By Iola Goulton
Well, not really. But Klout says I am—at least, I’m more important that Steve Laube (prominent literary agent for Christian authors), Amanda Luedeke (marketing guru at literary agency MacGregor Literary, another prominent agency working with authors in the Christian market) and as important as Emily Rodmell (acquisitions editor for Love Inspired novels). I can prove it: here is the screen shot of my Klout score on 18 October:And here are screen shots for Amanda, Emily and Steve:
Am I really more important, more influential, than these people? I don’t think so.
Klout is supposedly a measure of influence on the interwebz. It analyses engagement on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ to measure influence (the ability to drive action in others). I joined Klout because a book blogger programme I’m a member of required a Klout score over 30 to get review copies. At that point my score was around 25, but it’s slowly increased to its current high of 55.
I recently read an article debating the accuracy of the Klout score and hinting at the possibility of gaming the system. A quick Google search showed how easy this can be.
It’s easy to get caught up chasing the numbers—how many Facebook friends, how many Likes on a Fan page, how many Followers on Twitter, how many subscribed to our blog and (of course) our Klout score.
But this isn’t what’s important.
What’s important is that we love and care for our families and friends.
What’s important is that we love God and are seeking to live according to His purpose for our lives.
What’s important is that we remember who we are in the eyes of God, who loves us more than we can ever imagine (and fiction authors can imagine a lot!). He sent His Son to die for us. He waits for us, His bride, to return to Him. And He does all this without regard for what we do—or how high our Klout score is.
(By the way, my Klout score has since dropped since I wrote this. Never mind. I'm still important to God.)
I am a freelance editor specialising in Christian fiction, and you can find out more about my services at my website, or follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. I love reading, and read and review around 150 Christian books each year on my blog.
