As the measuring stick for social media and real world impact, Klout recently scored 14 companies as Most Influential. Can they keep it up this year? Because scores evolve daily, we’ve ordered these top-ranking companies by their current Klout scores and identified the types of social content that’s put them on the map again in the past 90 days.
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Company: YouTube Klout Score: 99 CEO: Salar Kamangar Founded: February 2005 |
| The video-sharing website created by three former PayPal employees sold to Google for $1.65 billion just one year after it launched. Now sitting pretty with a Klout score of 99 (the same as President Barack Obama), YouTube has more than 800 million unique users a month.
In the social sphere, YouTube capitalizes off popular video uploads and trends, as well as live streaming opportunities from major brands. In the past three months, the company’s most influential tweet opened up the New Year by promoting an “epicly cute dance tune” that received almost 2,500 retweets.
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Company: Facebook Klout Score: 97 CEO: Mark Zuckerberg Founded: February 2004 |
| Facebook is often the go-to platform when companies decide to go social. So it’s not surprising the billion-dollar network itself has an impressively high Klout score. Facebook’s social influence seems to draw largely from promoting its own services, with a foundation of great original content to begin with. Tweets that currently go far for the company often promote new Facebook apps for mobile devices.
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Company: Microsoft Klout Score: 97 CEO: Steve Ballmer Founded: April 1975 |
| One of the more seasoned tech companies on Klout’s Top 14, Microsoft charms its followers with frequent shout-outs to followers, company stats, amusing video spots and, of course, product promotions and updates. To encourage engagement in the social sphere, Microsoft often asks conversational questions and uses trivia and app contests for charitable causes.
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Company: Amazon.com Klout Score: 96 CEO: Jeff Bezos Founded: July 1994 |
| The marketplace empire has millions of followers via social media. Keeping in step with its reputation for beating out the competition, Amazon.com often posts about products and promotional deals, as well as updates about its ever-expanding services.
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Company: Google Klout Score: 96 CEO: Larry Page Founded: September 1998 |
| The search powerhouse made successful by knowing everything graciously extends its wealth of information and services to the social sphere. Keeping its social style helpful and fun, Google often publishes content about new service sneak peaks, search trends and freebie contests to engage followers.
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Company: Twitter Klout Score: 96 CEO: Dick Costolo Founded: July 2006 |
| Following Twitter’s purpose to a T, the social network engages followers by posting about trending topics and current events, as well as software updates. In the past 90 days, one of Twitter’s best tweets simply high-fived its millions of users, calling them “the pulse of the planet.” The message garnered 4,000 retweets.
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Company: McDonald’s Klout Score: 92 CEO: Donald Thompson Founded: 1940 |
| McDonald’s deserves a gold star for proving it can keep up with (and capitalize off) the social revolution. The fast food service is the only non-tech company on Klout’s Top 14, as well as the oldest company, having been founded in 1940. McDonald’s online positioning employs a mix of pop culture, video spots, menu photos and light-hearted info graphics for social consumption. And sometimes, it offers a simple “Good morning & happy Monday!” tweet to its fans.
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Company: LinkedIn Klout Score: 91 CEO: Jeff Weiner Founded: December 2002 |
| As the social networking hub for professionals, LinkedIn extends its services to other platforms by continuing to make the world of business a more connected place. LinkedIn understands its followers are all about finding jobs, keeping jobs and being as successful as possible. Age-old adages, workplace tips and insightful company blog posts are a good sample of the network’s effective publishing track.
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Company: Netflix Klout Score: 91 CEO: Reed Hastings Founded: 1997 |
| The world’s largest subscription service for movies and televisions shows makes waves on social media by unveiling new services and streaming options, appealing to pop culture and celebrity news, and interacting with followers via film trivia and conversational tweets.
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Company: Skype Klout Score: 89 President: Tony Bates Founded: August 2003 |
| Skype’s video chat and conferencing services attract everyone from estranged grandparents to boardroom CEOs. Microsoft bought up the company for $8.5 billion in 2011, keeping CEO Tony Bates as head of the new division. Skype steers the company’s tweets in the direction of new software updates and service features, as well as pop culture connections and feel-good user stories.
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Company: Pinterest Klout Score: 88 CEO: Ben Silbermann Founded: March 2010 |
| At just three years old (the youngest company on this list), the photo-sharing hub attracts 25 million unique visitors a month. Armed with a plethora of trendy and entertaining user images to choose from, Pinterest outshines its competitors by publishing loveable (and shareable) social content. Most recently, Pinterest’s most influential tweets from founder Ben Silbermann include space images taken by astronauts, a 1962 GQ cover of JFK, a dog in a bowtie and a recipe for grilled angel food cake.
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Company: Dropbox Klout Score: 84 CEO: Drew Houston Founded: June 2007 |
| The Dropbox file hosting service may not possess the sexiness of some other company products on this list, but Klout claims Dropbox hits the mark on social media. Dropbox builds its social following through publishing important notices about updated apps and compatibility upgrades, as well as company blog posts and amusing user stories.
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Company: Tumblr Klout Score: 80 CEO: David Karp Founded: April 2007 |
| The young blogosphere earned top marks last year to land itself on Klout’s Top 14. Tumblr’s social success seems to stem most from sharing original content by Tumblr bloggers and consistently interacting with its followers on a one-on-one basis.
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Company: Apple No Klout Score CEO: Tim Cook Founded: April 1976 |
| Perhaps the most prominent social holdout in the world, Apple has yet to set up an official Facebook or Twitter page (or an account on any other platform). But Klout’s algorithm incorporates real world influence, as well as social. Even without social on its side, the tech giant ranked in Klout’s top three most influential companies last year, suggesting social abstinence doesn’t necessarily injure the success of certain brands.
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