Should I Care About Klout?

Sometimes we get on a track and become so one-pointed that we haven't figured out that we aren't going in the right direction anymore. Or, maybe we simply push so hard we don’t have time to take side trips, learn new things or just appreciate where we are. 

To alleviate this problem, I got off my blog posting 'track' and took a needed summer break. While I rested and digested all I’ve done for the past 6 months, I learned some things that writers and bloggers might want know. Today I will share a few things about KLOUT.

           

I had been slowly building my Klout score through blogging, posting, Facebook and Twitter until my novel writing had dwindled to a trickle and was barely flowing at all.  So, I slowed down on the social media interactions, limited my posts to once a week while I rested and evaluated my status. Sometimes we need to stop or step back to get a better perspective on our life than if we are right in the midst of it. 

Was I doing the things I needed to do to get me closer to my goal?

           

My Klout score, which had been on its way up, dropped like a lead weight inside of a week. I was feeling really bad about myself, thinking, “I can’t do this if I have to feel like I’m running on a tread mill that needs to go faster and faster with no relief in sight.”

But then I began to suspect that Klout was the problem. The scores were artificial in some way. I couldn’t put my finger on it but I knew there was something not quite right. 

Then I read this article and learned the tricks that Klout uses for their own purposes and not especially beneficial or of a real value to your real clout. 

Read: 

“Don’t Fall for this Sneaky Klout Trick Designed to Suck You In”

“. . . the quantity of your social interactions is a very different matter than the quality of those interactions. As you increase your social velocity you will naturally attract followers and it may take some of them a while to prune you out if you are not contributing worthwhile content to their social feeds. Social media is, I dare say, a bit of a Ponzi scheme in that way.” 

In his book Grouped, author Paul Adams says, “The loudest, most visible people are not correlated with influence.”

Also read:

5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Care AboutYour Klout Score

If you’ve been discouraged about your Klout score or it your blogging status is static, take courage and remember: 

• Popularity is not influence and influence is not popularity. 
• One person does matter and one person can be significant. 
• Concentrate on the quality of your blog and your people will find you.

Do you know what a Klout score is? 

What do you think about Klout?

To Blog Or Not To Blog, Is That The Question?

Writers have been busy building blogs, platforms and improving their marketing skills but some are reaching a decision time. The fever pitch with which they have been operating under is causing them to drop like flies is taking its toll.

            To post blogs 2 or 3 times a week, or not, that is the question.

Well respected Anne R. Allen came out the other day and talked about slow-blogging where you blog less but be sure you have a good post when you do. Quality always wins over quantity, but does that mean we should give up trying to build/create a blog people want to visit by decreasing our presence with less blogs?

Do we want to throw our hands up and say, see—Anne Allen thinks we should slow blog, so now I have the perfect excuse to give up I’m going to stop trying so hard.

Stop for a moment, writers. Think what it is you want and how you plan on getting there. Was KristenLamb wrong when she said we need to blog 2 or 3 times a week to build brand? I know I decided months ago that I couldn’t write 3 blogs in a week; that was too much for me. But even with 2 blogs a week, I still can’t find time to write on my own writing projects, so maybe Anne is right. 

Or, am I still learning to effectively use my time learning to write quicker, smarter, more creatively? Is there a learning curve here and should I keep on blogging at 2 times a week?

I wanted to have the perfect solution for you so I could appear smart and amaze you. I don’t have the answer; I only have the answer for me—for today.

I know this subject is going to raise a lot of discussion so I dipped into the electic cool-aid and found a video that might help us put blogging into perspective. It is about mind, quantum physics and what we create from the top scientists and thinkers who have given this subject much exploration and thought.  It might help. 

Thoughts to consider:

• Do you write blog posts that take too long to write, and no one wants to read because they gag because when they see all those words (tighly packed together with no space between paragraphs)?
• Have you found your voice?
• Should you write one blog a month (and still not have found your voice), only now no one comes around any more to even read that one blog?
• Do you drive people away with short, meaningless posts?
• Do people stop coming around because you have nothing to say but you keep blogging the same things anyway?
• Should you keep blogging to find your voice, your audience, your own subject matter that will matter?
• Has all your blogging time been building a following? So should you make a change or keep doing what you are doing?

Your comments might help us all make up our minds or at least reach a temporary solution, so comment away. Your opinion is valuable.