Should You Use Klout to Measure Your Social Media Influence?

Web writers, companies, and anyone using social media to engage their audience can benefit from extra information on their actions. How influential are you to your following on social networks like facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn? You may be able to get a small idea by the way people respond to you and how many followers you have. But there is much more to knowing just how engaged your audience truly is. That's where Klout.com can come in handy. I use many different methods to measure my performance and Klout is one of them. While I don't suggest using Klout as your sole determining factor, it can be useful.

Klout blends your social profiles to measure your influence. If you're familiar with Klout, the newest beta version has many more features as compared to prior releases. If you haven't checked it out yet, it's a must for anyone with a web presence in social media. Klout compares data such as retweets, conversation engagement, likes, followers, and more to determine your influence style. Best of all, Klout is free.

How many people like your activities? On facebook, you can always check your individual likes. But who has time to run through every single post and add all of that up? Instead, I recommend using Klout to measure your social media influence. Compare your likes to businesses and individuals with the same goals as you. How do you stack up? I'm not sure how accurate the numbers are. But I was surprised to find out that I have more likes, retweets, and followers than a business I admire.

Are people spreading the word about you? You might be able to tell when people retweet and share some of your links and status updates. But do you really know how loyal your audience is? Is what you have to say valuable to people or are you spending too much time updating your status for it to just disappear into cyberspace? Your goal is for people to have the desire to mention you and share what you have to say. Klout helps me determine whether people are truly interested. Whenever certain numbers go down, I compare that to other research I am doing. If it lines up, I know that I need to switch gears to better serve my audience.

Are you reaching a large audience? Klout offers data on individual performance, as well as comparison to other social media accounts. Check your individual numbers to see how far your reach goes. Klout has a measurement called True Reach that counts more than just the people who follow you but beyond into the networks of those people. Is your reach staying within your small circle or does it spread far and wide? Klout can give you an idea where you stand.

How engaged are your followers? A very important part of social media is appealing to your audience. Whenever I check my Klout score, I am always glad to see that my audience is highly engaged. If your audience engagement score is low, you can increase it by getting to know who follows you and why. Provide them with more of what they want and you'll quickly see that engagement level rise. I did notice that sometimes the areas Klout thinks I am influencing my audience in are not my specialties. However, when I look at my history, the topics are always related to something I've said. I do like the fact that I can remove topics that slip in there by accident based on something I've retweeted or shared.

What can be learned from using Klout? While no one system should be used to determine your entire influence, I do feel Klout is beneficial as one of the several methods I use to figure out my audience engagement. When I compare some of the things Klout's data says, it does line up with figures I get elsewhere for the most part. However, some things are a bit off, such as the fact that Klout says my social media network influence score is higher than Yahoo!'s. I'm doubting that particular calculation. Yahoo! did excel over me in every other area and I do interact very well with many of my followers. Also, it is true that I interact with some influential people. But I still don't believe my network influence score should be higher than theirs. Of course, it would be great if that's accurate. This is why no matter what programs you use, it's important to use other measurement data as well. Klout's data does line up with other data as far as the fact that a good percentage of my followers are engaged. A large following is good, but only if they are interested in what you are saying. Otherwise, it's just numbers.

Should you use Klout to determine your engagement? I do recommend using Klout as one tool in a set of social media tools and data that help you come up with a more rounded analysis. Any time you want a detailed assessment, it's best to use more than one program, as algorithms can vary. Plus, it's fun to play with.

Lyn on Klout:LynLomasi

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