As social media becomes a bigger and bigger part of our lives there are a variety of tools that are coming up that allow for individuals and businesses to take advantage of the online social media products that they are using.

Have you ever felt that you weren’t sure how much of a difference you were making with your online presence? Sometimes it feels like you’re putting great content out into the web-o-sphere time and again and it doesn’t feel like you’re getting a lot of response. The popularity of social media means that there are many developers who are always hard at work trying to figure out ways to make your life easier in this regard.

This leads us into a program that I wanted to talk to you about today – Klout!

Klout is an online media analytics tool that allows you to “track” your social media influence and to see how many people you reach on the internet given your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts. Klout has recently been gaining a TON of popularity due to its ease of use and the way that it presents information. Klout gives you a score based on the numbers of likes, comments, retweets, mentions, followers, friends, and other statistics that it gleans from your social media accounts. This score allows you to see how you compare to other people, who is talking about you online, and how many people you reach through your various circles.

The Klout Blog has recently posted an article about how you can use the program as an individual or as a corporation. Check out their thoughts below.

How can I use Klout as an individual?

• Benchmark your own success: Note as your own (or your business’s) Klout Score goes up or down. If there’s a dramatic change that indicates something you’re doing is working (or not). You can also check out our tips for increasing your Score.
• Get Klout Perks: If you’re registered for Klout you’re eligible to receive Perks such as early access to products or exclusive events. We’ll notify you when you’ve received a Perk. Learn More.
• Recognize people who influence you: We recently introduced the ability to +K (give Klout) to people on the topics they have influence you on. This is a powerful way to thank the people in your network. Learn more.
• Find out who you influence: Your Klout profile shows you who you influence and how many people are in your True Reach. This can help you understand if your message is reaching your audience and who is really listening.

How can I use Klout as a business or application?

• Engage with influencers: Businesses can use Klout Perks to connect with top influencers in a given topic and offer them the chance to try your product. Learn more.
• Know who to connect to: Look at the Klout Scores of the people in your community to find out how to most effectively use your time. Those with high Klout Scores have the ability to impact a large audience. You can use tools like Hootsuite, Cotweet, Seesmic, or even Klout Chrome and Firefox Twitter extensions to help you do this. Look not just at Klout Score but at their topics of influence and who influences them to understand what they care about.
• Use Klout data: If you’re an application looking to integrate Klout data we have an API you can use. Learn more.

You may also like: