KLOUT with Guest Eva Maria Hamilton

 Happy Birthday Seekerville! 

I love celebrating Seekerville’s birthday for the whole month October, so please join me in savoring a big piece of cake while you read this post!

As many of you already know, I love this blog, so when Tina invited me to do another guest post, I was honored. Thanks Tina! And thanks to everyone else who makes this blog so great!

Now a guest post on Seekerville cannot be taken lightly. We all come here for something - inspiration, learning, camaraderie… So what could I write about that hasn’t already been touched upon?

Welcome to my introductory post about Klout!

 

And yes, I know I spelled it wrong, but this is about Klout.com - a web service that measures the amount of influence you have in your social networks - facebook, twitter, google+, linkedin, foursquare, youtube, etc. (Plus more to be added in the future, like bit.ly, BranchOut, and so on.)

Some people are for it, others are against it. But I’ll spare you the arguments, because whether you agree with it or not, you’re probably already on it!

That’s right. Anyone with a twitter account, who hasn’t actively opted out, is on it. Even if you’ve never signed up, your name is there, along with your score, for those of us who are on it to see.

So, people know your score, even if you don’t.
Just think about who might be viewing you – readers, editors, agents, fellow writers…

I’m guessing that fact may have sent some people to Klout.com to see what their score actually is, so we’ll just wait for them to come back before we go on.

Ah, you’re back… good!

Now that you’ve been to Klout, and saw your score, let me explain a couple of things. The average person has a Klout score of 40, and apparently, the higher up your number goes, the harder it is to keep climbing.

Back in March of this year, with the old formula, there was only one person who scored 100 – want to guess who it was?

Drum roll please…

And please make it loud enough to be heard over the legions of screaming young female fans…


Justin Bieber

However, now that the new formula has been put into place, Justin Bieber has a score of 92, and Barack Obama is the new high scorer at 99.

Curious to see what other celebrity scores are?

Based on the new formula, here are a few:
(However, please keep in mind that these scores may have changed by the time this is posted, since Klout is ever evolving)

•    Ryan Seacrest = 89
•    Anderson Cooper = 87
•    Oprah Winfrey = 91
•    Taylor Swift = 90

But let’s also look at some famous authors:
•    Nora Roberts = 60
•    Francine Rivers = 52
•    JK Rowling = 21

And of course we must check out some of the Seekers:
•    Missy Tippens = 60
•    Myra Johnson = 54
•    Mary Connealy = 48
•    Julie Lessman = 43
•    Ruth Logan Herne = 38
•    Pam Hillman = 36
•    Cara Lynn James = 30

As you’ll see with your Klout score, everyone’s score fluctuates depending on what you’re doing online from day to day. But don’t panic if you take a week off from social media, there is a 90-day window (where recent activity is weighed more than older activity), so your score should never fluctuate too much.

But what is the score based on? According to Klout, your score
“…Incorporates more than 400 signals from seven different networks (if you opt to include them all). We (Klout) process this data on a daily basis to generate updates to your Klout Score.”

For instance, here are some signals that they use from Facebook:

•    “Mentions: A mention of your name in a post indicates an effort to engage with you directly.

•    Likes: The simplest action that shows engagement with the content you create.

•    Comments: As a reaction to content you share, comments also reflect direct engagement by your network.

•    Subscribers: Subscriber count is a more persistent measure of influence that grows over time.

•    Wall Posts: Posts to your wall indicate both influence and engagement.

•    Friends: Friend count measures the reach of your network but is less important than how your network engages with your content.”

And here are some signals Klout uses for Twitter:

•    “Retweets: Retweets increase your influence by exposing your content to extended follower networks.

•    Mentions: People seeking your attention by mentioning you is a strong signal of influence. We also take into account the differences in types of mentions, including ‘via’ and ‘cc.’

•    List Memberships: Being included on lists curated by other users demonstrates your areas of influence.

•    Followers: Follower count is one factor in your Score, but we heavily favor engagement over size of audience.

•    Replies: Replies show that you are consistently engaging your network with quality content.”

There are so many other things I could discuss about Klout, like Perks (free gifts!), Achievements, and so on, but I did state that this was only an introduction…
However, I’ll leave you with a few more tidbits:
•    Klout looks at how much content you are creating and compares it to how much you engage people
•    They insist that it’s better to have a small, engaged network than a large, unengaged one
•    No one is penalized for engaging with people who have lower Klout scores then them
•    And let’s not forget the new “Your Moments” page. Here you are able to see which of your posts generated the most interaction with your community. Hence, by analyzing this, you can see what works best, so you can duplicate it in the future

Now, let’s go out there and create some great content that engages our communities!

Eva Maria Hamilton is the author of Highland Hearts, a Love Inspired Historical novel published by Harlequin.

Scotland 1748
The Battle of Culloden is over, but one Highlander’s fight has just begun…
Logan McAllister survived years of indentured seritude in the Americas to reach this moment. Now he’s returned to Scotland, ready to redeem the secret promise from Sheena Montgomery’s father – that his years as an indentured servant would earn him Sheena’s hand in marriage. But when he arrives home, he learns that Sheena’s father has died, his contract has been lost… and Sheena is engaged to another man.

 
If anyone is interested in reading the first scene from Highland Hearts, please follow this link: http://amzn.to/HighlandHearts

And if you would like to watch the book trailer, please click on this link: http://evamariahamilton.com/

To connect with Eva Maria Hamilton online, please visit her:
website: www.evamariahamilton.com
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorEvaMariaHamilton
twitter: @HamiltonEvaM


To be entered for a chance to win a copy of Eva Maria Hamilton’s novel, Highland Hearts, tell us your Klout score. And enjoy celebrating Seekerville’s Birthday!

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