Credibility can be the difference between capturing a potential customer and scaring one away. Social media is one way consumers learn about a company's credibility. This includes everything from tweeting, Facebook posting, blogging, and adding in SEO. Klout is the program that measures a person's or company's social media influence by gathering information from social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, and some others. Klout then takes that information and gives each person a score from 0 to 100. This makes it inexplicably easy to know where your company falls in the social media spectrum.

How Klout works

Klout essentially gathers information from social media networks and measures the content that is being created and if the user is engaging on social media. Next, it measures the audience a user has, such as followers on Twitter and Instagram and friends on Facebook, and who reposts and retweets your content. Lastly, Klout examines if the content is being shared by people who they deem important influencers with high scores.

How can Klout work for you

Klout is an essential and helpful tool for business owners, entrepreneurs, and influencers like authors and bloggers. It helps you gauge how visible you are in the social media world and who is able to find you. When businesses and influencers have that information, they are able to redirect their social media marketing where necessary and build their online brands effectively.

How to raise your Klout score

Once you sign up for Klout and receive your initial score, you will probably start to wonder how to raise it. The average person has a score of 20. If your score is higher than that then you are already doing better than average. The most effective way to raise your Klout score is by engaging in social media with relevant content to gain followers or friends. Your Klout score will rise when you create content that is worth sharing through multiple social media platforms.

Phoenix-based digital marketing company iAcquire has greatly improved its reach by aggressively targeting social media and producing expert content on its own website. This has not only improved the company's Klout score, but improved its credibility in a very competitive arena, as well.

Creating engaging conversations and discussions with your followers is another way to raise your Klout score. Klout scores rise when users share and engage with influencers, deemed by Klout, who have higher scores. The key to raising your Klout score really relies on consistency. If you are doing all of the above every now and again, it is unlikely that you will notice a major change in your score.

Bonuses provided by Klout

Klout has incentives for those who are on the fence on whether they should use it or not. Klout has affiliations with companies like MOO Business Cards and McDonalds, which provide prizes Klout's high-score influencers. The higher your score the better your prizes and incentives. To claim your prize, you simply have to announce it through a social media network that you have linked to your Klout profile.

Klout is a useful tool that allows you to understand how to market through your social media platforms more efficiently. While popular social media networks will raise your Klout score, building a website or blog that has great shareable content will, as well.