Politics & Media Mashup
I wrote a post six months ago comparing the Klout scores of San Diego mayoral candidates, council members and a few others who know their way around Facebook and Twitter. It generated a little buzz.
Tony Krvaric, Todd Gloria and others compared their scores on Twitter. Former U-T San Diego columnist Tom Blair mentioned the post in one of his columns and it was the subject of a short 10News story.
Klout is not without problems, so I took a little ribbing.
Seth Hall, a contributing writer at Voice of San Diego, said I was obsessed with Klout. The U-T’s Chris Cadelago teased me a couple months ago on Twitter, and SDSU PR man Greg Block recently tweeted this.
A week or so after I wrote the post I ran into Nathan Fletcher and he said: “My Klout score isn’t going anywhere but up.”
He was right.
Fletcher led the way back then among mayoral candidates and he holds the highest score (56) today among the Big Four. On Friday he said he was proud of this and that it reflected the energy of his campaign.
“The world has changed — how people get their information is different and elected officials need to engage in the new media,” Fletcher said. “We are proud to have the highest Klout score, most Facebook followers and most aggressive social media campaign. It reflects the energy behind our campaign.”
Klout scores have risen for all of San Diego’s mayoral candidates, who have stepped up their social media presence as Election Day draws near. While there is no way to know if tweets and posts lead to votes, Twitter and Facebook have changed campaigns and how many of us communicate.
Krvaric, the local GOP chairman, was not thrilled six months ago when he learned his Klout score trailed his arch nemesis, local labor leader Lorena Gonzalez. She has since widened the gap. Few social media gurus have as much Klout as Gonzalez, whose score rose from 61 to 66.
Only 33 of the 500 people I follow on Twitter, including Eminem, David Axelrod and Ann Romney, have a higher score than Gonzalez. Her 66 is tops among all San Diegans I follow. Only Dave McCulloch, a Carl DeMaio supporter, comes close with a 64.
“I hate sitting still,” Gonzalez told me. “So I tweet when I am waiting or in the car and someone else is driving. It’s a great for those of us who are Type A folks. I’m more active on Facebook than Twitter. Facebook is a great way for me to communicate with our rank and file members.
“I don’t really understand Klout. Didn’t know what it was until you posted.”
I said: “It claims to be the standard of influence. It’s not. Though the people you expect to have high Klout scores do and vice versa.”
Here are the scores for the mayoral candidates and some others. The first number is the score from six months ago and the second number shows today’s score:
- Nathan Fletcher: 51/56
- Fletcher2012: 36/43
- Bonnie Dumanis: 38/45
- DumanisHQ: NA/40
- Carl DeMaio: 44/49
- BobFilner: 25/39
- BobFilnerMayor NA/44
- Marti Emerald: 24/NA
- Sherri Lightner: 25/36
- David Alvarez: 29/28
- Kevin Faulconer: 36/39
- Tony Young: 40/40
- Lorie Zapf: 40/52
- Todd Gloria 45/49
- Jesse Durfee: 24/29
- San Diego Rostra: 35/39
- Ron Nehring: 44/37
- Mayor Sanders: 46/47
- Me: 49/52
- The Union-Tribune: 59/60
- Tony Krvaric: 59/60
- Lorena Gonzalez: 61/66
- Barack Obama: 87/94
- Justin Bieber: 100/100
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