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Google+ gets Klout

As Google+ opens its doors to everyone, Klout, the social networking influence measuring company, starts to cover it.
Written by Steven Vaughan-Nichols, Senior Contributing Editor

No sooner had Google opened the doors to its Google+ social network to everyone, than Klout, the social networking influence measuring company, added Google+ coverage to its offerings.

Ash Rust, Director of Ranking at Klout, wrote, "Today we're excited to announce Google+ is now integrated into Klout. As the fastest growing social media destination of all time, Google+ quickly became a highly requested feature. With its intuitive handling of privacy and sharing - bridging the public/private divide - it's captured our attention from the start."

Rust went on to describe Google+'s advantages. These included that users can tailor their content to a specific audience or open it up to the public and Google has integrated public posts into their search results, expanding the audience of content creators and their potential influence."

He goes on, "We've seen people using the service as a blog replacement, a user feedback system and, of course, to post pictures of their cats. In all of these cases, we're interested in measuring your ability to drive action: getting added to circles won't increase your Klout score but getting comments and +1's on your posts from influential users certainly will."

To add Google+ to Klout , you connect your Google+ accountfrom the Klout dashboard.

Some of you I know think that Klout's social networking ranking is so much hooey. Well, maybe it is, but they're trying to make it far more than just counting the noses of all your online "friends." What's far more important though is that businesses are taking Klout seriously. I've recently had several business offers that were, I discovered, based on my Klout score. Like it or not, Klout matters.

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