Klout and his role in the Twitter phenomenon

Twitter is a popular social networking site that allows its account holders to post short messages that can be viewed instantly by other users around the world. Twitter’s ability to instantly connect users with friends and even celebrities has fueled its intense popularity. Several Twitter users, especially celebrities, are influencing the site with their hordes of followers. Users can now measure the influence of their messages or tweets and how they affect other users using Klout.

Klout is a Southern California-based operation that was founded last year. The company’s mission, according to its website, is to measure a Twitter user’s influence on the social networking site. The company keeps track of information and data about a user’s personal influence and provides them with the information and ways to interpret and use it.

A company’s score is a numerical representation of a Twitter user’s influence. Scoring ranges from one to one hundred with higher numbers equating to greater strength. A user with a higher score is more likely to influence other Twitter users to take certain actions, such as clicking a link or reposting a message.

The range of a score is determined by deciding several factors. A user’s reach is how often other users see their tweets. If you’re followed by a user with several thousand friends and you rarely post on the same topics, chances are you only have a small influence on them. But if your followers are generally reciprocated and posts are retweeted, then your influence on Twitter will be significantly greater.

Another factor in the scoring method is how influential the users who message and retweet you are. Even users who simply follow you can affect the strength of your influence. Klout collects all of this information and more by measuring a user’s score.

Programs like these can be extremely useful. They cost nothing and are therefore an extremely beneficial new form of advertising. The tool allows advertisers and businesses to amass a list of Twitter users who are most likely to be attracted to certain products and services. The site, itself, has recently become a very useful tool for businesses to find and market to target audiences.

It won’t be long until every Twitter user also has a Klout account. Advertisers and other companies are already joining the project. The ability to market directly to key audiences without spending millions of dollars will soon become the norm in the world of advertising.