It came to a head last week when a woman asked to interview me about how to raise your score. I asked her what she would do with the interview. She intended making an “information product” and said that she would make me a special affiliate link if I wished. Remarkable! She said the product would be highly popular.

Well charging money for this kind of information is not really something I do so I told her to read my blog and if she wanted to create something from what I write on here then all power to her.

Klout and Kred are of course games and this is the basis of their popularity. We love games. To take the scores seriously and use them when filtering job candidates and such like, as is reportedly happening, seems ridiculous to me.

Yet as with many things in life simply wishing the away is never enough.

So if it is in fact important to you here are some tips on how to “play”. Here are some things you may want to consider about Klout.

1. Who you talk to online definetely matters. (This is even more the case for Kred but I will deal with that below). If you want a higher score then hang out with people with higher scores. Likes, +1s, comments and retweets and mentions from these people will raise your score faster than those with a lesser score.

2. Notice that I did not mention “shares” on Facebook. These do not help your score although on Google+ they will. There is no reason to this.

3. Klout is heavily weighted towards Facebook. In fact almost completely. Klout tells me that I get about 90% of my score from there despite the fact that I spend far of my time on Twitter and a reasonable amount on Forsquare and Linked In and Google+. So for a better score use Facebook a lot more. Most of my friends with a high score are getting even 98 or 99% from Facebook.

4. Hang out online with people who talk about Klout and are interested in improving their score. These people are already helping each other raise their score often instinctively or intuitively and will help you and provide ba perfect example of how to tailor your activity towards the score.

5. You get no “Klout love” from Tumblr, Reddit, Pinterest and even Linked In and Foursquare seem almost impossible to dig a percentage point from. Do not waste your time and energy on these places.

6. Be regular. Klout counts your latest 90 days activity with extra weighting for your last 30. So “missing a day” or worse two will have a highly adverse effect on your score. This I really believe holds people back. When I look at who is scoring high amongst my friends it is the folk who are around each and every day that are in the high 70s and early 80s.

7. Have your conversations in public rather than by email, Facebook groups or text etc. Klout does not measure non-public online activity.

8. Klout rewards interaction with a large number of different people rather than repeated contact with a small group.

Kred is a slightly different beast and right now only measures Twitter and Facebook activity with a seeming leaning towards Twitter. Kred also has 2 scores. A “Community Influence” score and an “Outreach” score. The community score is based on what happens on your Twitter wall or your Facebook profile. Outreach comes from what you do on others’s social places.

Kred is highly transparent about how points are awarded. You get one for example when you get a new Twitter follower or Facebook friend. When some people tweet at or retweet me I get 50 points. Others will earn me 25 and the majority only 10. Same for Facebook “mentions” and posts on to your wall. It is all there for you to see on your Kred profile in real time.

Many of the 8 points I have listed above apply also to kred.

Kred also ignores (bizarrely) shares from your Facebook wall. How these differ from Retweets I have no idea. Maybe the Facebook API does not release this information.

Kred “Outreach” rewards high levels of activity. Whether people take any action from this seems irrelevant. So posting a lot of tweets and mentioning many people in each of them is valuable. As is posting a lot of links and photos on Facebook.

As a result of this almost total transparency Kred seems far more gameable than Facebook. You even get points when people give you +Kred in one of your chosen or allocated comunities. So just ask for them!
Klout +Ks on the other hand do not contribute directly to your score. I suspect that Klout rewards contact with “higher score” people on a 1-100 sliding point scale rather than 10, 25, 50 (big differences right?). As Kred does not distinguish whether say 10 or 1000 different people are talking to you a small group of you can get together to “game” Kred very easily.

So yes it is all a game but an important one to many people.

There are many reasons for keeping these “influence scores” high and for spending time in networking related activities revolving around them.

Their importance seems to grow and grow so they are not really avoidable anymore and some level of tailoring of your online activity needs to take into account the factors I have mentioned. This makes many very uncomfortable but is simply reality in 2012 so get used to it.

