How to: Klout

Today we are going to be talking about Klout. Klout is an up and coming site that links all your social media and ranks your influence across the board. Many people are using Klout to see "where they rank".


Here's the catch. A Klout score is on a scale of 1-100, with the average score being 20. How can the average of 1-100 be 20? Well Klout is set that once you hit 20, it takes more "influence" to move up then before you hit 20. So if you had four new people follow your blog and that moved your score up a point, once you hit 20 you need 10 more people for your score to move up (this is just an example and not actual numbers). The higher your score is the harder it is to get a higher score.

So what is in a score? It is a combination of all the social media outlets that you link up, and how many people you can get to give you k+(K+ are similar to a facebook "like"), how many mentions you have on twitter, likes on instagram, followers on you tube, ect.

Klout is marketing. Flat out marketing. It is a tool to get your name out there. It is not the end all be all of where you "rank". It will not track how many readers you have on your blog, who is a new reader, who is returning. It will not show you where your readers are coming from. It sole links up and 'scores' your social media usage.  Basically, if you want a way to have more of a social media presence Klout can help with that, but know its "score" doesn't really mean anything in the way of actual impact.

Klout can be fun, for example companies gives out "perks". Perks are awarded for using Klout. I have received free business cards from MOO (which did have a small Klout logo), a photo book, and I know a friend received a herb garden, all for just using Klout. Know there is a "dark" side to it.
There are somethings about Klout I don't like, for example there is an option to "rank" your friends. It places two friends "against" each other and you are suppose to pick who has more influence on a certain topic. It also tells you how you "measure up". As in it compares your influence to that of your friends. Klout shows you who tweets more than you, who has more k+ on topics, and who is just "influential" than you. For me it just creates unnecessary competition so I leave those options alone.

If you are wanting a way to really track your online presence, you want to use Google Analytic, and we'll set that up next week.