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Your Klout score is irrelevant to selling real estate, but it can be used against you...

Reblogger Jeff Belonger
Mortgage and Lending with Social Media - Infinity Home Mortgage Company, Inc

 

I thought Inna Hardison was spot on, regarding regarding Klout and what your number means, especially as a realtor. I see many people focusing on this, especially some realtors... and I share the same opinion as Inna. Besides, if you spend too much time online, socializing with Facebook & Twitter, this is just one main way of increasing your score. It still doesn't mean that you are an expert at real estate. And in my opinion, with most businesses out there. #justsayin

 

Original content by Inna Hardison

Todd Carpenter wrote an interesting post about Klout last week, with the gist of it being that paying attention to Klout score doesn’t necessarily measure anything worth measuring for a real estate professional.  The way to get your Klout score up is basically to talk to and be +K’ed or mentioned by other influential people (influential based on their Klout score), so at the end of the day you might be Klout-worthy or influential, just in the wrong circles when it comes to selling real estate in your specific market.  Again – my interpretation, read the post, it’s short and quite good.

klout is meaningless

This post was inspired by a comment to Todd’s blog from Michael J. Maher, a Realtor in Kansas and the author of “(7L) The Seven Levels of Communication: Go from Relationships to Referrals”.  He voiced a dissenting opinion, stating that Klout score is not only important to a real estate professional, but he uses Klout during his listing appointments.  And I quote, from Michael’s example of how he uses his Klout score to get listings: “One of the questions I want you to ask the other professionals you interview is, what is your Klout score (and that is with a K, K-L-O-U-T dot com)? This is a beautiful question because 1) if they don’t know what it is, you can instantly eliminate them, 2) when they tell you, you can instantly compare influence, and 3) please write this down – mine is 78 and rising steadily. They say 20 means you are out there and over 50 is outstanding. What’s nice is that with one question, you will get a feel for their Internet savviness [sic.], which as you said before is important to selling your home.”

Outside of what I took to be a rather condescending tone of this particular sales pitch, it got me thinking that if I were say a Realtor in Michael’s market who happened to follow him to a listing appointment and a seller indeed asked me about my Klout score, I would quite possibly burst out laughing (after the initial shock and confusion wore off some).  I would then have to point out to this seller just how misguided the question is and I would probably feel compelled to explain just how very meaningless Klout score is.  I would have to tell them that having a high Klout score (or any, for that matter) would help me sell their house in the same way that being a Mayor of a particular Starbucks would.

But I don’t sell real estate for a living, and I do know what Klout is and what it does. So it made me wonder how many agents, asked that same question would blush, state that they’ve no idea what their score is (or, God forbid, what Klout is for that matter), and walk away feeling like they’d done something wrong.  They’d run home and spend an inordinate amount of time getting a Klout score to compete with Michael’s, they’d light up twitter with requests for +K’s and such and do all the things they are now told matter, none of which pertain in any way to the business of helping people buy or sell real estate.

So here is my attempt at saving you some time, should you ever find yourself having to answer the Klout question: First, remember that If you are ever asked what your Kllout score is, chances are, there was an agent there before you who believes Klout score is a meaningful measure of online influence and he used it in his sales pitch.  Now, feel free to explain to the seller that unless you are trying to score free movie tickets or lotion baskets, your Klout score is a pretty meaningless number as it pertains to your job.  It does not measure your online marketing efforts’ success in selling a home any more than winning at Farmville measures your aptitude as a farmer.  And then tell the seller how you will market their home online in all the places where buyers are looking for homes (and Klout isn’t one of those places), and explain the rest of your marketing strategy.

Lastly, feel free to tell the seller that there are two kinds of marketing, one that is all about agent self-promotion and one that is all about actually reaching a goal (in this case the goal of selling the home).  In order for you to have a high Klout score you’d have to devote every minute of your time to promoting your own greatness, and that would leave very little time for staging and photographing the property, for writing phenomenal descriptions of it, and for syndicating that property every place meaningful on the Internet. In simple terms – you are a real estate professional and not a kid trying to get laid.  Your job demands that you don’t waste your time on gimmicks in the hopes of getting a listing.  Klout, Foursquare, Empire Avenue et. al. are games, designed to boost one’s ego, and occasionally engagements in these platforms give one a false sense of doing something important.  So do what you do, and either engage in these little games or not, so long as you understand that they are just that, games and distractions, from which you might occasionally land a lead in much the same way you might land a lead from any other chance occurrence, - pleasant when it happens but statistically irrelevant.

For the record, my Klout score is 58, and it means absolutely nothing, I assure you.

Update: Michael and I have since had a surprisingly nice conversation on Twitter.  I still disagree with the above, but I am glad to have met him:-)

Originally published on my blog at http://teamhardison.com

Some Recent Related Social Media Marketing Articles:

Unplugging For the Circles that truly matter

Please don't +1 me

All New Gravatars - are you missing out?

