Klout.com is a measurement of your overall online influence. This site calculates and assigns you a score (from 1 to 100) based on variables from the various social media channels, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Foursquare. Klout also recently added Tumblr, Last.fm, Flickr and Blogger to its algorithm. It’s easy to set up a Klout profile; you just log in with Twitter or Facebook and start connecting your other network accounts.
According to Klout, the higher your score, the greater your sphere of influence and interactivity. Klout measures your True Reach, Network Score and Amplification Probability.
Your True Reach score calculates the number of people you influence. They filter out spam accounts and instead focus on the people who are acting on your content. When you post a message on any one of the networks they measure, these people tend to respond or share it.
Your Amplification score shows how much you influence people. When you post a message, how many people respond to it or spread it out to their networks? If people often act upon your content (such as retweet, share, like, etc.), then you have a high Amplification score.
Your Network indicates the influence of the people in your True Reach. How often do top Influencers (i.e., other people with a high Klout score) share and respond to your content? These top Influencers increase your Network score when they do.
Klout also show you who are your top Influencers and well as who you tend to influence. They even include a “Klout Style”, with names such as Networker, Thought Leader, Broadcaster, Pundit and Specialist.
In a nutshell, your Klout Score represents the measure of success that you achieve when it comes to engaging your audience as well as how much of an impact your messages have on other people.
But does Klout matter for your small business? My answer is that it depends.
If you are a sole proprietor and your name is your brand, then Klout can be very helpful in showing you how active and influential you are in your networks. If you increase or decrease your activity on any of the networks, especially Twitter, you will see a corresponding rise and fall in your Klout score over time. Your Klout score and the data they provide can be a useful reminder about the importance of engaging your networks and staying consistent in your online activities.
If you have a business with partners and/or employees, then things get a little more complicated. There is no way to pull together the accounts of several people who are using social networks to promote one brand. Another drawback I see with Klout at this point is that it does not yet incorporate Facebook Pages (such as your Facebook Business page). If you have an active Page with many “likers” and comments, that doesn’t get factored into your Klout score. Klout also seems to be heavily weighted on Twitter, so if Twitter isn’t your strong suit, you may have a lower score.
Overall, Klout can help you see how you stack up against other people and businesses in the areas of reach and influence. If you have large networks and share out content that people react to, and if you actually engage with your friends and followers, then your Klout score will reflect that. I find that it serves as a good “nudge’ for people to continue being social and staying consistent in their online activities. Klout is still a work in progress (it’s in beta), but it’s probably the best free measurement of online influence that we have right now.
