Q: Does a high Klout score for a resort guest correlate to a high lifetime spend?

This week’s question started with two insights from past Stash posts. First, older guests tend to spend more on their vacations. Second, younger guests often have higher online influence. But what happens when you combine Klout and spend? Does a high Klout score correlate to a higher lifetime spend? Here’s what we found.

The Goods
To find our answer we analyzed over 100,000 resort guests who had both a lifetime spend and Klout score in the database. Rather than look at raw numbers, we simply compared each group to the overall average. So if the average LTS was $5,000 and people with a score between 20-30 had an LTS of $6,000, that would be +20% on the chart. Here’s how it shook out.

First, there is a pretty clear relationship but not as you might expect. As Klout scores go up, LTS tends to drop. At least, to a point. After a valley around 50-60 the trend starts to recover but still doesn’t reach the average before the data peters out. Without also showing volume, it’s pretty clear that the vast majority of Klout scores are below 40.

What This Means
Rather than an indictment of Klout, we simply see this as a manifestation of the relationship between Klout and age. Younger users are more active on social media, tend to have higher scores, but don’t have the spending power of older guests who use social media more sparingly if at all.

But Klout isn’t about the individual, it’s about the people that individual can reach and influence. So what this doesn’t answer is the spending power of those followers. Facebook data has shown “birds of a feather flock together” on social media, what we’re not sure of is how much age and income play into how similar two people see themselves on the web.

Sooner or Later
Depending on when you read this, we could have a new Stash post coming in a few days or a few minutes. If you don’t want to miss the next one, stick your email below.