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Have you heard of Klout? If you are a business, or a just a student―it's best to keep your knowledge of different social and business sites up to date. Klout is a start up business founded by two friends in 2008.

The main goal of Klout is to measure the influence that you have (or a company) around the web. There is a score from 1 to 100 based on how well you (or a company) can call people to action. In a nutshell, it is a “credit score” that makes your life better. Instead of looking at who is following you, or how many friends you have, Klout looks at what you do. It looks at your retweets, comments, likes, and how it influences other people. Right now, they only focus on Facebook and Twitter.

This is a great way to:

Track your success: you can see what you are doing and it it's working. If you put a link on your page, you will see who actually follows it. It might be a bust, but it might end up being a game changer for you. If you own a business, you can see if the coupon that you offered is really driving traffic.

Perks. At Klout, if you register, you will be able to get “perks”. This is exclusive deals and products that only Klout members get.

Influences. This is a great way to see how many people influence you and how many people you influence. It is really interesting to track how much other people really do have an influence on you―and you hardly even notice it.

For business:

Engage. As a business, you can see who are the people who influence the most. You can go after these people and hire them, or contract them to spread the word for your business.

Connect. You will be able to know who you can connect to. You will know the people that are the ones that you want to follow, and who actually have things that you know will influence others.

Data. You can learn more about the way that your business functions. With the data that Klout provides, you will be able to see what is working for you, and what it not. It will help you get better ideas for your company.

Klout seems like it's a good idea. It's a great idea for rookies (and professionals) or the SEO world to start to take notice how certain pages influence others. Sure, there is Google Analytics, but those don't measure how 'influential' you are. It just gives you stats and numbers. If you are looking for something where you can find more about your pages that you manage, or even if you want to see how your blog is affecting others, take a look at Klout. 

About the Author

Neltje Ann is a writer for MyCollegesandCareers.com. My Colleges and Careers is a tool for those that are actively trying to pursue their online masters degree programs while maintaining their family and personal life.