There is a healthy debate surrounding the value of Klout score, but whether it truly measures online rep or not, it can now land U.S. consumers a car.
For the second time this year, General Motors‘ volume division has contracted with Klout, the service that rates and ranks a person’s “social influence,” then runs a kind of sampling program for the Web 2.0 era, putting products into the hands of the digital influential. The samples, called “perks,” might include software, deodorant, coffee or, in this case, a car.
Chevrolet is paying Klout an undisclosed sum to arrange three-day loans of its new American-made subcompact, the 2012 Sonic, to people with a “Klout score” of at least 35. The program, which began this month and runs through Dec. 14, follows a collaboration earlier this year promoting the Volt, Chevy’s $40,000 plug-in electric hybrid. Twenty Klout participants drove the Volt, and all but one posted blogs complimentary to the car, said Cristi Vazquez, a Chevrolet spokesperson in Detroit. The participants also generated about 2,000 tweets, she said.
Vasquez said that 139 drives would be offered before mid-December in Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Dallas and San Francisco. GM is supplying four or five Sonics in each of the five cities. “It’s effective for getting out the message,” said Ms. Vasquez. “One of the things we’ve found is that the best way to get people to change their perception about our company is to get them behind the wheel.”
Klout scores range from zero to 100 (though they’re hardly scientific) and are intended to measure a person’s social influence. Those participating in Chevy’s latest program must also have a valid driver’s license but are not required to post good things about the products that they test. They can say negative things, or they can say nothing at all.
“We’ve done about 50 of these partnerships,” said Klout CEO Joe Fernandez, who looks for candidates who may have special expertise, for example, in travel or technology. As far as what a Klout deal costs a client, “we don’t have a rate card,” Fernandez said, adding that the project with Chevrolet “is less than $100,000.”
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