According to an article in Forbes: Will Your Klout Score Get You Hired? The Role of Social Media in Recruiting, “Klout … aims to measure users’ influence across their social network. Klout is on its way to becoming an integral part of the job search and recruiting process for many individuals and companies … Over the next decade you will be hired and promoted based upon your reputation capital … Companies will increasingly take note of social connectivity when considering applicants, keeping an especially keen eye on those with a demonstrated ability to turn their networks into enhanced marketing opportunities.”

For this activity you will study social media networks, set up an account with at two or more platforms and link those accounts to your Klout account to measure your influence in social media. You will also start regular posts in your social media platforms and report on how your Klout score changes. This activity will prepare you to study how companies use social media marketing in 7C Social Media Case Study and how to create a social media strategy and design the visuals to go with it for: 8A Social Media Marketing Project.

Preparation

Instructions

1. DISCOVERY
Read the articles above and take the 6C Social Media Quiz. Note that many of the questions list one of the articles linked above to indicate where you can find the answers. For some questions, you will need to do your own Google search to find the answers.

2. SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVITY
CHOOSE A BUSINESS OR PERSONAL ENTITY, THEN TWO PLATFORMS AND GET STARTED!
Gain more experience with new social media tools and how they work. It would be ideal if you know of someone with a business/entity that needs social media marketing, but you may also choose to improve and measure your own personal social media connections. Choose from the list of platforms below. You need 2+ platforms tied to the same entity. Do your best to follow the recommended interaction rate for the next seven weeks. Start now, because you will report on your weekly SM activity in your Blog Comments quiz starting next week, 7B Blog Comments & SM Report. You will be asked to list the number of new posts/pins/tweets and new followers each week for the platforms you are tracking. You will also report your Klout score each week. At the end of the semester, you will compile a summary report in 14C Social Media Report.

TIME INVESTMENT: If you spend your social media time wisely, one hour a week will go a long way, but break it up on at least three days a week. You personally need to complete at least half the recommended posts/pins/tweets listed below for each week. But it is wise to collaborate with someone in this effort. Someone else may complete half the recommended weekly interaction listed below. Also, to improve your Klout score, the quality of your posts is important. Your score will increase rapidly if you have a lot of interaction from followers. To get good interaction it is important to spend some time in reciprocation, which is liking, following, and commenting on others’ posts. That is also how you gain new followers.

Choose 2+ platforms from this list. If you already have two for this entity, then add at least one new platform.

WEEKLY INTERACTION
Facebook Fan Page, not Facebook Account: four new posts on at least two different days; 25 new followers.
Instagram: four new posts on at least two different days; five new followers.

Twitter: six tweets, but on at least three different days; five new followers.
Google+: four posts on at least two different days; five new followers.

LinkedIn: four new posts on at least two different days; 10 new connections.
Tumblr: four new posts on at least two different days; five new followers.

KLOUT does not yet track the following platforms, even though they are very popular. So if you want to choose one of these platforms, make sure you also use at least two of the platforms above.
Pinterest: 10 pins a week spread across at least two boards on at least two days; five new followers.
Slideshare: one new slidedeck with at least 10 slides; five new followers.

3. CONNECT TO KLOUT:  You should have already created your Klout account and possibly connected social media accounts to it. Go back to your Klout account, and connect it to your social media platforms if you have not done that already. Now when you create something on your social media platform, Klout will track it’s progress and add that to your Klout score. It is important that they are correctly linked, as you will be working with them for the rest of the semester. If you are having issues, don’t forget you can attend the live demo, schedule a tutor, or even look it up online!

Submission

Go to 6C Submission and submit the following:

1. KLOUT SCORE: Take a screenshot of your networks page from Klout and attach it to the 6C Submission. It may or may not be different from the beginning of the semester, but you should start seeing change as you contribute to your social media platforms from now on. You will not be graded on how high your score is.

2. SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS: In the 6C submission comments box, paste the content from your document. It must list the entity, a description, owner, and 2+ platforms tied to the same entity. Include working hyperlinks to your accounts. Label which are new accounts. At least one needs to be new.

EXAMPLE:
Entity: Caryn Esplin Photodesign–Professional photography business, Sole proprietor, Caryn Esplin.
Facebook Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/carynesplin
Instagram:  http://instagram.com/findbeautyanywhere
Twitter: https://twitter.com/carynesplin
Tumblr (NEW): http://carynesplin.tumblr.com/