Sometimes last year I was catching up with a friend and discussing a number of projects that I was looking at launching.  In our conversation, the word “klout” was mentioned, which, at that point, was a foreign and totally unknown concept to me.  As my friend was heavily involved in the social media circles, he proceeded to enlighten me about the world of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Klout and others.

I was informed that Klout looked at all your on-line activity and gave you a score out of 100 ranking your on-line influence.  Right, I thought, let’s see what this is all about.  At that stage, I was only really using a personal Facebook account, had an almost dormant Twitter account, as I thought I had nothing of value to say, and a not so active LinkedIn profile. Around the same time and with great encouragement from the my friend, I started this blog, writing about all things that mattered in my life and personal experiences.  I wanted others to read it. However, I had no on-line presence to spread my message.

After spending a few hours looking at Klout, various people’s scores and their posts in different social media platforms, I decided that raising my Klout score, which was just above 30 at the time, and increasing my on-line presence may give me the launching platform to make a difference.  I researched what people were saying about Klout and learned that under the old Klout system (Klout has since changed its algorithms and how it calculates its scores), a score of 50 and above was:

(a) almost impossible to attain; and

(b) a great score to aim for.

So, being somewhat competitive by nature, I sat down and strategised about increasing my Klout score and connecting with people. Twitter was my first learning curve.  I started following those who seemed to carry out a worthwhile message. Parallel, I gave out +Ks (Klout’s internal endorsements) to all those people with a score of 50 and above and started following a lot of them of Twitter.  I also found them on Facebook, and those that carried out a message which I liked or supported, I befriended.  Then, I have started to use my Facebook account to post ideas, quotes and sayings that appealed to me and carried a positive message.

I must say that I was blown away by the kindness of others and their willingness to part their knowledge.  Some of my newly found connections encouraged me to go on and provided me with tips and strategies of how to keep raising my Klout score.  In saying that, increasing my score also meant a greater audience to read what I have to say and more people in my circle to learn from.  I was blessed to be embraced by and included in some of the influential circles in the social media arena, who I now count as my friends.

With all that increased activity, I reached a score of 67 in less than 3 months and it was going up on daily basis. I have also become somewhat of an addict to technology.  Yes, my dear friends, I admit I have an addiction and you would all be laughing when reading this part.  However, I have reached a point when the Klout score was no longer important.  What was important is that the people in my social media circle liked what I was about and were ready to share my thoughts with the world.  I am forever grateful to them for it.

These days I am no longer active on Klout and my score, which went up as high as 76 at some point, is now a steady 65.  However, raising my Klout score aided me in connecting and interacting with amazing minds around the world.  It proved that if you want to achieve a goal, stop talking about it and start doing something.  As for my message to others, it is simple.  If you want to achieve something, get up and get going with it.  Stop blaming life or circumstances. Engage, ask questions, seek other’s help and be kind and humble in the process.  If you do not ask, the answer will always be ‘no’, so ask and reach out.  There will come a day when others will be reaching out to you and you can return the favour.