26 Aug
2011
Klout is a social media metric and analytics website that tracks a person’s social influence on the internet. So what does that mean and “why is it important for anyone to be influential on the internet”?
It is very important if you are a business selling a product or service or an individual trying to promote your expertise in a particular field. A good example would be if you find yourself recently unemployed and you are marketing yourself in pursuit of a job. That is a pretty relevant topic in today’s economy, the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics tracks the unemployment rate at 9.1% as of July 2011 and it gets worse depending on your geographic location.
This is the information age and if you are trying to get ahead in today’s market you must be visible on the internet. One of my favorite authors and a widely accepted guru on the topic of Social Media is Gary Vaynerchuk. In Chapter X of his book Crush IT, Gary writes “Any topic can be turned into a profitable, sustainable social-media-driven business”.
No one should consider starting a business or expect to increase sales for an existing business without advertising. There is an age old maxim; spending more on marketing results in more sales. Of course it has to be the right marketing to the right audience at the right time. Historically you would either advertise in the yellow pages, your local newspaper or maybe even a radio or television spot. The bigger your audience the bigger your budget for marketing and if all goes well the higher you’re sales for a product or service. Today you can spend almost no money and get similar results to what you would have achieved in the 1980’s using traditional advertising and media. What is not free is the time needed to craft a message, promote the message and turn that message into an actual business opportunity.
I realized in the fall of 2008 that social media was not a fad and it was going to be as important to business as the personal computer or cellular phone. I embarked on a quest to completely reinvent the way my company managed its marketing. I embraced the idea that every employee should have a LinkedIN® account. This was big because previously I was scared to death that our competitors would use LinkedIN to steal our employees. What I had to affirm is that our company was a great place to work. We provided a strong company culture, competitive compensation and quality benefits so why would an employee want to leave. I was willing to take the chance and furthermore I felt it was a good way to test what kind of leader and manager I was.
None of the employees left to take jobs at competitors. One year later our company was receiving Google® search results on the first page using keyword searches relevant to our market. First page results are the holy grail of marketing and advertising. Employees were engaged in blogging, Twitter® and Facebook® and I began speaking at public seminars on the subject. The results spoke for themselves, more visibility led to more leads which in turn led to more sales. The company also received very positive feedback from vendors which created an increase in marketing funds.
When Klout was first introduced many in the social media community scoffed at the idea that meaningful results could be produced based on tweets and your follower count. But Klout is gaining momentum, adding more algorithms to their scoring engine and they are getting noticed by the mainstream media. Based on a recent article in the New York Times - Got Twitter? You’ve Been Scored your score could influence an employer’s decision to hire you or a retailer’s decision to give you a special price. Could it help you get a reservation at the best restaurant in town? I don’t think we are there yet, but I can tell you that online reach and influence can be an advantage. I was recently invited to submit a guest post on this website: Fierce Content Management.
I am not a professional writer but I enjoy sharing my knowledge with others. Because of my experience building a social media strategy I knew that I could promote the article using social media. The results are in and they are good, very good. I received an email from Ron Miller, letting me know that my post was doing well in terms of views and comments. One thing I always do is make sure to promote a post using twitter and to engage with people who comment or retweet. Ron noticed this and sent me another email as recognition of my efforts; he invited me to submit another post. It was not easy to get my first post approved. I was rejected the first time, but I took Ron’s advice and wrote a new post, which was approved and published.
I am confident that my efforts are paying dividends and that people around the world are listening to what I have to say. That is influence and what it means to a potential employer, competitor or retailer is that I am engaged. I have the ability to make a difference. If you can’t make a difference than what makes you stand out from the crowd? Based on my experience I believe that Klout is a real metric and getting better every day. It isn’t easy to use social media to gain influence and it is not a get rich quick scheme. It takes hard work and consistency in order to produce results.
Comments appreciated and welcomed, let me know what you think.
