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7.28.2011

Book Blogging 101: WTH is Klout?




What the frack is Klout and why should I care? - Anon
Klout’s definition of their scoring is “The Klout Score is the measurement of your overall online influence. The scores range from 1-100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence.”

Why does it matter? Think of it as a grading of how much your social influence is making an impact on people. Are people actually responding, listening, clicking? Klout lets you know if people are actually responding to you via social media.
Klout is great for businesses, especially if they are trying to figure out if hiring that full-time twitter guy will have a great ROI or if it is just a waste of money because no one is even responding. But, it can also help you, the blogger, judge if your WORDS are actually getting out there. Not to mention Klout will show you, the user the difference in the big Spammer accounts and the actually accounts that are trying to interact with users and pass on quality information when judging who to follow back.

Supposably there are three things that you are judged on for Klout. Your True Reach – who follows you, who you follow and how many lists that you have been added in. Then it judges you on Amplification Probability, how your tweets and posts are responded to by followers. Are they RTd a lot, do your tweets and posts start conversations? Things like that. Last but not least, they judge you on Network Influences, meaning how much Klout do your friends have? Meaning do the people you follow have Klout also? It has been described as incestuous and it is, because if your friends don't have Klout well they don't matter and who is judging you, well Klout of course.

So why do I care about Klout? Well, first it is fun to know that I’m one of the “cool kids” on twitter. I like judging standards and my Klout score affirms that I’m actually getting information out there and people are responding to it. On top of it, Klout offers perks. I was able to be one of the first US users to try Spotify because of my Klout score. I’ve also gotten a free audio book and a years supply of deodorant. Silly things, but what other sites send you deodorant??

Finally, though, Klout also points you in the right direction for social media networking. It encourages you to do things that you should be doing with your twitter and facebook accounts to promote your blog:

  1. Join in on conversations
  2. Start conversations
  3. Send out meaningful content
  4. Network with other bloggers
  5. And do all of this consistently

There have been some articles on how to increase your Klout score and this is one that has been referred to constantly if you are interested: http://nateriggs.com/2010/12/08/improve-klout-score-tips

But, don’t take my word for it, what is your Klout score? Here is mine: http://klout.com/#/parajunkee

Okay, dumb question here but perfect for computer lingo challenged people like me.
What is the difference in page views and unique visitors? I want to include my stat info for publishers upon request but stats and such are so confusing for me. - Anon
Pageviews is how many times your site has been viewed, so if I routinely visit your site, or hit refresh while I’m on your site, that is a pageview. A unique visitor is a view by a user in one session. So the first time I click on your site it judges that as a unique visitor. If I reload it counts as a pageview not a unique visitor. If I close my browser though and then go back to your site that is counted as another unique visitor.

Hi! Me and my friend have had a book blog for about a year now, and our favorite part is probably hosting book giveaways. However, neither of us have a lot of money to buy stuff for giveaways, and while publishers are very generous, we would still like to do more than our occasional giveaway. Any ideas for a budget-friendly but fun giveaway? - Amanda


Bookdepository is big and offers free shipping and discounted books. This is a good option on a budget.

Swag! Bookmarks are always a fun idea and cheap to ship!

Other than that, giveaways are a big investment. Books + Shipping = about $10 for paperbacks and $20 for hardbacks.

Try getting your hands on inexpensive books which might cut costs and always ship MEDIA MAIL – very inexpensive (about $3.00 a book).

I'm thinking of doing a giveaway. What's acceptable for a prize and what's not (i.e., swag, new/used books, gift cards, etc.)? – Sarah

Anything is acceptable for a giveaway! Swag, new and used books and gift cards are great ideas. Some might not have the desired draw as others might have, say a Gift Card might be a lot hotter than a Used Book – but all are acceptable.


I am going to be a freshman in high school and I just started my blog. I was wondering how can I improve my writing on my blog ?

Also, how old do you have to be to receive ARCs and go to the different conventions? - Abby

Improve your writing by practicing and proofreading. Sometimes when I’m working on a hard post I’ll write it out, dump it and rewrite it. This way the thought is in my head and I can hone it better the second time around. Then proofread, proofread, proofread and no matter how many times you do this, there will still be errors. Having someone else look over it is also a great idea. By others picking out the mistakes you make, it will help you know what mistakes you have a tendency to make.

About the conventions and ARCs, from what I could tell there is no age limit for convention and ARCs.


