So let’s talk about “klout.” I’ve had a lot of friends ask me about this recently and been asked to write about it…what exactly IS it?…how do you get your klout score up?…is it important?…should we be competing for klout? Stuff like that. I’m not exactly a “klout” expert, but here are some great tips from Erik along with killer resources to help you get your klout in check, which btw, Erik’s klout score is way higher than mine. If any of you wanna team up with me to kick his butt, let me know!

Take it away, Erik!

Five Secrets I Used to Trick Klout. Sort Of.

It’s really been grinding Douglas Karr’s gears that my Klout score is higher than his, even if it’s only by a couple points or so.

He mentioned his anguish during a recent talk at a Northwest Indiana tweetup, and then again on his Marketing Tech radio show, so I know it’s getting to him. Still, Doug has set the bar plenty high, so to even come close to him on something is a pretty big deal, let alone beat him. (And since it’s the only thing I’m going to beat him in — ever — I want to hold on to this for as long as I can.)

It’s possible to game the Klout system, but it takes a long-term strategy. Sure, you can try to work it in short bursts, but the system will weed out people who don’t stay dedicated, mostly because they use cheap techniques that take too much energy and effort for an extended period of time. So I came up with my own system that will work, by tricking Klout into thinking I’m actually a model Twitter citizen. Here’s how I did it.

1) Be choosy about who I follow.

One of the things Klout pays attention to is the follower/following ratio, how influential my audience is, and whether they take action on my tweets. Having a big network doesn’t do me any good if I’m following junk accounts, abandoned accounts, or spammers.

I use Manage Flitter to unfollow people who don’t follow me and haven’t tweeted in the last three months. This way, I clean out all the deadwood on my network. Why run up my following count on people who won’t use the system more than once every 90 days? They don’t provide value, so they’re out.

I also carefully consider whether to follow someone. I’ll follow people if they provide good value, if they are real people and not brands, and if they don’t tweet crap, constant news headlines, or motivational quotes. I avoid the spam accounts, bot accounts, and the accounts that follow 2,000 people but have never written a single tweet. By following people who know how to use Twitter properly, my network is made up of people I’m happy to read and retweet.

2) Be choosy about who follows me.

I am actually a little choosy about people who follow me. I will “block & report for spam” any porn accounts, anyone who uses Twitter to promote their MLM or money-making system, or is going to do nothing but sell crap. By eliminating these people, my network is more engaged and more likely to read my tweets and react to them. I don’t need to artificially boost my follower account by letting in these spammers and fakers, and I would certainly never join one of those “find followers fast” networks that promise to boost my numbers.

3) Tweet good stuff.

If you want people to pay attention to your stuff and retweet it, make sure you say something useful. I will never tweet out motivational quotes, daily “good morning tweeps” messages, or news headlines after news headline. Instead, I send out things that will be useful, interesting or funny to my Twitter network. Since my network is made up primarily of social media folks, writers, and people with a sense of humor, I make sure at least half of my tweets will be appealing to one or more of those groups. The other half are real conversations and responses to other Twitterers.

Read the last two tips here: Five Secrets I Used to Trick Klout. Sort Of. | Professional Blog Service

Now, is your klout score going to make or break you? Nope…I don’t think so. When you’re real on twitter, it doesn’t really matter that much. Make it count. Or don’t. I think this klout stuff is fun for us competitive social media types…and to be honest, I don’t pay that much attention to it. But for those of you who are interested, I hope Erik’s post is helpful.

The comment section is open for your thoughts! Cheers!

That’s right. Bring it.

My presentation is on ghosting aka ghost blogging. I’ve entitled it “The Art of the Ghost” because that’s what I do, and that’s what I know. Now I want to share. Despite the controversy over the subject matter…the unauthenticated accusations (missed those rules again), I’ve been blessed, having made a great business, Linzstar Inc., by writing for other people and managing their social media. My clients are all over the world, in very different industries, the best of the best in those industries, and I love all of them. No, I mean, I REALLY do. This is one of the most satisfying occupations for someone who loves to blog and loves social media.

This will be my first time presenting at a blogging conference. I’m kinda nervous, yes, but I’ve got some great speaking gigs under my belt, which include undergraduate classes, graduate classes, and a high school. The presentation will be super laid back and conversational…as most of you know, that’s how I do it. A couple of things that will be discussed:

• How I got into ghost blogging
• Industries that are grateful for what I do
• Questions to ask / Conversations to have with clients to really tell their story
• The editing clipboard
• Ethics / Honesty
• How I use blogging and social media platforms to market online
• Having the confidence to be a social media rock star

I think this is going to be great. I’d love to see you there. So, here’s the deal: I get to give my readers and the people who are attending the conference a 10% discount off the tickets. They can be purchased on the Blog Indiana 2010 website…HERE. Just enter in the code “SPEAKTOME10” to get the 10% off!

Sweet. Okay. Questions? Comments? Looking forward to seeing you if I know you, and meeting you if we’ve not yet met. Cheers!

Photo credits to the talented peeps over at Metromix Indy, Michelle Pemberton, Jonathan Boho, and Frank Espich

I’m a lover. I just want to get that out there. I love so many things. I love my family, I love to work out, I love food. I just love. It’s very easy for me to make friends and refer to them as my best friend because I open up. This in turn gives permission for them to open up. I’ve had people say, “How can you have so many best friends?” Well…I love my friends. My life would not be the same without them. My world revolves around the relationships I create.  I create thriving relationships because it’s important to me.

Let’s take a look at Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Right after your physiological and security needs, is your need to belong in a group, then to feel validated while IN the group. It’s just human nature.  When you are with a group of people for 40 hours a week (granted we are talking about the “normal” work week), I would think it’s pretty darn important to treat those people with love and respect.  Who wants to be in anything other than a nurturing environment? It sucks!

When people love where they work and who they work for, amazing things can happen with and within an organization.  When I was an intern my senior year of college, I absolutely loved my boss. I still do to this day. We are great friends.  But my intern experience was so fulfilling because of the environment we created…the relationship we created.  I loved her. I wanted to work smart for her, almost to make her “proud.” Even when we disagreed on things, I never felt “disposable.” Think of all the people out there who DO feel disposable. Humans were not meant to feel that way.

I guess something we all need to ask ourselves…is your environment thriving or toxic? (We can apply this to SO many areas of our life.) We CREATE our experiences. Sure, others play a part in the scene, but they are only the supporting actors. You are the star. What are you creating? And what needs to change?

This came to mind when one of our Slingshot candidates came to us yesterday and was a little frustrated over the way his manager was treating him. In this person’s view, it was a little bit like Jekyll and Hyde. One minute, he felt like things were alright and going great, the next minute, he felt like he was really being come down upon. (do those words go together?…i think you get it, right?)

Needless to say, some managers just don’t know how to take the heat when it comes down from the top, and it’s easy to take out their own sense of insecurity onto those they supervise. This is to be expected to a point, however, the best managers out there are able to recognize the pressure and shift. This is not anything that I know to be statistically true, but I believe that there are more people out there that respond to positive, constructive instruction, rather than feeling beaten into conformity. (For all you Lushin-ers out there, think, critical parent, loud and clear.)

So, this is a time of stress. It’s stressful for alot of folks. All you managers out there, I encourage you to put an extra effort in today, and in the coming weeks to creating a positive, reinforcing work environment for your team. I will go ahead (in my limited wisdom :-)) and say that I have a feeling, you will see a positive result in your goals all around.

Cheers!