The article you're about to read is my opinion, and my opinion only. It is not necessarily the opinion of RE Technology or any of my peers here. I'm not even close to being a social media expert, either, so this is intended strictly as a layperson's perspective. That said, I don't think I'm alone.

This is baloney:

Here's the truth: I'm not horribly active on social media. I only have 128 "Friends" on Facebook. I only have 550 "Followers" on Twitter, and few of them ever Retweet or respond to my Tweets. To be honest, if I were to give myself a Klout score, I would cut that 51 in half.

What I want to know is how I got this Klout score. Seriously. HOW? I did some digging to find the answer.

How Klout Scores are Calculated

Klout recently updated their formula for generating scores (as well as adding other features/functionality). You can get the full story here: http://klout.com/corp/kscore.

At the heart of your Klout score are your "Score Signals." These are the actions that increase your Klout score. The number of signals that Klout is tracking has increased – from 100 to 400. If you're interested in upping your score, I highly recommend that you click on the link in the paragraph above and read the list of Score Signals. Some examples are: Facebook mentions, Facebook likes, Facebook subscribers, Facebook friends, Twitter Retweets, Twitter replies, Google+ comments, Google+ reshares, LinkedIn recommenders, and Foursquare tips done.

In addition to increasing the quantity and quality of Score Signals being tracked, Klout has recently made a few other changes:

• They've put a limit on the K+ users can receive. This will obviously cut down on abuse (people essentially gaming the system) – and where there's less abuse, there's more accuracy.
• They've added Wikipedia. Frankly, I don't see much importance here for our industry, as Wikipedia is hardly a bustling social site for real estate professionals.
• They've added "Moments." These haven't been rolled-out yet, but apparently Moments are intended to help users to track the results of social media activities (i.e. a specific Facebook status update or a single Tweet) more effectively.

I'm Not Slamming Klout

Really, I'm not. After all, I care enough to check my score, right? I'm certainly not saying there's no value here. I'm just saying that there's still some definite room for growth in their platform.

However, if Klout is something you already do participate in or plan to, it provides an opportunity to follow clear guidelines to achieve quantifiable results. Improve your social media strategy with the aim of achieving some of the Score Signals I mentioned earlier – and, if you're successful, your score will go up. There's definitely some satisfaction to be found there, even if a higher Klout score doesn't deliver a concrete, quantifiable, real world benefit.

Don't feel embarrassed if improving your social media strategy is harder than all the "experts" make it sound. The truth is, it's tough! If you need help, there are services out there to make it easier.