The Official Klout Blog

This is the second of a new series on Klout influencers (“Klout Stars”) and how they got to where they are today. The first was with Brian Solis and we’re excited to be able to interview Dave Larson, behind @TweetSmarter for today’s post.

About TweetSmarter: The @TweetSmarter account has won a Knight Foundation and Shorty award, been pictured on the front cover of CNN’s technology section, profiled by the Huffington Post, and has answered thousands of questions for Twitter users around the world over the past three-and-a-half years.

Run by Dave Larson with the help of his wife Sarah, @TweetSmarter has been ranked as high as one of the three most influential accounts in the world in years past by various influence measurement services. Oprah even once displayed Sarah’s personal account—with the message “follow @SarahJL“—during their first big segment on Twitter.

Outside of Twitter, they are both public speakers, Dave being an internet entrepreneur and investor who likes to bring people together on various projects, and Sarah teaching and performing as a professional dancer and voice actor.

We asked…

1. How’d you get started as @TweetSmarter?

“I started on Twitter as @QuantumGood in September 2007 and then created the @TweetSmarter account the following August. It was originally called @Twitter_Tips, but that contributed to a misperception that we work for Twitter (we don’t), so we changed it to @TweetSmarter in mid-2010 with Twitter’s help and blessing.

The idea was to learn how to help as many people as we could use Twitter well. As part of that learning process, I learned that the more transparent I am, the faster I learn. This can admittedly be tough. It will mean changing how you do things sometimes. But my advice is to accept all feedback, and take a shot a staying in harmony with absolutely EVERYONE who ever contacts you, by listening. While you don’t always have to respond, you should always be listening.”

2. What’s your strategy for the content you produce and share on social media?

“I try to find or create content that will be the most helpful for our friends and followers. I started by guessing at what would be most helpful to people, but by engaging constantly I now get hourly feedback on what people like and need. I then seek it out, or produce it if I can’t find it. A lot of what is missing at most blogs is the nitty-gritty of how things work, so we produce a fair amount of long, detailed content at our blog, and update it regularly.”

3. What advice do you have for someone who wants to take their social media influence and presence to the next level?

“Find and engage with those you can help, or can help you. Focus on one at a time. Once you’ve built a relationship, maintain it. Stay in touch. As @TweetSmarter, we are constantly helping and conversing, and as a result I see dozens of messages every week where people are saying “Hey, you should follow @TweetSmarter.” We probably have a thousand people who have offered to do something for us that we have never taken them up on. That’s a very large “gratitude bank” and I think that’s a key foundation of social media influence and presence.

People have always come together to help and learn. Social media expands the potential to learn and help exponentially—but you have to connect with the right people. Whether you’re building a brand or trying to connect with experts for professional development, concentrate both on learning and helping. Find both those that need you, and those that can help you.”

Follow @TweetSmarter on Twitter to hear more from Dave and Sarah.

If you’d like to be considered for a future Klout Stars post about your social media success please email contact@klout.com.

We often get asked, “What can I do to get a higher Klout Score?”. We can provide some guidance, but the real experts on the subject are the influencers themselves. Today, we’re starting the first of a new series of posts at Klout spotlighting Klout Stars and asking them their secrets to success.

About Brian: Brian Solis is principal at Altimeter Group, a research-based advisory firm. Solis is globally recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media. A digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Solis has studied and influenced the effects of emerging media on business, marketing, publishing, and culture. His current book, Engage, is regarded as the industry reference guide for businesses to build and measure success in the social web.

We asked…

1. What’s your strategy for the content you produce and share on social media?

“I’m not sure that my engagement in social media was driven by strategy. In all honesty, my view of engagement was and still is about intention and goodwill. While many believe that the pillars of social media are solidified through authenticity and transparency, the true promise and purpose of living in public is the ability to learn in real-time, the impact we can have on anything we set out to accomplish.

Causes
Social good
Communities
Personal brands
Revolutions
Change

Social media is our chance to do something that’s bigger than us and that’s what motivates me.

I believe if Social Media warranted a mantra, it would sound something like this, ‘Always pay it forward and never forget to pay it back…it’s how you got here and it defines where you’re going.’

It’s about the investment you make in the creation or curation of relevant and useful content. It’s about the power and unsaid significance behind a retweet on Twitter, a ‘like’ on Facebook, the friending or following of someone to extend a social graph. It’s also expressed through the explicit act of commenting on posts and updates, engaging in online conversation, sharing the contributions of others as well as linking. These acts serve as the currency of social media and the exchange of this currency is indexed today by services such as Klout. The net result is the reflection of your social capital as cast by your digital persona.”

2. What advice do you have for someone who wants to take their social media influence and presence to the next level?

“There is a balance required to engage, contributing as much or more value than you withdraw from each interaction.The Social Web is powered not by self-promotion, but by the value of the community and the selfless act of recognizing, showcasing, and connecting the great people, content, and causes around us. And with it comes great purpose. If the currency of social media is action, then the value of social capital is measured in influence. Influence is not measured by a score, but instead by the culmination of resulting actions. Focusing efforts on solely driving actions is counter productive. As such, focusing efforts to boost scores is as shallow as it is restricted. If you invest in the value of the community and seek to improve the experiences of those to whom you’re connected, your influence and presence is in turn symbolic of something that escapes a number. Your investment then pays off in the form of self actualization, reaching higher potential without any attachment to success or reward.

This is your time to define the ‘me’ in social media and invest in the people who define the networks to learn, grow, and teach to increase the value of the community overall and your place within it.”

Want to hear more from Brian? Check out this video of him speaking about social currencies. Follow him on Twitter as @BrianSolis.

Let us know what you think of this new segment! If you’d like to be considered for a future Klout Stars post about your social media success please email contact@klout.com.