According to Klout, these well-established designers have found a way to translate their real-life work and esteemed reputations into digitalinfluence as well.
Consider that influence or digital eminence depends on the attitudes of others on you, and secondarily on the behavioral activity between them and you.
The MBA students identified the three key industry change drivers as such: whether or not there will be continued economic downturn, the ever-present influence of digital and continued fragmentation of media channels.
That hits exactly where companies like Topsy and Klout will have to differentiate, and measure influence by more than mere quantity (or digital noise-making).