5 Fast Ways To Improve Your Klout Score

Have you been ignoring your Klout score lately? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. The good news is that there are some quick and easy ways to improve your Klout score without spending all of your valuable free time on-line.

In simple terms, Klout measures your social influence on a scoring scale of 1-100, with 30 being considered to be a solid score and anything over 50 making you ‘influential’ or a knowledge expert in your field.

The key social networks that Klout measures are Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. If you are below your optimal score, you don’t need to sign up for each of these networks. Just work with what you know best and add other social media platforms as you become more comfortable with them.

To increase your score quickly, follow these 5 tips:

Be consistent. If you are serious about your Klout score, you have to consistently post to your networks and engage with users as much as possible.

Create interesting, original content. Create a blog and write your own articles or items of interest. It doesn’t have to be a 2000 word dissertation; short 200-500 word articles are fine. Fresh, interesting content is the fastest way to get shares, comments, likes or 1+’s that will send your Klout score soaring.

Build your network. Take the time to follow other users on your network that have quality content to share with you. The more followers you have, the greater your reach, which in turn increases your Klout score.

Engage with your followers. Take the time to share and comment on their content. Engagement is a two way street of conversation so don’t be afraid to ask questions or comment on specific parts of your followers posts.

In a hurry or stumped for content to post? Use a picture or a quote that applies to your topic niche. Both of these have been proven to receive more shares and comments than text posts.

Find more great Social Media tips at koresocialmedia.com

5 Mistakes You Make On Facebook

Let’s face it, we all make mistakes. Unfortunately mistakes made online can last a lifetime. Here is a list of the top 5 mistakes that people make on the social networking site Facebook:

Slamming your boss, company, coworkers, friends, or family members on Facebook. We all have stress in our lives. Even if you delete your angry posts at a later date, the damage may have already been done. Instead of taking it out on someone online, think of constructive ways to deal with your personal problems offline.

Using your Facebook account strictly for promotional purposes. This is totally acceptable on Twitter and LinkedIn, But if you use your personal Facebook account to drive people to your articles or promotions you’ll find yourself being unfriended as well as ignored. Make at least half your posts personal and your friends will find the promos more acceptable.

Drunken commenting. You’ve had a few drinks, and you log onto Facebook and begin leaving comments on people’s photos and posts. They may seem totally hilarious at the time, but in the painful hangover light of morning you just look like an ass.

Being duped by malware. These are typically spread via outrageously titled wall posts like “Justin Bieber just got erection in public” or “Lindsey Lohan Leaked Sex Tape.” Curiosity gets the better of you and you click on the link. Instead of a video of Justin or Lindsey in a three way, you get a bad case of Koobface or some other socially borne malware. Worse, that post now becomes part of your wall, tempting your friends to click. If it’s too outrageous to be believed, assume it’s malware and move on.

Accepting Facebook’s default privacy settings. You can make your public profile almost negligible, thanks to Facebook’s enhanced privacy settings. But Facebook wants and needs you to share your data with the world for its ad model to work, so its default settings are still pretty generous with your information. Take my advice: Go as private as you can; and each time Facebook changes its settings, you can bet there are more privacy settings that need to be locked down.

Don’t stress out if you have made any of these mistakes on Facebook. Most people have made one or more of these mistakes at least once, so learn from your poor judgment and move on.

How to get top ranking search results on LinkedIn

Have you ever wondered why some people on LinkedIn get the top ranking search results in their fields? It’s actually an easy process if you know the necessary steps to make your LinkedIn profile stand out from the rest. Whether your selling a product, a service or looking for a job – the higher your search ranking the easier it will be to get the fast results you are looking for.

The basics:

Make sure that you have a professional looking picture and that you complete your profile to 100%. Don’t be afraid to ask for references from previous employers, coworkers or clients as these are like gold on a LinkedIn profile.

