If you’re using Twitter or have managed social media accounts for a while, you may have heard of Klout. Klout is a tool for measuring social media influence that, when it launched, many people relied on to assess how influential someone was on Twitter. Over time, its use has declined. While it’s still utilized by some, I don’t consider it very reliable anymore, especially with what I’ve been noticing on Twitter from individuals who are deemed influential by this Klout tool.
Social Media Basics; Being REAL
One of the key pieces of advice I can give anyone using Twitter for social media marketing is to be genuine! Just be yourself. If you only automate your tweets and never interact with others on the platform, you come off as a robot, and your Twitter feed won’t be valuable to your followers. If you’re sharing news, that’s fine, but if you’re not, then why pretend to be?
It’s great to use your Twitter feed to post about the latest news in your industry or to post about interesting facts and articles relating to your line of work, but be sure you are trying to talk to your customers or even your vendors. Getting some conversations going will work a lot faster in earning you an online reputation than simply automating an RSS feed to your Twitter. It doesn’t work.
Social Media and Clout.. err.. Klout
Clout is defined by Merriam-Webster as “the power to influence or control situations”, in our case, social media. Like I said, when Klout first came out, it measured, essentially, how successful someone was on Twitter. It assigned a number, 1-100, to each account based on its own algorithm. As time has passed, Klout began measuring more than just Twitter, but as far as I’ve ever seen, most people only really pay attention to their Klout “score” on Twitter (I could be wrong).
However, as with most measurements, this “score” can be gamed.
Don’t Rely on Your Klout
Although I used to actually rely on a “good” Klout score to figure out who was a safe Twitter follow, I simply can’t do that anymore, and I’ll let you know why; people are gaming that system. (No surprise).
Here’s what I’ve been noticing for a long time now; people are simply retweeting ANYTHING where their Twitter handle is mentioned. If you say “Hi @SoandSo! How was lunch at that new place?”, @SoandSo would retweet it, or share it with their followers. By doing this, they are actually able to raise their Klout score because it is effectively using your handle again, like they are talking to you/someone and sharing something you shared first. It might seem obvious, but this is NOT engagement.
So, What Now?
If you really want to earn influence on Twitter, or any platform, here’s the first thing you need to know as a part of social media basics: you need to TALK to people and talk about your interests. If you were relying on Klout score to determine who to follow online, let me suggest you simply take a real look at the account you are looking to follow or unfollow. It takes some time, but by and large, it is the most sure-fire way to figure out if someone is really a robot, or a real person, worth talking to!