You don't like Klout, you don't understand Klout, or you have been living under a rock.

Get over it. It's time to put on our big girl panties and realize that what Klout scores you on will exist whether it's there to do the math for you or not. So lets start with the basics.

The score (or in this case mine). I will admit, it needs improving. Before Klout changed (yes, it used to score you differently!) my score was 12 points higher! I never really got over it.

You are scored on a Scale from 1-100 but you need to get that school grading system out of your mind because the only people who get A's are the people like Justin Bieber.

Even Amanda Hocking, who we all secretly want to be when we grow up, wouldn't get a passing grade if we use that old way of thinking.

And you can't even think of 50 as being the average, or the median. The average Klout score is actually 20, so I guess I'm not so run of the mill after all.

The good news is, the lower your Klout score, the easier it is to improve it. So lets talk deets. Where does this number come from? Remember in my last post Social Media: A Seven Days a Week Kind of Job I described what Klout does as this; "It measures how much of a difference you make in your social media bubble." And here is how. Klout scores you in the following categories.

True Reach

What is it, and why is it important? Well it is a more accurate representation of the people you influence. I say accurate, because if you see my True Reach is only 1k. When in fact, I have more than 3k Twitter Followers, and Facebook people, blog followers etc. The sad truth is, not everyone that follows us gives a damn about us. Your job is to change that, by providing awesome content. The more people you interact with, the higher this number is likely to be.

Amplification

Like speakers. Like enormous speakers the size of the internets. Sure, you could shout your message from the top of the tallest mountain you could find. BUT NO ONE WOULD HEAR YOU. Amplification is all about spreading your content, and about how much people are influenced by it.

Network Impact:

The one time it's alright for all your friends to be cooler than you are. Network Impact is based on how important the people you interact with are. Great news, their coolest rubs off.


Did you know, I dig when people talk about me behind my back? Why? Because Klout also keeps track of how many mentions you get, how many retweets, how many followers, comments, etc. Witness:

So see, it was all there whether you were looking at the big picture or not. The question is, how can you use this information? Now I will admit, sometimes it makes me a little crazy. I see church moms, and Scentsy sales reps with higher Klout scores than me--because they gossip with their lady friends all day every day while the kids are at school. Maybe one day we will get a conversational impact score ;)

I also recently disconnected my Google+ account from Klout--because as much as Google would like me to be, I just am not that into it. It did increase my score, though only a little.

Now, I have told you all of this because I actually have spent a few months formulating a plan to increase my Klout score. I just don't have time to implement it until the fall because hey, I have to have a baby before then. The higher your Klout score is, the harder it is to increase but you should still be able to bring it up by improving your content. Timing is also important too. When you attempt to spread the content. I love sharing random facts and blog post a 3am as much as the next insomniac writer--but it's better if you share when there are more people on. I'll get into that later.