Keywords:
Keywords are going to be the most decisive factor in increasing your LinkedIn search rankings. Do a search for the top ranking profiles in your field and it is easy to see how many times keywords appear in their profiles. If you work in the Security industry, count how many time the word “security” appears on the profiles that come first in your search. Decide what your keywords will be and use them whenever possible without overdoing it.

There are five areas of your LinkedIn profile where keywords will benefit you the most:

1. Your title: Don’t just use your job title. Put in your headline a great description of how you can help people, why they would want to do business with you and what you can do for them.

2. Your current experience: You want your keywords to appear as many times in your current experience as possible. This insures top search results that will outrank your competition and place your search ranking above theirs.

3. Past experience: Once again you will want to list any experience you have using your keywords when possible. If possible, break down a job that you were promoted in into sections with keywords in the title.
4. Specialties: This is your opportunity to show a prospective employer or client what you can do. Use as many keywords in this section without obvious redundancy. If you have a lot of past experience, you can keep this section fairly simple and to the point.

5. Summary: What are your past accomplishments? What can you offer that is unique and will let you show off your skills and talents?

By following these steps you will see a dramatic increase in the search placement of your LinkedIn profile. You will see immediate placement improvement by doing a search for your field in your city or state in the people search field.

Carole Wozny is the Editor of Kore Social Media. If you want to expand your current network visit our Kore Social Media LinkedIn group and we will be happy to share other LinkedIn tips with you.

5 steps to a professional looking Twitter account

When Twitter first emerged on the Social Media scene back in 2009 no one would have guessed that it would become the powerhouse business micro-blogging service that it is today.
If you are looking for a powerful way to promote your business or career at a low cost, than Twitter is definitely for you. But how do you go about setting up an account that potential sales leads or recruiters want to follow?

Your first step is to make your Twitter account look as professional as possible.

1. Choose your twitter name carefully. When you sign up for a Twitter account at twitter.com you can use your business name or an account name that describes your career expertise. Make sure to use your real name if possible; this gives people a feeling that they know you.

2. Your picture is going to be the first thing potential followers see, and it should reflect what your Twitter account is about. Your followers like to see pictures of the people they follow, or a professionally made logo for your business. A professionally taken picture of you in business attire works best.

3. Use a well thought out, informative description in your bio. Your bio should describe who you are and what you do, where you are located and should definitely include a URL to your website, blog, or your LinkedIn URL.

4. Twitter provides default generic backgrounds that won’t reflect your unique personality. Make a Twitter background that stands out from the rest. If you are a business owner you will want to use your business graphics to brand your account.

5. Keep your tweets professional and tweet regularly. Use your tweets to post information on your business, upcoming events, sales or promotions. Try to tweet every day, and remember that Twitter is a global network that allows you to promote your business on a 24 hour basis.

Whether you are setting up your first Twitter account or looking for ways to improve the one you have, these steps will help you gain followers, attain brand recognition and give you a professional looking online presence.

Can you run Social Media in-house?

It is a rare in-house team that has extensive marketing experience with top professional writers and communicators onboard who can: create content; monitor and measure social media input/outputs; conceive and execute social media campaigns; as well as drive traffic using e-mail, SMS, search optimization, blogger outreach, desktop and mobile applications, digital advertising, Google ads, and more.  Not to mention the constant learning required just to keep up with the ever-changing social media landscape and increasing specialization.

Do you have what it takes? By all means, give it a shot. Then hire a professional that knows what they are doing.

Business Twitter Marketing Tools

Twitter is growing by leaps and bounds. With over 200 million users, and 140 million tweets a day, you can see why that is. It’s considered a social media power tool. Not everybody are in love with Twitter. But, if you are – and understand how to leverage 140 characters and social media with Twitter, you’re not alone. Millions of people use Twitter, and frankly – could not live without it. Twitter breaks news faster that major news media, and connects people all over the globe, including locally.

The source code is available via an API (application programming interface), which means that there is an opportunity for technical folks to create 3rd party applications.  Not every tools is great for business, and some have not made the cut to massive popularity.

