Perhaps you’ve heard of Klout, the website that assigns you a score based on your social media influence and awards perks to high-scoring influencers. Klout frequently makes headlines for its rewards, which most recently included VIP access to American Airlines airport lounges. Now you’re wondering whether you’ve got Klout, how much of it you have, and how to get more.
How Does Klout Work?
Klout uses an algorithm to measure your online social influence. It takes into account all the social networks you are active in and assigns you a score of 1 to 100. The more others are engaged with your content, through retweets, comments, and likes, the higher your Klout score will be. (An average Klout score is 40.) In addition to assigning a score based on your influence, Klout will also identify an area in which you are an expert. Klout features category pages, such as the Klout Books page, where Random House is featured with a 79 Klout score, as are some individual authors.
Perks
Klout is best known for its Perks program, which awards incentives to individuals with high scores. Klout works with companies to create buzz by offering previews and freebies of highly anticipated services and products to social media influencers. Rewards have ranged from invites to exclusive events, to meeting an author and receiving a book before it goes on sale, to test driving a new car for a weekend.
What Can Klout Do for You?
If you have a high Klout score, you are considered to have a wide range of social influence. This could help an author score a new book deal or even a coveted writing gig. Demonstrating expertise in a particular topic on Klout could also lead to interviews, events, and business opportunities.
Klout recently introduced a new feature called Experts, which will allow users who are most influential in certain topics to answer questions posed by other Klout users. The person asking a question receives high-quality information from a legitimate source, and the Expert will in turn be rewarded with a higher Klout score/influence and more prominent search-engine results. At this time, Experts is only open to a limited audience, but you can request to join its waiting list.
How to Get Started
Sign up for Klout and select the social networks you’d like to link to your account. This includes everything: Twitter, WordPress, Facebook, Instagram, and more. The more networks you include, the more accurate your score will be. You should also provide Klout with your influential topics, which are taken into account to determine your score. Klout is also tied in to your activity on Google.
The best ways to increase your Klout score are to create content that people want to share and to engage with others. But before you become obsessed with your score, remember that Klout is not the be-all and end-all of social media. No algorithm is entirely accurate and Klout is just one component of a well-rounded social media profile.