Twylah

Create a website full of your recent and most popular tweets. Set out in topics of your choice pictorially. Also create “Power Tweets” which get their own we page and can be comented upon.

Manage Flitter

Follow and unfollow quickly and accurately from here. The unfollowing function is useful as will filter those who have not tweeted for a month, those who have unfollowed you and those with no photo (eggs). It can be especially useful to “prune” followers while you are still establishing your Twitter account, getting past the 1850/ 200 follower ratio for example.

Pro version is a no brainer at the price as well.

Bottlenose

Creates a dashboard of the people and content relevant to you and you can tweet from here too. The semantic web and the relevance graph come to life.

Hootsuite

Need I say anything? The indispensible Twitter dashboard. Manage teams, schedule, Watch multiple streams from lists of multiple Twitter accounts and more and more and more. I strongly recommend that you do the Hootsuite Academy and laern how to drive it to the max. This tiny investment of time and money will pay itself within the first 24 hours and serve you incredibly well for the rest of your life.

Ifttt

Create recipes of sharing actions to and from Twitter and several other social places. Also has an outstanding Twitter list creating feature.

Here’s how.
Make a private list in Twitter (go here, click on Lists in left menu, then Create List button). I call mine “engagers”.
In ifttt, create a task in the Twitter channel with the trigger, “New mention of you”.
For the action, in the Twitter channel, choose “Add user to list” and type the name of the list you created in step 1.
Add a column for the Twitter list in your favorite social media dashboard.
Now, every time someone RTs you or sends you an @ message, they’ll be added to that list. Now you can focus your attention at any time on those people who have been responsive to you… at least once.

Hashtracking

This shows how many times a hashtag has been used in the last 24 hours and an archive of every tweet of that tag. Also the 10 most followed people who have used the hashtag and also a list of who has tweeted the tag the most. The pro version is super amazing and shows all sorts of things. Charlie from Hashtracking has been a long time and supporter of #Toolschat. Thanks Charlie for what you do.

Tweetchat

I lead and particitipate in Twitter chats including #Toolschat and #EavChat every week day so Tweetchat is an invaluable tool for me. It creates a stream based around any hashtag I can pause the stream, tweet to everyone in any tweet and more

Empire Avenue Twitter Advisor

This tells me who has mentioned me the most in the past week as well as who as who has retweeted the most. The info includes how many times each of around 10 people have done these actions. It also gives total Retweets and mentions for the past week plis tells me how many times I have used each of every hashtag I have used. Go to the ‘Evaluate” section inside Empire Avenue and click on the blue Twitter bird.

Buffer

Schedules tweets as well as Facebook and Linked In Updates for you. Just load them into your Buffer. Try it out now for free just head to the Buffer button on the slide bar to the left of this post. <<<<<

I looked closely at the 20 from last week and attempted to define what distinguished them from “the pack”. As with the 20 listed below a lot of it is to do with belief. Belief that social media is here to stay and worth investing time and energy in on a daily basis. Another factor is a love of people. Toss in the discipline to have a daily or at least highly regular presence and great personal branding skills and you have some great people to model yourself on.

As with the 20 last week these guys are easy to find. After giving this post a share somewhere so that all your friends get the chance to learn about these guys too just go to Empire Avenue and put their names in the search area and max out on their shares. As quickly as possible because all of their prices are only heading one way.

Christine Kramer-Sukevold

New York. Clever. Insightful. Caring. Active. Enough said?

Carly Thorne

Carly is fun and inspitational and developing exciting online products

Kelly Lieberman

Kelly has been a fantastic Twitter chat participant and now host under the handle @tribe2point0. Her #pinchat about Pinterest on Wednesdays at 9pm EST is growing fast as is the associated Facebook group

Steve Cassady

Steve is the undisputed king of Twitter chats and an extremely powerful force on Linked In. A real communicator and giver and I treasure our daily interaction. Thanks for always being around Steve.

