Klout – How Much Do You Have?

Social Media Just Got To The Next Level

Getting our websites indexed and ranked high in the search engine listings is the reason we all do SEO and web promotions.  I have published various posts regarding the ever increasing importance of gaining social proof to help in our ranking efforts, Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in, the list goes on and on with Google now joining the party with their launch of  Goolge +  it will continue to grow at pace.

Google have invested a fortune into this new platform and you can bet your mortgage that it will become the major factor in helping them to decide rank.  It is clear now that the old school methods of getting first page, position 1 listings will simply become less successful over time, they want to see active websites providing the very latest content that is vibrant and topical, they want to see others taking notice and acting upon it, they want to reward the major new influencers in the online world.

Introducing Klout

There is a new kid on the block that is set to become a major player in providing clear proof of social influence.  It is called Klout and in its basic form it provides a score for each individual of between 1 – 100.  This score has nothing to do with the success of your business, the number of backlinks a website has or any other commercial factor, it is simply a measure of an individuals influence using social media.

It is no longer only about what you are doing online,  it is very much about what direct action others take as a result of your actions.

Now you may see the significance of this and the possibilities to use this to your advantage, on the other hand you may be thinking its just something else to worry about that will provide no real value.

Hang in here and read on!

Why Is This So Important?

Traditional advertising is in major decline, online ad costs are making it prohibitive for anyone other than the big brands to get involved so more and more companies are looking at social media to promote their goods and services.  Now I don’t mean setting up a Facebook page and Twitter account and hoping for the best, they are now actively looking to target people with Klout who in turn will  pass on their recommendations, they want to cater for clients with Klout and Companies doing this successfully can run extremely profitable campaigns with massive ROI compared to traditional methods.

It is a fact that 92% of consumers trust peer recommendations compared to just 35% who trust advertisements.

It Is Not Yet Perfect Or An Exact Science!

Any negative comments regarding Klout revolve around the pretence that it in some way measures the worth of an an individual or their overall abilities.  It is simply a measure of influence an individual has over others using social media.

It is still very much belt and braces and doesn’t take some things in to account that it should but these issues will be resolved, the value of an email subscriber list for example is not currently measured which obviously has a major influence but for now they seem to be focusing purely on social media.

So What Is The Benefit To Me?

Apart from the obvious  marketing possibilities such as getting more content published and syndicated because you are viewed as an curator or specialist which in turn provides more traffic and better rankings, the personal benefits will continue to increase in value the higher score you achieve.

This concept is not a new one actually, preferential treatment has been awarded to certain individuals since time began, we used to call this type of person a “celebrity” or “rich”, now someone with a major influence on social media can also benefit from such perks.

Companies who embrace social media are already using the Klout factor in much of their targeted advertising, Firefox and Chrome both have free add ons that will display your Twitter follower’s Klout score so suddenly it is extremely easy to see the movers and shakers in the social media world and become part of their network.

Who would you upgrade to First Class?

If you run an airline and you have a request from a passenger with an extremely high Klout score do you think that would help influence the decision to upgrade? of course it would and this is just going to become more and more relevant and powerful.  It is very simple, people who can demonstrate influence over others using social media will be the king makers!

Setting Up Your Account

Visit:  http://www.Klout.com

Sign in using your Twitter or facebook log in

Add all of your other social accounts listed, if you don’t yet have all the  accounts featured,  please set them up, they add to your score.

Complete your profile

Don’t get too upset if your score looks on the low side, the average score across the network is 20, anything above 45 is great but you will probably have 10 – 15 when first signing up, it will get better!

So lets now briefly explain what the factors are in Klout.

True Reach

Is the number of people you influence directly.  This is where quality is rewarded. If you have thousands of followers or false “likes” from automated software you will influence very few if any of your fans.  It is far better to have fewer fans/followers but the ones you do have actually take note of your updates, re tweets likes etc.  The more influence you have the higher your score.

Amplification

This is a measure of your influence on others in your network.  How often does your network re tweet your tweet or like your content.  The more people voting on your content the higher your score will be. This is where you need to ensure you add quality to your network, write an interesting post or add a comment of real value, always aim to over deliver.

Network

This really becomes important when adding potential followers or fans to your network.  If you follow people with a low Klout score you will not be rewarded because your network is of poor quality, similarly if you only connect with individuals with a high Klout score and they in turn connect with other individuals with a high score you will be rewarded.

Here is a few quick tips to help you get started

• It is highly recommended not to use your existing Facebook or Twitter followers if like the majority of people you almost spammed them using various tools and software to build up numbers.  Remember this is to use for your business, go out and attract the big players in your niche, aim to attract their followers and keep it on topic for the best results

• Set up 1 account per niche.  Become an expert influence in that niche by only attracting other individuals in that niche with a high score.

• Target people with the highest scores possible.  You can find a major influencer and click to view their network then make a list of their network with a high score.  This is a real easy way to quickly build your list of major influencers from within your own niche

• Don’t be tempted to connect with individuals with a high score in a different niche.  This will hurt not improve your score.

• Install the free tool for displaying your Twitter followers Klout score and interact with them to find out if they are in the same niche. This interaction will greatly improve your score and you never know, you might do some business with them.

I hope this has given you a brief insight into the possibilities of Klout.  Yes it is something else to worry about but it doesn’t really require a lot more work on your part, the good part for me is that it provides visible proof of how I am doing with my own social media efforts, I might think I am doing enough but my score will confirm this and if I am not happy I now know exactly what I need to do.

That’s it for now, I am off to set up my network!

As always, please share this post and leave your comments, I think this should start a lively debate!