Have you hooked up your social media accounts with the new Klout.com? This site measures online influence through Twitter, Facebook and a handful of other social media accounts.
Businesses love something measurable. Klout provides a way to rank your social media influence through conversations, and interactions that you should be having with potential customers.
The site formulates a score based on the size of your network and the level of interaction that you have with friends and followers. Don’t get too caught up in the size of the network aspect of the score, however.
If you have a huge network and never do anything to engage other followers, a high score won’t necessarily equate to social media being good for your business. What good are thousands of Twitter followers if you don’t talk with a single one?
Actively engaging people will deliver better results. One hundred tight-knit, engaged followers will do more for your business than 100,000 who don’t care what you tweet.
If you integrate your accounts and immediately have a high Klout score, that is excellent news. If you integrate accounts, and discover your score is not where you would want it to be, then you need to keep treating social media the right way—by engaging friends and followers.
Do not simply use your Facebook and Twitter accounts as press release platforms. Find people having other important conversations, and talk with them. Maybe the subject is not immediately related to your business or your field, but that will show people that you are human as well.
Guy Kawasaki writes about how important it is for your network to know about your passion, in his book Enchantment. It puts a face on your business, and in this era of one-on-one micro communications, people want to do business with other people.
The truth is that social media may not produce immediate results. You may not gain a client the next day because your Twitter connection also likes NFL football. Look at his network however, and notice that it’s large. Trust that he knows what you do. Interact, and share interests, and it may just be you that they remember six months down the road when they end up needing what you happen to provide.
It is not always the quick and easy road, but cultivating these types of relationships is what social media is all about. These networks mean that businesses now have access to a 24/7 networking event. Be human first, and your Klout score will follow.
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