A common question from those skeptical about content marketing, which Grammar Chic, Inc. has answered many times, is: How can you tell if your content marketing efforts are effective? Some people claim that demonstrating content marketing ROI is hard, but it may be more accurate to say that there are just a lot of analytics available: social media reach, website traffic, and less obvious factors like consumer trust and brand loyalty.
You might be surprised to learn that there is a simple, numeric way to gauge your content marketing effectiveness. It’s called your Klout score. Klout is a company that uses special algorithms to measure the influence a brand or individual has based on their online presence, including their Twitter feed, LinkedIn posts, and more. The process is straightforward: Klout gives Joe Blow a score between 1 and 100. A score of 100 means he is one of the most influential people on social media; a score of 1 indicates that his social media posts and updates are not making an impact, and unfortunately, Joe is just wasting his time.
What Determines Your Klout Score?
We might all like to believe that Klout scores are as informative and as objective as the Klout folks say they are, but the true picture is just a little muddier. What exactly determines your Klout score? How is influence evaluated and quantified? The specifics of the Klout algorithms are mysterious, leading some to suggest that the whole thing is fairly arbitrary. Others are sure that Klout scores really do carry weight.
It’s probably fair to say that, yes, Klout scores do matter, at least insofar as Klout is a reputable and widely known social media institution. (Currently, more than 400 million social brands have Klout scores.) Even if the algorithms are nonsense and the scores themselves are arbitrary, Klout itself is a respected brand, so having a high score carries a certain level of prestige.
Engaging Your Users—With and Without Klout
One thing we’ll say in favor of Klout is that the company does take a smart, healthy view of social media marketing and content creation. Experts agree that the best way to raise a Klout score is to focus on engagement—not mere promotion, but helpful and informative content that prompts users to actually interact and share. If chasing a higher Klout score causes your company to step up its content marketing game and focus more heavily on user engagement, that’s not such a bad thing.