Keri Jaehnig

Keri is an incredible supporter of people and a daily sharer of great information. I was lucky enough to be a part of #JanuaryJig and now she is at it again in May.

Mott Morianacki

A real giver and supportwer. A realtor in Florida with fast growing attraction and influence.

Gerrit Bes

Arendonk in Belgiu. yeah these guys come from all over. Gerrit has grown quickly in our community and is highly active and respected. His daily tips about new people to buy are especially appreciated and he is also a strong networker on Klout. Has his own business now and a great guy to know.

Jeroen van Zelst

Also from Holland, Rotterdam. Really nice guy and Managing Director at Talmon I Online Storytelling.

Social Media is booming in Holland and these 2 guys are among the leaders of that.

Tony Bennett

Tony had just started on Social Media when I first met him about 10 months ago. Wow! What a supportve guy! Watch him go! If Tony was a politician I would vote for him.

Steven Hughes

Steven was such a no brainer for my list last week but I thought he was already an established star. It turns out that that that is only in my eyes and a few select others and it has been suggested that I promote him here. Steven is a keen runner, big family man and a sok of knowledge about social media. Tells me he needs to blog more and I agree.

Ryan Ziegler

Ryan lives in and loves Portland, Oregon. A keen and skilful photographer with extensive knowledge of the internet and social media. Combined with an instinctively supportive nature and a brilliant sense of humour he is a great guy to hang with.

Ross Quintana

Ross is a hugely supportive Realtor from Washington State with a well balanced social presence. He really gets paying it forward.

Dillon Rhodes

Dillon is a successful designer in Philadelphia.I have know him online for about 2 years and watched his presence grow. He always has somthing intelligent to say

Deanna Cook

Deanna from California has a growing online presence and is a keen learner.

Kirsten Massebeau

Kirsten is a highly passionate advocate for dolphins and wildlife in general. She has really and truly embraced social media in the past few months and is developing a well rounded presence with daily effective activity. I believe that she believes in what she is doing each day.

Saul Fleischman

In Osaka Japan Saul has a remarkable life story as he has shed around half of his body weight. Saul loves promoting and connecting people.

Knikkolette Church

Knikkolette is a true leader organising great collaborative Facebook groups and giving full out support to their members.

Roger Hoyt

Roger has decided to become a Google+ specialist so you will learn much about it from him.

Meetu Singhal

Meetu is in Vegas and like Ryan has extensive knowledge about the internet. She is especially clever with QR Coding and I now this sounds soppy but Meetu is super super nice. There I said it.

Max Dillon Coyle

I simply love learning about social media and sharing that learning. I also love connecting people so you will find that many of my posts promote others.

What have I learned?

1. I have learned mainly that people like a personal touch occasionally. They want to know a bit behind the face behind the words. Many of my most popular posts have contained a personal touch.

2. People also like a mixture of news, views and analysis. Rotate a mix of these ingredients.

3. Supporting other bloggers means that they will support you. This has been organised for us by Triberr but just being a member of triberr is not enough. It pays to network with other bloggers in your niche on Facebook, Twitter and other places and build an increasingly strong relationship. Not many get this and plug away on their own. Bloggers are generally giving away all they know for free so are by instinct great sharers and will coach and mentor you! Just ask.

4. I have learned that I am a total and utter amateur when it comes to technical matters and acknowledge the support of the people who have helped keep this thing running. I have learned not to be afraid to ask for help.

5. Stick to a niche. Mine is social media. People will know what to expect then and also recommend you. I have a wide range of interests and expertise in such things as holistic health, the law, Japan and environmental issues. Ever seen me blogging about them on here?

6. I have learned to keep posts short, simple and positive. I have never criticised anyone or anything. Many bloggers do this and get readers seeking controversy but what kind of people are they attracting? My philosophy is that if you do not have something good to say it do not say it. I may lose many potential reader numbers because of this but the quality and supportive nature of the ones that I do get is going to be far far higher.

7. Guest bloggers are great and I intend to step up my collaboration with them as I move towards a regular two posts a day.

