As pioneers of a cause we are constantly seeking the online influencers of your target audience to help spread the word and help increase your reach. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Klout, it is the new standard of influence whose goal is to become the official scoring system of the social Web. By visiting www.Klout.com you can enter your social media profiles to generate a Klout Score.

Here are the available social platforms that can link to a Klout account:
• Flickr
• Last.fm
• Blogger
• Tumblr
• YouTube
• Instagram
• Foursquare
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Linkedin

The Klout Score is the measurement of your overall online influence by measuring an individual’s ability to drive action. Meaning the amount of Retweets, @messages, likes, and comments you drive, all affect your score. The scores range from 1 to 100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Not everyone can obtain the near perfect Klout score of celebrities like Justin Bieber, but it is definitely something to work towards! My depressing Klout score is 13. Feel free to share you scores with us in the comments section below, hopefully you are more influential than me!

Klout uses over 35 variables to measure True Reach (how many people you influence), Amplification Probability (how much you influence them), and Network Score (how influential they are).

So basically, Klout makes it easy for us, (online social marketers) to identify those key influencers that can really push your campaign messaging to your key audience.

By engaging with influencers, organizations can use Klout Perks to connect with top influencers in a given topic and offer them the chance to get involved and take action.

This model has been applied by many companies in what is being coined Klout Gating on Facebook. This is dependent on how high your Klout Score is which will determine your access level to select brand pages on Facebook and it could net you perks. Perks can take the form of a new trailer, product, coupon or any other unreleased material.

How can this model be applied to social good?

Looking at the Klout Scores of the people in your community to find out how to most effectively use your time will help you know who to connect to. Those with high Klout Scores have the ability to impact a large audience. You can use tools like Hootsuite, Cotweet, Seesmic, or even Klout Chrome and Firefox Twitter extensions to help you do this. Look not just at Klout Score but at their topics of influence and who influences them to understand what they care about.