

Microsoft giving away free Windows phones to higher ranked Klout users. - brackin
http://klout.com/#/perks

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rednaught
Am I the only one who's never heard of Klout until now? To me, they've failed
at their own service.

So for an individual, Klout just reaffirms one's ego and then rewards with
special opportunities for consumerism?

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k33n
I'm sure you're not the only one who hasn't heard of it until now, but I've
been using it for awhile and it's actually pretty useful. I like their topics
feature. I can see who the most influential people are in the "startup" topic
and immediately start interfacing with them via Twitter.

I'm part of the 50% of Twitter users who are active every day, so I can see
why if you're a part of the other 50%, or you just don't use Twitter at all,
this wouldn't be very appealing.

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brackin
This is either desperation, great biz dev work from Klout or a smart way to
get influential people to use Windows Phone.

I think the reason it's New York only could be that they want to target as
many New York influencers as possible, then treat to them a concert. If they
can get lots of influential people on Windows Phone it could spread in one of
the largest US markets.

The question is does Klout equal influence and am I over analysing their
intentions?

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wanorris
This seems like a pretty clever promotion. Worst case, it's not that expensive
and there's no real risk. (Well, unlikely worst case: influential people get
these phones, hate them, and tell everyone not to buy them. But Microsoft's
data shows that when people try WinPhone they generally like them, so they can
afford to take that risk.)

Best case: some actual influencers take them up on their offer and generate
lots of influence about how great these phones are. And even if very little of
that happens, early adopters (i.e. people who've heard of Klout in the first
place) are likely to hear about the promotion, and generating even a little
buzz among early adopters is a good thing for them.

And for Klout, having sign up and climb leaderboard = might get free stuff can
only be a good thing.

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daeken
Apparently my new phone is on the way and my spot is reserved (if anyone else
is going and wants to meet up, I'm in NYC and picked the first day). I'm
curious as to which phone it is, though; I've been looking to replace my HTC
HD7, so I'm hoping that's not it, which I'm assuming it's not since that's a
previous generation. I absolutely _love_ WP7, but the HD7's hardware is just
not very good build-quality-wise. Pretty excited to try out something new.

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veyron
Can someone who logged in from facebook or twitter post a screenshot of the
relevant page?

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jefflinwood
Basically it just comes up and says that I'm not eligible for the free Windows
Phone, because I need a Klout of 55 and to live in New York, NY (easily
cheatable with Twitter, I suppose). My "Klout" is only 20. Not sure where that
puts me on the newbie<->Bieber continuum.

