Update: Klout has announced the website will be shutting down.
Do you want more blog subscribers?
I wanted my readers to have the secret sauce needed to get new blog subscribers, but I didn’t know the recipe.
In my interview How to Get New Blog Followers: Experts Reveal Their Secrets, I asked blogging experts what criteria they used when deciding which blogs to follow.
Consider this comment from blogging expert Jeff Domansky. This was his response when asked what factors relating to social proof he considers when subscribing to blogs:
I sometimes check a few social signals such as the number of Twitter followers, list suggestions (40 top content marketers to follow, etc.), Buzzsumo, and occasionally Klout Score.
This post will explain the value of a Klout Score and offer a case study showing how to increase this measure of your influence in the blogging community.
What is Klout?
If it is so important that it could determine whether people follow your blog or not, you should know what it is.
Klout is the name of a score that measures your influence in the blogosphere. It is also the name of a website that helps you increase your blogging influence and reveals your score and other people’s scores.
The site also helps you curate content. Like other content curation sites, you can find new blogs to read and new bloggers in your blogging niche.
Benefits of Using Klout
- According to Quora, having a high Klout score can lead to new clients and business opportunities. Jobs for bloggers exist. Your potential employer might want to see your Klout Score which should be in your media kit, which is like a resume for bloggers.
- According to Mashable, “Some have even gotten job offers, free products and gift certificates from companies that want to keep the Klout influencers on their radar. Obtaining a high Klout score is becoming more of something to strive for, with some even highlighting their number on resumes.”
- Klout emails you tips that will result in increasing your Klout score. For this reason, increasing your score is not difficult.
- When you find articles that your social media followers will like, Klout schedules your shares for optimal times. Therefore, the site helps you increase your visibility on Twitter and other social media sites. Choose your social media stream. Klout will reshare your articles and other people’s articles. Just schedule your retweets and other social shares in your Klout queue.
- The score also functions as a metric you could use to compare yourself to other bloggers in the blogosphere and in your niche. You can also check on your score periodically to see if your blogging influence is increasing.
- When Klout labels you an influencer in various subjects, your self-esteem will get a boost. Klout may feel you are an expert in that area even if you don’t know you are.
- Klout’s analytics enable you to track when your Klout Score rises, falls, or plateaus.
- By using the site, you have great potential for website traffic. Klout recommends to you which experts to follow in your areas of interest. If they follow back and retweet you, your exposure increases which could increase your blog traffic.
- Many bloggers spend a great deal of time and energy looking for influencers and other like-minded bloggers in their blogging niche. They are easy to find at Klout.
- Since blogging influencers post their articles at Klout, the best articles on the internet are found there. Using Sniply, you can get traffic using influencers’ articles. You will find their articles at Klout.
Testimonials
- According to Consumer Technology, most social media experts and digital marketers agree that your Klout score matters.
- Sarah Titus recommends increasing your Klout score in her book, How to Turn Your Blog Into a Six-Figure Money Making Machine, about how to make money blogging and increase your follower count.
- ViralContentBuzz thinks using Klout is a good idea. ViralContentBuzz encourages people to retweet others with the words, “increase your Klout score.”
How to Increase Your Klout Score
According to Klout.com, “The best way to increase your score is to create content that people want to share and respond to. For the most accurate score, be sure to connect all of your social networks. The more that others engage with your content such as through retweet, mention, like, comment, etc, the higher your score will be.”
Case Study
Using myself as the case study, I attempted to see if I could raise my Klout Score and how long it would take me.
I signed in, and the site told me I was an expert.
I made an account at Klout. Upon arrival, I had a Klout Score of 45.
I retweeted and followed many people.
I checked the next day, but my Klout Score was the same.
Since Klout measures your influence across the Internet, I added more social media sites.
Initially, I only included Twitter. Then I added my Facebook page and Google+.
Guess what? My Klout Score went up to 46! I realize it’s only a little, but at least it rose.
Encouraged, I added my Flickr account.
Upon research, I discovered that if you upload your content to an RSS feed, your content gets added to Klout where it can be shared by others. This interaction will increase your Klout score.
I used DrumUp to add my blog to an RSS feed. Your RSS feed is your blog name/feed. This is my RSS feed:Â https://www.mostlyblogging.com/feed/.
DrumUp will ask if you want all your posts to be sent to an RSS feed. I said no. I want Klout users to see my best posts. Two posts a week at my site are linky parties, so I chose to send my posts manually.
As you can see, my Klout score rose from 45 to 46. Yay!
I continued to connect more social media sites. I went to DrumUp and retweeted like-minded bloggers and put my own links in the DrumUp queue. (Note: I can not put my links in my Klout queue, just other writers’ links.)
Look, my Klout score rose to  48!
I connected even more of my social media accounts. Compare this screenshot with the screenshot just above. Can you see how many more social media links I connected?
This time, I set DrumUp to automatically send my posts to my RSS feed. Klout recommends articles drawn from RSS feeds. Now check out my Klout score.
In the course of a week, I raised my Klout score from 45 to 61.
So, when will I stop? Just how high a score is high enough?
I’ve read varying answers to this question. One article said the average social media user has a Klout score of 20. Another article explained the average social media follower has a Klout score of 40.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the point of this article was to explain what a Klout Score is in case you hear it in your travels around the Internet.
Is it a good return on your time invested? The site actually has value for you. It’s true.
Klout helps me find like-minded bloggers to retweet, which I would want to do anyway. Successful bloggers let influencers in their blogging niche become aware of them. The best in blogging can be found at Klout. Since Topsy, which used to be an influencer site, is defunct, I am able to go to Klout to find influencers to retweet. In this way, influencers in my niche, like-minded bloggers, learn about me.
DrumUp functions in the same way. By emailing me my “Daily Digest of Fresh Content Suggestions” based on my interests, DrumUp acts as a content curation site. Like Klout, DrumUp has a queue that enables you to share other bloggers’ writing.
Successful bloggers let influencers in their blogging niche become aware of them. The best in blogging can be found at Klout. Since Topsy, which used to be an influencer site, is defunct, I am able to go to Klout to find influencers to retweet. In this way, influencers in my niche, like-minded bloggers, learn about me.
You can find bloggers in your niche, new blogs to read, and influencers in your niche at Klout. You can then go to Twitter and contact them about guest posting on their sites if you are so inclined. I have never seen communication between users go on at Klout.
If my Klout Score rises, and I end up getting opportunities or perks as a result, great– icing on the proverbial cake.
Often, busy bloggers feel these sites only present yet another blogging task they don’t have time to do. However, without even trying, I was able to raise my score to where it is today– at 62. This rise came from retweeting at Twitter, an activity I would do anyway.
Many posts at blogging tips sites explain how to get people to notice your blog. This post explained how to get people to notice you and your brand.
Readers, please share so other bloggers become familiar with Klout.com, what the Klout score means, and how to increase their influence.
Were you familiar with Klout before you read this article? Have you checked your score? Are you pleased? Do you think you might use the site?
In my post Are High Page Views the Greatest Thing in the World?, readers almost unanimously commented that looking at metrics which quantify your blogging is wrong. How do you feel knowing there is a score that measures your blogging influence?
I look forward to your views in the comment section.
Klout and DrumUp are free tools.
Click here to get your own downloadable PDF of more free blogging tools.
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