You comment is bang on: “The thing is, this is not actually supposed to be a “contest”, but rather a Social Standard that companies should look to in order to get word out on their events, promotions and products.”

I work with a lot of brands helping them find the right influencers & I'm 100% positive that it can't be based on a simple algorithm.

Jenna: your comment is perfect: “Twitter is for networking and making new connections and shouldn't be focused on a number, like number of followers or your Klout number. ” It is so important that people way the quantity vs quality factor around twitter.

Bri, I'm super proud of you for winning & ticket and being aware enough to ask the right questions raising the bar for everyone in social media. It's important that as a community we set high standards, question strategies & work together so we can all learn, grow and achieve success.

Let's hope Klout will take all this feedback & apply it to future campaigns. That is where the real power of social media comes from IMHO.

As much as I hate to admit it, Twitter was one big high school before this promotion, this promotion just made it more clear cut. There are plenty of cliques on Twitter, and they sick together a lot. It's a weird bizarro Jerry Seinfeld world out there.

I agree 100% with your statement of “Twitter is for networking and making new connections and shouldn't be focused on a number, like number of followers or your Klout number. “

And your last point speaks to my point about having a cut off. If you leave it more black and white (2000+ followers, certain scores), then people wont feel as left out and know what they can strive for for the next campaign.

I think one of the most detrimental aspects to the partnership was the initial lack of transparency in how the “influential” few were chosen. Yes, Klout eventually wrote a blog post to explain their process, but it still felt like I was in a social media version of “Mean Girls” (great analogy, Jenna!). When companies choose only a handful of people to offer free goods to, it automatically becomes a popularity contest. I’m genuinely happy and excited for the influential few who received tickets, but I can’t help feeling left out when my Twitter feed is filled with excited tweets from ticket holders. I’m now living vicariously through everyone’s tweets!

Also, I agree with your point about Klout needing to work out the kinks in their system. When the promotion was developed, Klout should have ensured that everyone’s score was updated (mine was still my February score/tweets until I emailed them for an update).

Regardless of the mishaps, the promotion is still extremely successful. The amount of blog posts and tweets it has generated are great publicity for both Klout and Virgin. Congrats to all the lucky fliers!