Does a Klout score matter

Early last week I was at lunch with some folks that I work with time and again. I was checking my klout score on my phone because I have been monitoring its fluctuations based on what was happening with my social accounts. I'm always curious about impressions that others may have, so I asked how the rest of the group felt about Klout scores. Overwhelmingly, the group was aggressively anti-klout. Now if it stayed there I would have given more weight to their arguments, but then it became an anti-social networking discussion. I want to share with you how it went and what my thoughts are after this give & take.

First off, we're a friendly bunch. Yes, we can be intense at times, but I am very comfortable with the folks that I was eating with and like them very much. They are all bright people and that is why I was soliciting their feedback. It turns out that they didn't know much about Klout and asked me what goes into the score.

Klout's algorithm is proprietary I'm sure, but I know that it takes accounts that I sync up with into consideration (whether it uses them all at this time, I have no idea). But you can sync up Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Instagram...etc.

And here is where the Devil's opinions came out to play

There was a tidal wave of negative feelings towards social media. Some of the comments were: "waste of time", "I don't get it" and "who cares". I reminded the group that it also takes blog sites into account and that lead to a sub-conversation - Is Blogging Social ?

I have the opinion that blogging is not social.
I am happy to entertain arguments that consider it social (because I could see that POV: following blogs, or commenting on posts, even sharing blog posts), but I think there is more to it than that.

As a blogger I feel that I am contributing to the community

Bloggers don't just consume information, we contribute or even curate content for use by others.
Don't we all want to be viewed as Subject Matter Experts? The web gives us the most amazing opportunity that mankind has ever seen to get our opinions, experiences and research out into the world. By contributing, others can benefit and we in turn build our reputations.

By this time, I brought up the now famous story of the marketing exec that lost out on a job because his Klout score was a 35 v. a 65 for the guy that got the job. My point was that other industry professionals are valuing this metric. One response from the table was "I wouldn't want to work for a company that took Klout into consideration."  ---- HERE IS WHY I AM WRITING THIS POST

Why not?
A executive marketing position means that the candidate understands marketing in 2014.
A high Klout score means that the candidate has worked hard to be seen as an influential person on the web. Web marketing is where it's at and where it will continue to go. Therefore, I would rather hire a marketing person with a high Klout score too.

I really get frustrated with people that I work with if they don't cultivate their online presence. Does this mean that they don't understand how business is done now, or they don't have a vision for how business is moving to a global - distributed model? I have a hard time accepting that.

Klout measures how much weight you have on the web.
I don't know it their algorithms will stand the test of time, or if other, better ways of measuring will come up, but the discussion is the same.

Is being influential on the web valuable?

Of course, I say "immensely"