You know, I don't care what you say, I'm still going to post about my dogs. They always get a ton of comments every time I do that, so I'm just going to do it. I don't know how you justify it, it's my blog and I don't think it is a mistake. - Anon
That is superb, if they get a lot comments, more power to you. Once again, I was just saying from a book bloggers perspective you might want to stick to just books. I was just putting it into perspective that if a person follows you - from a book readers stand-point (not a social stand-point) and wants to know about books, most of them will not stop and read your posts on the Shih-Tzu names Pookie and her exploits with your stuffed panda. Then added to that if a publisher is looking for a new blog to add to their "reviewer" list and they stumble upon Pookie - they might skip to the next blog that has an actual book topic.

Never a matter of what you SHOULD do with your blog, just better blogger practices when trying to enhance your BOOK BLOG. Now, if you had a Doggie Blog - well I would be telling you to get the books off of it and focus on Pookie and Mr. Stuffy.

That's it folks. Talk less. Read More. Happy Thursday.





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22 comments:

Aimee said...

Great post! I always use media mail. I mailed a book out Monday and it was just under two bucks.

ParaJunkee said...

@Aimee - Oy! I've never gotten one under two bucks *pouts* Mine are always always $2.80 hmmmm....

Natasha A. said...

Just wanted to say thank you for putting these all out there. I have a huge love for your Book Blogging 101 features!

Natasha A. said...

I wish we had Media Mail in Canada :( They got rid of it a few years ago.

Autumn said...

Ok, now I have something new to be obsessed with, improving my Klout score lol

ParaJunkee said...

@Natasha - Oh that stinks. I love media mail. And you are welcome. Thank you for reading!

@Autumn - Yeah I'm kind of obsessed too.

Anonymous said...

LOL- Pookie......

And Ive never heard of Kout...Geez!!

Anonymous said...

Drrttt...I mean Klout!!!

Sarah said...

The only thing about Klout is that it is great to measure stuff for Facebook/Twitter, but it isn't really a completely accurate number given that all the comments and messages boards, and other types of networking you do don't come into play. It should say "your overall social networking influence", not overall online influence, because there is more to networking than just Twitter/Facebook.

But, it's still a useful tool to use, it's free, and doesn't take much time to checkout, so why not? :)

♥ Sarah @ I'm Loving Books

ParaJunkee said...

@Tina - better than gout right???

@Sarah - It's the best one of the bunch. They just incorporated LinkedIn and I'm assuming Google + might be next on the list. I don't know how they could incorporate all the forums and such. Who knows right? I guess they assume that most people tweet and post what they blog and discuss.

Johanna said...

Thanks! I've been wondering what Klout is and how to evaluate it. This was such a great, informative post.

Frances said...

I found this to be a very helpful post. Lots of good information. I will be doing my first giveaway soon so this was especially good for me to read! Thanks!

Jennifer G. said...

Never heard of Klout but sounds interesting. I'm like Cristina, going to be doing my first giveaway soon too, so it was especially helpful. I made this first one US only because I'm not familiar with Book Depository, but once I research it a little more I might be able to expand. I plan on using Amazon for this first one because I have a Prime account, and I will also be able to track the book and know that it at least gets to the location properly.

Oh, and my blog might be Books and Barks, but I swear that anonymous question is NOT me LOL!

E.J. Stevens said...

OMG, I've been wondering what "this Klout thing" was all about. Now I know. You rock (as always)!

Thanks for the info. :)

xx,
E.J.
Paranormal Author E.J. Stevens
From the Shadows

Confuzzled Shannon said...

They really should have your description of what it is about on Klout because when I signed up when you mentioned the first time. I couldn't figure out WTH my number really meant. It took me a while to understand. Even my husband who is in marketing was like WTH is it?
.

Jennifer_After_Dark said...

Thnks for the info,,,I'll have to check out my Klout,,its kinda like your blog credit score,,lol
and I wanted to compliment you on your response the statement from the blogger about the dogs,,
you handled that well,,
and thanks for sharing
Jennifer B.

Escape by Fiction said...

Thanks for answering my question about giveaways. I appreciate the help:)

Richard said...

Great as always! Thanks for sharing again! :)

Alison Can Read said...

Great info about Klout. I loved that article. Still can't believe people are hassling you about the personal stuff on book blogs. But people always get worked up about something.
Well...not me. I would never overreact to something I read on the Internet. (nose growing longer as I type). :-)

Unknown said...

I love that you love judging standards. I do too!

Oh, and for age restrictions for conventions - I know BEA requires you to be 18 or attend with a parent or guardian.

Shelagh said...

Awesome post again Rachel. I have had a few people asking me about Klout, so I can refer them here in future. :)

Shelagh
The Word Fiend

Sarah M said...

For giveaways, may I suggest ebooks? They are relatively inexpensive to buy, and if you contact authors/publishers, they are usually very open to giving them away because it costs them nothing. This is especially true if you are open to self-published or indie authors. I have had at least giveaway open at all times since the beginning of summer, and it's all due to ebooks.

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