Have you heard of Klout? Klout measures an individual’s online influence. Coach Wolfgang explains the importance of Klout and you can improve yours.  Specifically, Klout is a social media analytic service that aims to measure an individual’s influence across their social network. Your Klout Score is a number between 1 and 100 that represents your influence across social media. It looks at 400 variables to see what type of content you are creating, who you are engaging with, who is reading your content, who those individuals are sharing your content with, and so on. Your Klout score may be used by airlines, retailers, hotels and other hospitality services. But how is your Klout score being used in the job search process?

The work world is rapidly changing. Job seekers often wonder how a social media presence should be used in the job search and if social media can help you get a job. As always, there are no hard and fast rules but, at a minimum, you should be aware of the different social media channels that are out there and ways that you might be evaluated.

A few companies may look at your Klout score as a factor in bringing you in for an interview or for a hiring decision. This is especially true if online presence and influence is critical to the position you are seeking (i.e. Public Relations, Marketing, etc). Some individuals in this arena will put their Klout score on their resume. Even if it is not on their resume, it may be an important number to know during the interview. Not only should you know it, but if it is low, you may want to actively work on increasing the
score.

Just like all social media channels, a job seeker should be aware of how they play
in their space. Are they relevant for your industry? Are they relevant for your current position or the next position you are seeking? Are they relevant to the company you are interviewing with? If the answer to those questions are yes, then you need to decide how to incorporate Klout in your job search.

We live in a time where the job search is very dynamic. Stay on top of the new tools and technology that are being introduced and know how they might impact you. For many individuals, their Klout score will never come up in their job search. However, there is another segment of the population who needs to know about Klout and know their score. Just like you educated yourself on how blogging, twitter, Facebook, Google+ worked, you can positively or negatively impact your job search, continue to stay educated on new technology and ask yourself how it could impact your job search.