how many people are within your reach, but also how many people you impact. Activity is the topic communities you are a part of — and also takes into account long gaps in content and being too active.
Scale: 1-100
Social Networks: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Quora, and an optional link of your choice
MyWebCareer
MyWebCareer helps to discover, evaluate, and manage your online data based on career prospects. Your score is consists of three things: online profiles, network, and search results. Online profiles are the different types of social networking that you use.
These are rated by skills, experience, and reputation. Network is reflected on the quality and quantity of the connections you have across all of your online profiles. Search results consist of what is discovered by putting your name into various search engines.
Scale: 400-850
Social Networks: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Quora
PeerREACH
PeerREACH, the newbie in this area, gives you an influence score through different social media accounts. PeerREACH claims to be different than the rest of the online reputation websites by reflecting the quality of your followers onto your score. The website should be finalized sometime in November 2011.
Scale: Not available yet
Social Networks: Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, GetGlue, and Google+
It is safe to say that, while most of these websites are similar, they do focus on different aspects.
Identified and MyWebCareer reflect upon your professionalism and are career-focused. Both of these tools are potentially helpful for job seekers. Klout and PeerIndex seem to be more concentrated on online popularity and impact. These two aspects are a good way to demonstrate how effectively you are using social media, and insight into what you need to change.
However, how high your score is isn’t necessarily an indicator of how knowledgeable you when it comes to certain topic -- just how many people are responsive to the content you’re producing. When PeerREACH is up and running, it will be interesting to see which category they fall into — web popularity or career-based.
I believe all of these tools can be helpful in measuring the impact you have online. Overall, these tools should be taken lightly and used sparingly, but the career-based ones are definitely moving in the right direction.
