First, let me assure you Klout is a legitimate tool, and not spam. Responding to a Klout invitation will not get you hacked.
What is Klout?
Klout is a measurement tool to gage your success in social media social. It isn’t actually a network, although you do interact with others there. Rather, it enables you to track your own influence in social media and connect with others and become an influencer. It does not track stats for your blog or website.
I pay attention to my Klout Score because it helps me stay consistent with my social networking. Beyond that, it gives others an unbiased snapshot of my reach or influence within the world of social media. This is important if you’re trying to show a potential publisher you have a platform.
You may wonder how Klout does this. Klout correlates your social media presence by looking at Twitter—how often you tweet, how many retweets, as well as how many mentions you have. It looks at Facebook—your likes, your posts, how often you comment and how often other comment on your posts. It also looks at Google Plus, search engines and your websites and blogs. And it’s constantly updating its resources and adding new data. So be sure to give it access to your accounts so it can give an accurate snapshot.
If I’ve piqued your interest and you’d like to sign up, here are some of the basics and an explanation of the terminology.
It’s important to not get obsessed with the actual number of your Klout score. The average is around 30. Depending on what your goal is, your number may be smaller or larger. I’m fairly satisfied with my number, it shows I have a good influence and am very active in social media. Only high-level marketers and such tend to have scores in the 80s and 90s. You mainly want to look for consistency, with slow growth.
Sign Up for Klout
To sign up go to www.klout.com. Don’t be afraid to sign in through Twitter or Facebook, you’ll need to give your permission for Klout to access both networks to accurately track your score. If you don’t want to do this, I’d skip Klout. Without access to your Facebook and Twitter accounts it doesn’t give you accurate information.
Once you sign up, you’ll be asked to choose categories that interest you and then name influencers within those categories. Think of this as a baseline for Klout to begin getting to know you. Be honest, but don’t stress out about this section. It’s just a starting point.
During the sign up process and afterward, Klout will frequently give you the opportunity to Tweet or Update your Facebook profile with things you’ve done on Klout. This is totally up to you. You won’t be penalized for not sharing, it’s just a way to let people know you’re part of this network and for Klout to get their name out. Sometimes I allow the info to go out and sometimes I don’t.
Basic Klout Terms
Once you’re a member of Klout, you’ll have the opportunity to give a +K or receive a +K. This is similar to a mention on Twitter. If someone gives you a +K, they are saying you have been an influential source for a specific topic. (I’ve gotten several +K’s for blogging.)
It’s considered good etiquette to thank someone publicly, either on Twitter or Facebook. It’s also common practice to return the compliment by giving them a +K as well. I was unaware of this and didn’t do it the first couple of times and have been trying to correct my inadvertent faux pas.