Launched in September, 2011, Kred.Com is a relatively new player in the social influence measurement world. Positioned to challenge Klout with its open book approach to measuring one’s influence, Kred also seems to offer an alternative  look as to how one influences, to whom, and why.

In August, Kred launched Kred Story, which uses influencer data to generate a visually rich summary of a user’s community and activity. On the surface, Kred does a nice re-branding of your overall twitter life, and it comes across relatively clear that one’s “score” is simply measured by one’s engagement level (which they show you nicely), but what I found most exciting about Kred Story so far is its hashtag search feature.

I decided I wanted to see how #Harvest2012 was playing out over Twitter, and within 30 seconds I was looking at more data than I ever expected to see.

Some quick #Harvest2012 stats through October 4th, 2012:

• 554 total tweets mentioning #Harvest2012 in October (to date)
• 191 total Retweets from the above in October
• 4019 total tweets mentioning #Harvest2012 in September with 1051 retweets

Now, it’s important to note, and good to know, that #Harvest2012 is not just used in the wine world. Photos and tweets on Kred Story quickly reveal that it is also used to promote a music festival and is being used by other agricultural niches as well. So the hashtag stats above are not specific to wine grape harvest. The photos and layout really help to tell the overall #Harvest2012 story.

Some of the features of Kred Story are a little confusing to decipher. It does show that the “wine” community tweets about #Harvest2012 the most (18%) over “Bagel” and “Foodies” communities (16% & 15%), and that most of the top influencers of #Harvest2012 are wine-specific users. But upon looking at who makes up the greater “wine” community, there are seemingly no familiar faces as top influencers. And “bagel” community? I can’t figure that out.

Businesses are abuzz about the implications Kred has with regard to CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and for client prospecting, and I see the same implications for bloggers with regard to generating content.

Want to write a post about this year’s winegrape harvest around the world? You may not have to look too much beyond Twitter for some great contacts and content. Wineries are posting photos everyday, which they would love to share with you and your blog.

Want to write a post about the town of Penticton, BC as we gear up for WBC13? A #Penticton search reveals some fellow bloggers, wineries, businesses, and journalists you may want to reach out to or connect with.

The visually rich layout of Kred Story makes sifting through online dialog in order to find contacts and content a much richer experience. I’m still trying to wrap my head around Kred as a measure of influence (@HippieProblemz is a top influencer of #Wine, but @1WineDude is not?), but as a tool just barely hatched, I’m sure progress will be made.

So tell us – Are any of you using Kred Story to find contacts or content for your blog posts? Do you find it useful as a measure of influence? What do you see Kred’s function being with regard to your objectives?