What You NEED to Know!
If you participate in social media marketing for your business, it’s important to keep on top of the latest trends. The online world moves so quickly, a start-up today can turn into a game changer by tomorrow. One of the most controversial new sites to come along in quite a while is Klout.com. Will it be a game changer? What is a klout score? Read on…
A recent article in Wired magazine reported on a man with 15 years’ experience in online marketing, who didn’t get a job because his Klout score was only 34! Have I lost you? Let me explain Klout, and then we can discuss whether this score does or doesn’t matter to what you are trying to do online.
You already know that search engines like Google attempt to rank the relevance of every web page to a users search request, or to a specific keyword. Klout attempts to do the same thing, but for people. So when you wonder what is a klout score–just think of it in terms of what your social ranking is.
Yes, it ranks your relevance or influence online, using your social media output, number of friends or followers, their Klout scores, retweets and more. Klout has a specific algorithm that factors all these things into a score from 1 to 100.
Obviously, scoring humans based on their social media activity and friends is bound to be controversial. However, if you have a public Twitter account, you have a Klout score already, whether you know it or not. (You can opt out on their website if you choose.)
Perhaps you won’t be surprised to hear that Justin Bieber is the only person so far to have score of 100!
And perhaps you are having serious difficulty in seeing any practical uses of your Klout score, or why you would care. (Unless you are looking for an internet marketing job!) We think Klout scores will become more and more important to those who make a living from social media, or from helping others use social media.
But companies are already using other peoples’ Klout scores to help market their brand and generate favorable buzz. Just this past February, the software company Salesforce.com developed a service allowing businesses to monitor Klout scores of fans and customers who mention them online. In other words, if someone tweets a complaint, or some praise, you can check their Klout score and know right away whether they are someone with a lot of influence whom you need to pay attention to, or not!
Hotels, (and perhaps soon airlines) are offering free upgrades to those with high Klout scores. Other companies have started offering discounts proportionate to a customer’s Klout score. Why? Because the more influence a customer has online, the more they might get the word out about how great your company treated them. And in today’s viral online world, that could make a pretty big difference to your company’s reputation, popularity and bottom line pretty quickly.
Read the full Wired article here.
Whether you decide to go Klout crazy or ignore the whole thing, the world of internet marketing is moving at a lightning fast pace. You no longer have to wonder– what is a klout score!
If you need any assistance, from paid ad campaigns to social media marketing blitzes and anything in between, give us a shout here at Findability Group. Sure, we’re pretty busy now working on raising our Klout scores, but we’d still take the time to help you out!