Influence rank: the shape of recruitment to come

If your job embraces community building and engagement across the social web, does your ranking on an online influence-measurement service like Klout matter?

For some companies and recruiters, it certainly does.

A case in point – Salesforce.com has a job ad for a community manager where the list of desired skills includes this:

Klout score of 35 or higher

According to Klout, the Klout Score or ranking “measures influence based on your ability to drive action. Every time you create content or engage you influence others.”

It uses data from social networks to measure True Reach (“how many people you influence”),
Amplification (“how much you influence them”) and Network Impact (“the influence of your network”).

The job Salesforce is hiring for requires skills including 2-3 years of community management experience and building a following in social media. Especially regarding the latter skill, some kind of ranking could help a candidate stand out from the crowd.

I can imagine a situation where three candidates, say, for the job each has impressive credentials for the role, with clear evidence of all the required skills. The differentiator might be in the desired skills, where one candidate has a higher Klout score than the others, and so gets the job.

We’ve already seen this notion of your online reputation ranking starting to come into the world of hiring – US retailer Best Buy set the bar back in 2009 with a job ad that stated “250 plus followers” on Twitter as a preferred qualification – and it seems definite that it will be a feature of recruiting for some types of roles.

An insightful feature in Forbes.com in May offers an indicator of what’s coming with an assessment of the role of social media in recruiting, with this clear signal:

[...] forward-thinking companies and employers recognize that social media is the platform of the future. Whether or not you work in an industry where building your online influence matters (i.e. public relations, marketing or sales), over the next decade you will be hired and promoted based upon your reputation capital.

It looks as though paying attention to your ranking by services such as Klout as well as competitors like PeerIndex and Kred would be a smart idea when you’re considering your career – which probably should be all the time these days.

Welcome to the future process of your next job.

(Via Simon Caine)

Related posts:

• Out of Klout
• Recruiters really care about your online reputation even if you don’t
• Job requirement: Twitter followers