Your Klout and Unknown Social Media Sites

It looks like Facebook and Twitter have a stranglehold on the title of biggest social media sites around. They also shared the title of biggest timewaster at work as well. Closing in behind them from a good distance are sites like Instagram, Pinterest and Google. Make no mistake there are plenty of other places besides Facebook and Twitter where you can make your online presence.

Aside from displaying your profile and posting compromising pictures of yourself, there are plenty of other social media sites where you can upload more than your “likes” and your personal views and commentary from other users. In fact, there are social media sites that can even let you know how influential you are in this highly connected world.

The first site we will mention is Klout. A play on the word “clout”, it is a website that measures your “sphere of influence" in the social media world. The website offers an algorithm that creates a score based on your post’s likes, shares, comments and retweets. It basically counts up how many times your posts receives an action. Taking into account all of your social media accounts, it creates a cumulative that your can compare with your friends to determine your “reach” on the Internet.

Quora is a social media that you can log in to with your Facebook or Twitter account. Similar to Yahoo Answers but a thousand times more intelligent, Quora is a question and answer site that caters to experts in specific fields. An example of this was when users asked questions about the business practices of game developer, Zynga. Subsequently, former and present employees of the company chimed in with their opinions about the company. It turned into great theater given the mixed opinions on the thread.

Just as representatives of the company entered the question and answer thread, a business owner can enter any thread a become a voice for their brand. Along with your username (usually your real name) will be your title. It can either be a job title or your expertise. This offers the user a sense of authorship over certain subjects. Questions and answers can down or up voted as in Reddit.

As a business owner or a brand manager, it is imperative to open accounts on Twitter and Facebook to develop rapport with users. But sites like Quora can help you identify specific clientele and help you “zero in” on better converting markets. Sites like Klout offer you the ability to understand your reach and if you truly are getting any action from your posts. Altogether, the more you put yourself out there, the better chances of you getting exposed.

Image credit: David Bruce Jr. on Flickr

 

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