Klout© Perk Review- Subway© Oven Crisp© Chicken Sandwich

I get asked all the time “what the hell is Klout^TM, anyway?”  My answer to lay people is “you hook up your social networks to it and by measuring the level of interaction you have on those networks, Klout^TM assigns you a score out of 100 that’s supposed to indicate how influential you are online”. I think that’s a pretty apt, non-technical description. The next question is usually “why the hell would I want to do that?” The reason why, my friends (in addition to bragging rights among friends and seeing if you can game their algorithm for SEO), is Klout^TM perks!

Klout^TM runs several of these promotional perks at a time. Depending on what they are giving away/offering, you might qualify if your Klout^TM is above a certain score- 40 indicates “this person is active online” and a 50 indicates “this person is influential” for some rough guidelines- or, if your Klout^TM score shows you to be an influencer for certain keywords. So, for example, right now there is a perk on the site for One Hope Wine^TM that you only qualify for if Klout^TM says you are influential on the following keywords: Wine, Charities, Drinks, Cocktails. They want to limit who uses their perk to influencers, whereas someone like Subway^TM just wants to get their perk in front of as many people as possible, so anyone with a Klout^TM score over 40 can request the perk. Some of these perks are really cool, like free samples, discounts when you shop online, free admission to movies and the like.

So what’s in it for the advertiser giving away the perk? Social media signals, of course! They send out a package that says basically “hey, if you want to write about us on Twitter^TM or Facebook^TM, that’d be great!” They don’t say you have to be positive, or coach you on how to write, but they do include a little card that says why you got the perk, and on the back is the “influencer code of ethics”:

• Klout^TM will never sell or give away your contact info.
• Participating (or not participating) will not change your Klout^TM score.
• You are receiving the product because you are influential and have authority on topics related to the product. You are welcome to tell the world you love the product, you dislike the product or say nothing at all.
• If you decide to talk about the product, we will ask you to disclose that you received a sample.

Of course, they’d love it if you wrote nothing but positive reviews, but they are very clear and up front about the fact that you don’t have to- you don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to! However, you have to figure there are lots of people out there doing just what I am doing, which is using their Klout^TM perks as a blog topic, or Tweeting^TM about the sponsor’s product, or whatever! This is an ingenious way to get a lot of social signals flowing to the site and is another idea that’s so simple and brilliant that I can’t believe that I didn’t think of it.

Head on over to Klout.com^TM today and hook up your social media accounts! Even if you don’t want perks it’s fun to track your score.

My Review of the Subway Oven Crisp^TM Chicken Sandwich Perk at Klout^TM

I have to be honest, I’m pretty impressed with this perk, which is the first I’ve claimed since learning about and signing up for Klout^TM. It came to my front door via FedEx^TM in an envelope bundled with a small promotional piece from Subway© and the disclosure card. The specific perk is a $10 Subway^TM gift card to try the new Oven Crisp^TM Chicken Sandwich. Interesting to note is that you aren’t locked into spending the $10 on that sandwich- it’s just a generic gift card. This must have cost Subway^TMsome serious money! Anyway, the $10 is enough to get a footlong sub with chips and a drink, which is what I did for lunch today! I am appreciative of Subway^TM’s innovative marketing and of Klout^TM facilitating my free lunch; however, this sandwich is pretty bleah. I usually eat Subway^TM 2 or 3 times a week in spite of not actually liking it very much- it’s close to where I work and $5 is pretty cheap for a not-too-unhealthy lunch. That being said, my normal sandwich is an oven roasted chicken breast but in  my experience it doesn’t matter what you get on a Subway^TM sub- the vegetables and slop you put on top of it is where the taste comes from. The oven roasted chicken breast is sort of okay in an inoffensive way but I have to say the Oven Crisp^TM Chicken is pretty rubbery and gross and has absolutely no distinguishable taste. I can’t recommend that anyone eat this thing…I’d hate to see how they get that fried texture without frying. My Dr. Pepper^TM and Lay’s^TM chips were great though!

Thanks for lunch, Subway^TM! Unfortunately, I can’t see myself ordering that particular sandwich again. Also, bring back the Omega 3 bread!