As a food truck owner, you tweet, you post, you share, you comment and you like, but how much influence does your truck really have online? If you’re one of the 400 million social media users with a Klout score, that question shouldn’t be hard to answer.

klout

Klout is a San Francisco-based company founded in 2009 that assesses online influence by using data from Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram and several other social media platforms. Each user is assigned a Klout score between one and 100. The higher your score, the more influence you’re believed to have within those networks.

While Klout has steadily gained in popularity over the past several years, there are many who still question how they compile their data. Detractors say the site’s scores (which are based on complicated, well-guarded algorithms) are arbitrary and that, in the grand scheme of social media, Klout shouldn’t count for much at all.

Others including us at Mobile Cuisine disagree. It is an important tool because almost all food truck owners market their mobile business through online networks. Klout provides a good way to quantify the amount of influence you have online.

You may still be hesitant to use Klout since most food truck marketing is targeting hyper-local markets, but in our opinion, it can’t hurt to have a tool that gives you an idea about how your online marketing is fairing.

If you are new to Klout, here are ABCs to to help improving your score:

A: Always be engaging 

Always be engaging means to engage specifically with people on a personal basis. A great place to do this is in online communities — Facebook and LinkedIn groups, Google+ Communities and Twitter chats. Consumers want a real human being to connect with them and engage with them. Social media marketing works best when you have real people connecting with real people.

B: Be consistent

It is imperative to be consistent. If you make a tweet once every six months, you’re not going to be very effective on Twitter. Similar to real life, out of sight equals out of mind. You want to show up consistently with a planned strategy for connecting and engaging with your customers.

C: Connect

Connect means that you relate to others by first listening to their needs, then responding specifically with genuine help and care. Connect also means that it’s very important to connect all of your networks to Klout. You can do this at the Klout.com website. When you add other networks to their Twitter account at Klout.com, you can see a definite increase in you Klout Score.

Food truck owners typically have limited resources. This forces you to focus your limited marketing and advertising budget where it will get the most value. Targeting highly influential people makes a lot of sense. Using a tool like Klout can help food truck owners to gain a competitive advantage in their market by gaining an understanding of prospective customers.