8. Give your posts a name. Use the edit function in WordPress to this. This way they will be retweetable from all all URL shorteners and you will also remember the names as well and will be able to add your posts to conversation threads when they are on topic.

9. Building a community on such places as Stumble Upon, Empire Avenue, Pinterest, Google+, Facebook and Twitter will also get your posts shared.

10. I have learned that my blog is the glue and the center of my online presence. Previously I just wrote Facebook notes. They have their place but do not have nearly as powerful a brand building effect.

11. Great headlines are vital. Keep them short and if possible include a question mark and the word “you”. Make them compelling. Also some word that relates to your niche will continually brand your blog.

12. Be regular. Daily is best and the closer to that the better. If you really need to be “off the radar” for a while prepare and schedule some posts and/or seek out guest bloggers to fill the void.

13. Be shareable. The sliding buttons dowwn the side here are great for example. Do not be afraid to ask to be shared in the occasional post. Keep calls to action to one per post though. If people have had great value for free they will usually be prepared to take a minute or so to do one thing in return.. Do not be scared to seek promotion and shares. If you believe that what you have written is valuable then promote it and ask for promotion. Do not keep your great thoughts and knowledge a secret.

14. Use SEO. From now on I will take some action on this front as I take things to a new level. Tagging, back and forward linking, keywords, paragraphing, analytics all this kind of stuff awaits me.

15. When people take the trouble to comment on your posts thank and engage with them and connect with them in other places. These people are gold and you have attracted them with your content and you can keep a relationship with them forever.

Hope you have had a good takeout that you can put to use from at least one of these points.

Bless you all and best of luck with your blogging.

Please take real note and be present with everyone who comes into your life. None of it is co-incidence. Appreciate them and learn from their lessons that they bring. They are your Angels you see.

Angels can come in all guises. At 1.30 am today a Korean hairdresser many years younger than me began talking to me in a queue to get into a popular club in Roppongi, Tokyo. She suggested that we try another club nearby which was not full. 3 hours later we had spent all our money on shots. Ultimately a very unsatisfying experience. No follow through. No benefit in it for either of us. Something in retrospect I should have definetely said no to. So all in all a telling lesson. I could be angry with myself for this but I have learned that the only state to revert to is intense gratitude.

She was an angel you see. An angel teaching me to say no. To transfer the lesson here to the social media world as the connecting grows and our stars rise more and more opportunities will come our way. Our ultimate success in this multiconnected and fast paced world will be determined by what we say no to. We cannot be everything to everybody.

Saying no will help brand us more. Focus on things that are in your niche and say no to anything else. It will also increase the power of your intention. Is the opportunity directly aligned with your life purpose?

If no say no.

As a concrete real life example I am regularly asked by people to give them social media strategy and/or run their accounts. There is no leverage whatsover in this for me. The only time I will do this is if they are a worthy cause that I can see making a serious daily attempt to make things happen on social media themselves.

You will make your own list of criteria for saying something and I hope you continually narrow those criteria as your success grows.

The internet is stil pretty much a blank canvas or playground for use to create magic on. The recent phemomenon that is Pinterest is an example. It is all a matter of imagination and follow through. So look for opportunities to come your way more and more. Say yes by all means but not too often.

The big factor driving this are the increased ability of algorithms to discover who should be talking to and working with you and thus increasing connection. I truly believe we are living at a special time.
My true reach according to the Klout algorithm has gone from 8 k to 77k people in the past 6-7 weeks. Wild connecting or what?

The massive increase in sharing is due to scheduling and better understanding of tools. For example if we do the same 1 hour online that we did say 18 months ago then we can schedule a whole magazine like amount of content to drip from our various social networks in the next 24 hours. So information, concepts, inspiration and opportunities are passing by our eyes faster and faster each day. To be a person of value you will also need to continually tighten your niche and content sharing strategy and what you say yes to also brands you as everything we do is highly public these days.

It seems at first very negative to be suggesting that you say no. Actually it is highly positive.