New Shiny Objects vs. Great Neighbors

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Copyright © 2011 by Jeff Belonger of Infinity Home Mortgage Company, Inc

Show All Comments Sort:
Larry Bettag
Cherry Creek Mortgage Illinois Residential Mortgage License LMB #0005759 Cherry Creek Mortgage NMLS #: 3001 - Saint Charles, IL
Vice-President of National Production

Good stuff Jeff.....I just don't like the fact that it can be used against you.  Really, if I do business by referral (I do), who cares about the internet???   Oh yeah....I do because while the majority of my business is done via referral, the internet is an ever growing part of my business formula.  Neglecting Klout can be a bad thing!

Jul 21, 2011 06:01 PM
The Somers Team
The Somers Team at KW Philadelphia - Philadelphia, PA
Delivering Real Estate Happiness

Jeff - Great reblog... Klout score is fun and interesting but really not part of a marketing strategy.

Jul 24, 2011 04:12 AM
John Cannata
214-728-0449 http://TexasLoanGuy.com - Frisco, TX
Texas Home Mortgage - Purchase or Refinance

I think maybe you agree with her because your Klout score is low ??  :-)  Kidding of course.  I check it every once in awhile because Im curious. I completely agree that it really means nothing. This doesnt make you an expert, because I know that I certainly am not an expert and the last I checked my klout score was 55.

Jul 29, 2011 04:18 AM
James R. Taylor
http://mortgagecrunchapp.com - Livermore, CA
Co-Founder of MortgageCrunch Loan Origination Software

I agree that a high Klout score is not the golden ticket to success. But wouldn't a high Klout score indicate that content is valuable/worthy enough for retweets and likes, further pushing the content through the social web for others to discover? This would undoubtedly increase the likelyhood of getting results to the call to action. I would think that if I were a RE Agent, the more people that I can get to find out about my listing the better.

Disclaimer: I don't know what my Klout score is, I would simply like to open the floor to discussion.

Aug 01, 2011 11:07 AM
Don Sabinske
Don Sabinske, Sabinske & Associates Inc. - Zimmerman, MN
Sabinske & Associates Inc.

I am thinking this is just a mortgage thing, correct?  But, by the way, where are you?  Hope everything is okay.

Aug 31, 2011 11:12 AM
1~Judi Barrett
Idabel, OK

Jeff, What a relief!  I have felt so inadequate when attending Raincamp where Klout scores were talked about.  That was the first time that Ihad heard about Klout.    It's just me, myself, and I although Don is taking his real estate course and will be able to take over some of the licensed duties.  I really do not have time to waste on non-productive game playing on the internet whther it's Farmville, FourSquare, or Klout. 

You do not know how much you have improved my mood tonight with your re-blogging of this post.  I have a long list to do right after I do these supper dishes.. :)

Sep 01, 2011 01:03 PM
Jeff Belonger
Social Media - Infinity Home Mortgage Company, Inc - Cherry Hill, NJ
The FHA Expert - FHA Loans - FHA mortgages - USDA loans - VA Loans

 

LARRY... . that is one thing I hate. In the case of the realtor, you would have one that would Tweet and facebook all day as opposed to one who sold real estate. The one online 24/7 would probably have a Klout score double to the other person. The person with the higher klout score would sell against the person with the lower klout score... but this wouldn't mean you know real estate if you had a very high klout score.

In regards to neglecting Klout? Never said it.. I consider Klout to be a good measuring tool, but it should not be looked at like it was Washington Mint.... This is just my opinion.. some agree, and some disagree. But I will be writing a post on this in a week, because I have done a few experiments.. and Jeff Turner did an awesome experiment. thanks

CHRISTOPHER.... .  well, it can help in a marketing strategy... but I just think it's being used by too many as a very key focal point. It's like the points here on AR.... just because you have tons of points, doesn't mean you are a great person or great at what you do.

JOHN... . let's not fool ourselves... Klout scores do mean something... they do. I just think way too many are putting a much larger weight on the score and selling it like it's the bible. #justsayin

 

JAMES.... .  You stated this... "But wouldn't a high Klout score indicate that content is valuable/worthy enough for retweets and likes, further pushing the content through the social web for others to discover?" 

Not, not neccessarily... and as I mentioned to Larry above, I will be writing about that in a week or so... because I know someone that did two experiments to prove what you think, is not even 75% correct. It's scary. And like so many systems, they can be gamed. A high klout score is not all about content... it might tell you in it's descriptions, but it's not. It's more about the time you spend on the internet, talking to people, people talking back to you, retweeting your stuff, and liking your facebook stuff. That is how Klout defines your score... they figure, if people retweet it, like it, and talk to you; that you are an authority on that specific subject. But my next post will expose this all... Now, remember, this is all based on my opinion, my studies, but with common sense.

DON... . just a mortgage thing? I don't follow... Klout can be used by anyone.. the biggest people using it are those in social media.. And yes, I am okay.... just got way burnt on in blogging and commenting... and working on a few projects. thanks for asking. Hope all is well with you.

JUDI.... . Klout can help, but I don't think a realtor needs to focus on this. Example.. if you don't touch Twitter and Facebook, yet you blog very well and post to your fan page, Klout would have no idea. As I mentioned to Larry and a few others, I will be writing about this in more detail soon. thanks

 

Sep 02, 2011 02:11 AM