Social Media Klout: Measure Your Influence
September 13th, 2011 by guestblogger
Wondering what all this tweeting is really getting you? Spending time on Facebook but not seeing quantitative results? In any business, when you invest money and time on your marketing plan, you want to be able to calculate its effectiveness. While there are dozens of ways to analyze your ROI, experts agree that there is no perfect method to measure the true effects of your social media campaign. For more on this read Brian Solis’ Article “How to Measure ROI in Social Media.
The reason because networking by nature, is a lot like fishing you choose your spot, bait the hook and wait for a bite. But how can you ensure that you’re using the right bait and fishing in the right ponds? Try measuring your online Klout.
What is Klout?
Klout.com is a site that measures your overall online influence using over 35 variables across Facebook, Twitter and more recently, LinkedIn. Scores on Klout range from 1 to 100 (the higher the better) analyzing your True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score.
What Your Score Means
One of the biggest misconceptions in social networking http://sociatic.com/social-media/general-tips/5-social-media-misconceptions/ is that the number of followers you have determines your success. Having followers is part of the equation but having a truly engaged following is the key to successful social marketing. Your Klout score, through a variety of metrics and analytics, illustrates this engagement.
Klouts Director of Marketing, Megan Berry, says that a score over 30 means you have expertise in the arena of social media, while a score over 50 makes you a thought leader (Hint: Only celebrities crack into the nearly 100 zone.)
- Klouts True Reach score reflects how many of your followers on the big three (FB, Twitter & LI) pay attention to what you say, listening and reacting to your messages.
- The Amplification Score is the likelihood that your content will generate retweets, @messages, likes and comments.
- Finally, your Network Score, reveals how influential those followers (who are engaged) are.
How to Expand Your Reach
Because of all of the factors measured and compared by the Klout scoring tool, you’ll find that length of time on these platforms and number of followers does little to increase the realm of your influence. This is why a person with 1500 followers and a person with just 180 followers can have virtually the same influence score of 32. What this means is that the person with 180 followers is much more effective at engaging and spurring their followers to action, than the person with 1500.
This kind of data is invaluable in analyzing where your social campaigns may be missing their target audience and helping you to formulate a plan to allow you to laser your focus and increase your reach.
So how do you capitalize on this data?
Look at the Klout suggestions of your influence followers (these are people who follow you but who you do not follow back). Choose to follow folks with higher scores than you.
When you follow someone, choose your friends wisely by picking profiles that genuinely fit your interests and who may have an audience that fits your target. Top influencers in your field are great. When they follow back, you’ll have a greater potential for engagement not only from them, but from their followers.
By monitoring your Klout score regularly you can see what works in terms of engagement. For example, with a few well-chosen article links and retweets, I watched my Klout score jump by nearly 10 points and my True Reach, double in a single day. This information allows you to look at what you sent out and adjust your focus to include more on the topics your followers are most interested in.
Know your target audience. Who do you want to attract? Once you have this bit of information, you can begin to target those who want what you offer and those who are in similar or complimentary fields of influence, increasing your overall reach.
While there is no one perfect way to measure the true impact of your social media presence, its clear that Klout, when used in combination with other analytics, can be a useful tool for evaluating your ROI and extending your influence.
Vanessa Nix Anthony is freelance journalist, SEO copywriter and SMM Strategist living in Portland, Oregon. She writes for a variety newspapers, magazines, websites and businesses nationwide. Her commercial work includes Copywriting and PR solutions as well as branding and reputation management for a diverse array of clients such as physicians, lawyers, photographers, graphic designers, filmmakers, fashion designers and media personalities.
