If you’ve ever wondered how to track your influence in social media, the answer is not solely based on followers.
In a recent article from the San Diego Union Tribune, Julie Wright discusses the importance of knowing who your social media influencers are and how to track them. Understanding that online influence can help attract more followers to your site and build an online reputation.
Wright states that “in social media, influence is currency.” You can use that currency to convince followers to spread your brand’s messages, but in order to acquire that currency and increase it, you must be willing to spend it first. What does this mean? Increasing online influence requires time spent tweeting, re-tweeting, and sharing others’ content in addition to your own. In general, the more active you are on social media, the larger following your brand can acquire.
It is important to remember, however, that large numbers of followers do not necessarily mean a large influence. A better indicator of influence is the amount of interaction between your online presence and your followers.
Tracking that interaction can be difficult without the right tools. Fortunately, there is a free service called “Klout” that is designed specifically for that purpose. Klout measures your influence on a scale of 1 to 100, and it also measures the true reach of an online presence based on the number of active followers. Additionally, Klout rates the likelihood that an account will generate re-tweets and start further conversations. All of this information can help you tweak your social media strategy and implementation.
