That’s what OMMA Social programming chair and emcee (and Social Insider columnist) Cathy Taylor asked Tim Mahlman, Chief Revenue Officer, Klout to distinguish. Specifically, she asked him to
focus on “clout with a C.”
It’s “how advertisers are looking to reach people who do have influence,” Mahlman said, adding, “We turn to the people who are
either experts in that field, or who are influencers, and their opinion matters very much to us, and drives change.”
Mahlman said this isn’t new, of course, and he even drew upon
his own early career experience, when he had a job out of college helping Clorox to introduce a new product.
“It’s not new that people have been trying to find those people who
have influence,” he said, recalling that Clorox specifically targeted “heads of the PTA, heads of the soccer society, heads of all the people who were key to that community.”
The reason, he said, was that, “The brand wanted to get that product in their hands.”