The below list represents the top Twitter marketing applications for accounts, contacts, tracking and more.

What are the top Twitter tools to look at?

Twitter Account Management

TweetDeck
Hootsuite
CoTweet

Twitter Contact Management

Wefollow
FriendorFollow
Twellow

Twitter Tracking Systems

Twitalyzer
BackTweets
Bit.ly
Google Analytics
Twittercounter

Twitter Monitoring and Alerting

 

Tweetbeep (like Google alerts)
Radian6 (high end)
SocialMention (free)
Search.Twitter.com
Klout

Other Tools to help marketing with Twitter Marketing

 

Local tools – TwitHawk.com
Nearby – Nearbytweets.com
Backgrounds – Twitrbackgrounds.com

6 Social Media Metrics You Should Be Measuring

Are you experiencing difficulty receiving legitimate ROI from your Social Media campaigns? Here are 6 useful metrics that you may be overlooking.

1: Conversion Rates

Everyone wants to measure the volume of leads generated to get to the bottom-line ROI of social media efforts. But don’t forget about the value of the conversion rate. While the volume may not be there yet, the propensity to convert may be staring you right in the face.

You’ll need to have a mechanism in place to know when a lead comes from social media. Most people use the combination of a URL shortener and some form of a “cookie” to attach a campaign to a lead. Hootsuite has integrated Google Analytics into their URL shortener for a seamless transition to success metrics in analytics, while some companies are using proprietary shorteners and others are still trying to figure out how to do it.

2: The Control Group

Some of the greatest metrics I’ve brought forward in my company really didn’t look that impressive when I first got them. The volume of leads generated was pretty low when compared to our other marketing channels.

However, when I compared them against a group of people that had not interacted with social media, I found some amazing stats but also showed that social media has a huge impact on our ability to convert leads. This certainly makes it easier to justify budget dollars to integrate social media into the sales process.

To add a control group, run the same metrics you normally run against a group that has never interacted with social media and compare them. Look for how social media compares in areas like lead conversion rates, retention rates and costs.

3: Growth Rate

While you’re building volume, measure the growth rate over time. Being able to show that volume is growing at a healthy rate helps prove that your efforts are generating an impact. The reality is that it takes time to build a sustainable social media channel; thus, setting proper expectations is very important.

4: Customer Acquisition Costs

Everyone is touting how “cheap” social media is, though many of us have realized that is somewhat of a fallacy. However, it is cheaper than many other traditional channels, so measure the full campaign history and then assign the cost per conversion and compare it against your control group.

Here are two examples of how this can happen:

• A person clicks on a link in one of your tweets and goes to your site and converts into a new customer.
  
  
• A person clicks on a paid advertisement on Google and doesn’t convert. Then later clicks on a link in one of your tweets and goes to your site and converts to a new customer.

Depending on your business model and typical advertising expense, in the first example, the cost to generate that customer could be less than a standard customer who comes through paid advertising.

In the second example, the cost will be higher than the standard customer who comes only through paid advertising, but even if it’s slightly higher for those who responded to more than one channel for lead generation, the incremental cost of social media will likely be less than trying to replace the unconverted lead with a new one.

5: Retention Rates

Right behind the ability to convert a customer is the ability to keep a customer. Compare the inclination of new customers to stay customers with and without social media interaction. The theory is that those participating in social media are more engaged and likely retain better.

In order to do this you’ll need to keep all the leads converted in #1 and track them over time. If you have an ongoing fee, measure how long they stay a customer. If you’re more of a onetime sell, measure if they come back and buy something else and how often they do. Then compare this against the control group of those who didn’t interact with social media and see if there are any improvements worth noting.

6: Customer Saves

Many teams are using social media to help customers online and this often includes managing complaints. Measure how many times your team saves a customer from canceling, switching or returning your product/service.

This is certainly not a complete list of metrics, but it gives an overview of some of the most commonly missed measurements that contribute to showing social media’s value to your organization and clients.