The Graduate Baruchian

 Do you have a twitter account? Do you have a facebook account?

Chances are, you’ve probably answered yes to both.

But the real question is, do you know your klout score?

Klout is the standard for influence which uses your facebook and twitter accounts to measure the influence you have in the realm of social media, ranging from 1-100. I would say this is more useful in regards to companies to increase their reach and amplification, but is also very applicable and valuable to individuals that . This reminds me of the similar formula we learned in MKT 9703: reach x frequency = Gross Rating Points, where reach is the number of people your message reaches, and frequency is the number of times you send your message. Similar concept.

Isn’t it a bit ironic how klout’s own klout score is only 73? I expected it to be well in the mid to high 90s. Charlie Sheen had over 2 million followers in his first 48 hours of starting his twitter account just two weeks ago, and his klout is a winning 93. Must be that tiger blood…

Klout displays a score summary which is a value computed by a combination of factors including your true reach, amplification, and network. Actually, there are 35 total variables that are considered, but these 35 variables are divided into these 3 main categories for simplification.

I got this information from klout.com for further clarification:

True Reach is the size of your engaged audience and is based on the followers and friends who actively listen and react to your messages.

Amplification Score is the likelihood that your messages will generate actions (retweets, @messages, likes and comments) and is on a scale of 1 to 100.

Network Score indicates how influential your engaged audience is, also on a scale of 1 to 100. The Klout score is highly correlated to clicks, comments and retweets.

Further, klout even provides for you a list of “achievements”, including list memberships, total retweets, unique retweeters, unique messages retweeted, and message retweeted. Then, your klout score is translated into a specific klout classification, and placed onto an “Influence Matrix”, or more similarly, a perceptual map that looks like this:

http://www.klout.com

Klout wouldn’t let me copy their influence matrix with information on it, but we get the idea from here as it shows the different categories used to plot our influence.

A Celebrity on klout is the highest ranking you can achieve in influence. Klout (much like Charlie Sheen) is a Celebrity: “You can’t get any more influential than this. People hang on your every word, and share your content like no other. You’re probably famous in real life and your fans simply can’t get enough.”

These rankings are specifically based on activities such as “how often you tweet, who you follow, who follows you, and how your audience interacts with your messages” (klout.com).

I’ve divided up the perceptual map above into 4 quadrants with sub-categories of how influential you are, according to klout:

Quadrant 1: (top left)

• Curator
• Broadcaster
• Syndicator
• Feeder

Quadrant 2: (top right)

• Taste Maker
• Celebrity
• Thought Leader
• Pundit

Quadrant 3: (bottom right)

• Socializer
• Networker
• Activist
• Specialist

Quadrant 4: (bottom left)

• Dabbler
• Conversationalist
• Observer
• Explorer

Now, by no means is this measuring your positive influence—just sheer influence by size, based on numbers. Klout is actually very useful in targeting specific audiences—it singles out who you influence, and who you are influenced by.

Last section klout computes is a Content Analysis, which provides a list of most influential topics, also called a Topic Summary. Basically it’s a category-based list of terms/phrases you most commonly tweet about, and which your followers most often engage with as well.

If you sign up (it’s free!), klout gives you score analysis which provides raw numbers and dates indicating when your klout has risen or fallen so you can track your improvements and make changes, regarding the main factors mentioned above: True Reach, Network, Amplification, and total overall klout score.

Don’t get discouraged: after Day 5 or so of starting my new twitter account, I’m already up to a 13.

So get your klout together, and get your Facebook and Twitter game on! Market Yourself.