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As a marketing professional with a Twitter handle, I practically live for getting new followers and being retweeted by "big wigs." This is one of many reasons why I quickly began exploring Klout when I heard about what it does.
Klout measures your "Standard for Influence." If you ask Wikipedia, Klout "provides social media analytics that measures a user's influence across their social network[s]. The analysis is done on data collected from sites such as Twitter and Facebook and measures the size of a person's network, the content created, and how other people interact with that content." In short, it measures how much people listen to you and care about what you're saying.
Well -- this is perfect! Every marketer wants to know if they're reaching their audience; how much...well...clout that they have in their "target market" which is, in this instance, their group of peers and friends that they've already connected with.
At first I couldn't quite grasp the concept. I started with a mere 17 on a 1-100 scale. So what did I have to do to get my Klout score up? As it turns out the solution was easy for me. All I had to do was add my Facebook account to my Twitter one. Immediately, my Klout score jumped to 37.
I began checking my score daily. Every time it would jump, I would too – quite literally. My score grew and grew to @alyankovich and celebrity heights, upwards into the 60's. I felt empowered...like my thoughts actually mattered.
I eventually began posting things just to get a retweet. I started following celebrities in the marketing field and in pop culture and hoping to start conversations with them. (Rather unrealistic, looking back.) I continued on in this vein for a while. Of course, this eventually began hurting my post quality. While on this epic quest for more Klout, I gained some professional marketing followers (which was nice) but then remembered the little friends, the ones I had before I discovered Klout. I began talking to them again about anything and everything while still searching for the ever higher Klout score. As my Twitter stream gained personality, I started to lose my business professional followers. It was a catch-22 really. I continued on in this vein until my Klout score began to drop. Rapidly.
So today I reached the ultimate decision. Do I sacrifice the quality of my Twitter posts in order to have the high Klout score or do I post what I want, when I want, and ignore the score altogether.
There's something to be said about a tool that measures your marketing...but there's also something to be said about marketing just for the measurement.
After sitting down and blogging out my thoughts on the matter, I can't help but think that my ultimate decision has been made. In the future, I will not sacrifice my personality for my job. I can still do a mixture of both, but now I won't be afraid to post about my geekier side (Ahhh! #Pottermore) at the risk of losing my professional followers (Hey @mikedmerrill, how's it going?)
All that said, my Klout score is holding at a healthy 56 right now. Have you discovered Klout yet? What's your current Klout score? Do you keep your accounts strictly personal, professional or do you mix? And all in all, what do you think your Klout number adds to your Twitter and Facebook posts?
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