In a bid to help increase their reach and add more significance to their metrics, influence measurement service Klout purchased the mobile and local neighborhood app Blockboard. The exact terms aren’t being disclosed, but according to Klout’s blog, they see this acquisition as an additional way for them to build an amazing local-mobile app and will help make Klout useful and accessible no matter where people are.
If you’re not familiar with Blockboard, it’s a neighborhood app that allows the community to really become a virtual community. It’ll allow your neighbors to chat with you and others to talk about issues plaguing the community like potholes, vandalism, graffiti, crime, observations, and even converse with one another — almost like a private community Facebook. But surely this private community Facebook model fits into Klout’s metric platform, right? Well…it doesn’t seem like it. In a post on TechCrunch, writer Leena Rao states that Klout will use the technology and the team to invest in local and mobile product efforts. In looking at the deal, it appears that Blockboard was an “acqui-hire” and should be a good one if the local and mobile strategy pays off. For now, people who are checking their Klout score only knows what their scores are from a global perspective — there’s no localization to help advertisers and businesses figure out what a customer’s influence is within a specific region, county, or city.
But what’s the deal with Klout wanting to go mobile? Isn’t the site already mobile? No, it’s mobile-friendly…you just have to go to their site and view your profile and sign in through the browser and there’s your score. What Blockboard brought to the table is something that Liz Gannes from All Things D remarked in her post when talking about their authentication: the first time someone uses Blocboard’s iPhone app, it validates via GPS that they are located in a particular neighborhood. So now, your Klout score can let you size up your friends and whoever you’re with, all depending on where your phone is. For example, if you happened to be at the Super Bowl last Sunday and part of the collective group tweeting away, the NFL could use Klout to determine who is the most influential tweeter there and give them a spontaneous perk and the service would know you’re there based off of your phone GPS. Might seem a bit unrealistic, but who knows what mobile opens up for the service. Whether this localization will allow brands to view people based on more filtered Klout scores (e.g., if you’re influential about technology, photography, and sports–what are your individual scores for each of these topics?). This would help with better targeting by brands and advertisers.
The acquisition of Blockboard is the latest string of strong news by Klout. In December, they topped over 10 billion API calls, have more than 4,000 API partners, and indexed over 100 million profiles. With strong funding and their recent round of $30 million from Kleiner Perkins and more, what lies ahead for Klout?
You can read Blockboard’s post about the acquisition here and Klout’s statement here.
Photo Credit: Business handshake by acerin/sxc.hu
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