So you want to be a Social Media Influencer?
What is social media influence? Have you asked yourself “How do I become a social media influencer?” Is it a job, or is it something you become through being useful, engaged and talented in your niche?
Influence Obsession
Some are obsessed by social scoring and are driven by their number of followers and likes.
Just watch the episode of Black Mirror called ‘Nosedive’. This may be fiction, but it isn’t far from the truth of some. The premise of this episode is about life ratings, where the higher your score the better privileges you receive.
Being Twitter famous won’t make you a billionaire unless you are picked up by a brand under the influencer marketing banner. There are many levels of influence from the celebs, to micro and nano influencers, who have become known in their niche by a subset of fans to make an impact. In the words of Bros, if you are asking yourself “when will I be famous”, think about a better question.
Influence Measurement Tools
Social influence scores (also known as social authority scores) isn’t about who has the most followers. Itgoes deeper than vanity metrics. Ahigh score comes from quality of interaction, not quantity of interaction. Klout, Kred and Skorr are some such tools.
Klout
Klout (which has since been sunset), was founded by Joe Fernandez in 2009, then sold in 2014 for $200 million, before being shut down on May 25th 2018. Klout ranked people by how ‘influential’ they were on social media, by calculating a score between 1 and 100, earned through social media engagement across the major platforms. Users with Klout Scores of 63 and above were in the top 5 percent of users. The score wass measured using data from the previous 90 days using PeopleRank, which had more than 400 signals and pulled from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Instagram, Bing, Google+, Tumblr, Foursquare, YouTube, Blogger, WordPress, Last.fm, Yammer and Flickr.
The Klout score in itself was great for boosting your ego. I still recall the time I discovered myself on Klout’s LinkedIn Expert list. I nearly fell off my chair when I saw myself in 10th position out of 54,000 experts, and over the months I climbed to number 4, even above LinkedIn!
Klout in its heyday saw social ‘influencers’ (before the term influencer was an everyday word and career choice) rewarded with special deals through the app, and even showed up on job applications. It was on the verge of becoming a social currency in itself, but never really took off in Australia, and fizzled out globally.
My Klout score would peak on my birthday… why? Because on this day more people than ever come to your Facebook profile and engage with you. So on that day was I really more influential than other days, or was it just my birthday?
Sometimes I would question the data, as the topics that I was deemed to be influential in included things I didn’t talk about or use such as internet explorer?! Maybe I have skills I am not aware of… magic tricks??!
Kred
According to Kred, it is the world’s most transparent Influence Metric. Kred, established in 2011, scores you on Influence (the ability to inspire action) and Outreach (generosity in engaging with others and helping them spread their message). Data comes from Twitter and Facebook from the past 1,000 days.
Kred badges show Influence Scores on the upper left and Outreach Levels on the lower right.
Influence is scored on a 1,000 point scale and is measured by assessing how frequently you are Retweeted, Replied, Mentioned and Followed on Twitter. On Facebook points are added when people interact (Posts, Mentions, Likes, Shares and Event Invitations) with your content on your wall and the walls of others who have registered their Facebook account with Kred.
Your Outreach score is cumulative and always increases, given the capacity generosity is infinite. The highest score since 2012 is 12. It is measured by Retweets, Replies and Mentions of others on Twitter, and interactions (Posts, Mentions, Comments and Likes) on your own wall and the walls of others (who have registered their Facebook account with Kred) on Facebook.
Visit your Activity Statement any time at http://home.kred
Skorr
Skorr gives you feedback on your social influence, and how well your posts are doing using it’s own algorithm. It measures your influence and gives a unified vision of your social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Youtube, Linkedin, Twitter). It aggregates the value of your key indicators (likes, posts, shares, views, fans, etc.) across your accounts.
Check how successful your posts are through their impact, interpretation, using some of the most advanced technologies like Sentiment and Emotion Analysis, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. It also has a gamification component where users can challenge friends.
How to Measure your LinkedIn Influence?
LinkedIn has it’s own in-built tool called the Social Selling Index or SSI which rates you out of 100 over 4 categories. I do use this tool when working with clients as a starting benchmark, but don’t obsess over it. The goal isn’t the score. Unlike Klout, Kred and Skorr, no one else sees your SSI, just you. Use it to track your progress and make LinkedIn fun.
What is your LinkedIn SSI?
Check your Social Selling Index (SSI).
Can Your Influence Score Pay the Bills?
Don’t work on your influence score as a stand-alone activity or aim to be a ‘social media influencer’ or have an SSI of 100 (that would be virtually impossible). Become an influencer through building relationships and being authentically engaged, rather than orchestrating engagement to feed your score. Increase your influence by;
- Building a relevant network.
- Creating a content sharing strategy.
- Engaging with influencers.
What are your social influence scores?
Make a difference through real conversation that matters and connect human to human.