Klout is the new swag.
In case you’re behind the times (like I was until this morning when I first read about it in Wired Magazine), klout is a measure of the amount of influence a person or group holds in the digital world based on their level of connectedness. It takes into account how many Twitter and Facebook followers they have, how many times their blog and YouTube pages have been accessed, how many pictures they’ve uploaded to Flickr, how many check-ins they’ve amassed on FourSquare, and a number of other factors. It’s essentially a barometer for one’s marketing and political reach– a measure of how important someone or some company is to the ever evolving, ever expanding frontier known commonly as the great World Wide Web.
Why do I bring all of this up? Because this afternoon, our klout score got a huge boost.
As usual, Jake was productively procrastinating (is that a thing?) from his school work by trying to spread the Tiger Talk name across cyberspace and Twitter. Because President Obama and Oxy student/Hannah Montana co-star Emily Osment refused to recognize our existence, Jake turned to a lesser-known but equally awesome former Tiger named Rider Strong for a retweet. Here’s what he got:
Now, most of you probably don’t get why a retweet and shout out from some guy dressed as a hippie is awesome. But do you know who that guy is?
The cast of the unforgettable 1990s sitcom “Boy Meets World.” Rider Strong aka “Shawn Hunter” is the one wearing stripes on the left. Image from neontommy.com
It’s Shawn Hunter from Boy Meets World! Yes, the Shawn Hunter. As in Cory’s best friend who often wears horizontal stripes. As in the one who’s sort of a badass and sometimes almost makes bad decisions before others talk some sense into him. As in the kid who sets up eventual soul-mates Cory and Topanga, leaves his drunkard father to live with the ever-so-suave Mr. Turner, and eventually moves with the gang to New York in the show’s finale. Shawn Freakin’ Hunter!
And not only did he retweet us. He responded! With a joke about Oxy! How awesome is that?
So forget the fact that we only have 47 Facebook followers, that our most popular YouTube video only has 92 views, or that the leading search term that brings people to our blog is “sad tiger” (“tiger in snow” follows in a close second, for those who were wondering). Today, Rider Strong mentioned Tiger Talk on Twitter, and that’s pretty damn cool.
Oh ya, and our klout score rose from 2 to 14. I’d say that means we’re moving up in the world.
I can’t wait to see who retweets us next.
Tiger Talk Blog 
