Klout is an online tool for measuring social influence. It measures how many people you reach through your online, social media driven communications. In the last week, Klout made a few changes to it’s free service and it has made a lot of people unhappy because their Klout scores have dropped.
Here are some thoughts on why I don’t think it matters.
Better things to measure when it comes to social media activity:
- The number of conversation that you had with potential clients as a result of social media activity.
- The number of face-to-face meetings that resulted from social media activity.
- The number of proposals that resulted as a result of social media activity.
- The number of new clients won as result on social media activity.
- The increase in revenue as a result of social media activity.
- The number of people who referred business to you as a result of social media activity.
- The number of opportunities uncovered as a result of social media activity.
Maybe I am wrong. Maybe Klout is the new measure of influence and we need to pay more attention to what it says. However, a better approach might be to continue to add value to your online activity by sharing relevant information with your target market. It might be better to help other people with their business objectives by sharing their content. It might be better to spend time cultivating relationships and having real conversations. Or you can just watch your Klout score everyday and see what happens.
Please share your thoughts on Klout, how you are using it and how much it matters.