Klout. When I first saw that term, I thought someone must have been careless with editing.
Klout. Klout. Klout score. I ended up seeing and hearing the term everywhere—always with a K, never a C, that I thought something must be up. And what a something it is.
In today’s world, Klout has become such an obsession in many professionals, including human resource personnel, communications specialists, netizens, and even marketing managers. I found out that Klout is the “Standard for Influence,” as the tagline next to the K n a field of bright orange proclaims.
Klout is an application that analyzes the online influence of any individual, quantified as the Klout score. Quite simply, this is the clout of any one entity in social networks. In its website, Klout explains that it uses a set of indicators to measure how much influence a user has over his or her online network. The Klout score, which can range from 1 to 100, is the amalgamation of many indicators, including an individual’s number of contacts and the popularity of his content. The higher the Klout score, the wider and stronger a user’s influence has.
What really caught my eye is that Klout also measures how effective an individual is in making things happen and inspiring real action through a simple online activity. Intrigued, I tried signing up my personal social media accounts and found out that I have an initial Klout score of 40—respectable, but I have still a long way to go, if I want to be at a level where all it takes to increase my sales 100% is to send out a tweet.
I’m now with a Klout score of 53 and I’m working on improving that still. In the midst of this, I realized that this new piece of information is an awesome tool that I can use for my business as well.
Here are my top five ways of leveraging Klout score for my business:
1. I can use my Klout score to estimate how much sway I hold over my target customers.
2. My efforts to improve my Klout score is exactly the same thing I will do to widen my market, so that’s hitting two birds with one virtual stone. A better Klout score for me also usually means even better performance for my company.
3. My staff and especially my marketing team are now aware of their respective Klout scores and are also working on improving theirs and multiplying our online influence to benefit our company.
4. I now know who to prioritize when looking for my product endorsers and service ambassadors. The higher their Klout score is, the better it is for my business.
5. Klout scores are not confined to individual people. My business as an entity can have its own, too. That’s true for all my products and services as well. Add all that up together, then factor in my whole team’s Klout scores, and we just add up our online influence, and therefore, our effectiveness in marketing online.
Of course, I realize that there is much to be learned about Klout and Klout scores, but what I know so far is pretty awesome for both me and my business.