On Klout, it’s all about engagement. This is what I’ve seen for the past few months I’ve been monitoring my influence score. It’s also about the type of content, when it is posted, and how frequent you publish. It does sound complicated and difficult to juggle. The truth is, it can be.

So, how do you improve your Klout score, or at least keep it steady, enough to keep your influence?

Focus on one or a few networks

Klout started off with a few networks – Facebook & Twitter – then moved on to adding LinkedIn, Google+, Foursquare, and recently Instagram. I built my score to 65 at one point when I focused solely on Facebook and Twitter. About 90% of my influence score came from Facebook, next on Twitter, and a very small fraction from Foursquare. As I added more to the list, especially Instagram (which I’ve only recently jumped on), the score dipped. I’m now – as of today’s update – at 63.

Looking at a snapshot of my social network breakdown, the 90 percentile on Facebook has been eaten up by the rest and is now at 52%. What happened? I moved my focus to Instagram and Twitter the last 120 days. Interestingly enough, Foursquare seems to have no effect on my score (and is the lowest) despite the big number of check-ins I have on that network.

What do these numbers mean for me? I should focus on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram when posting to my network. It can also mean that disconnecting Foursquare from Klout might be a good idea.

It’s best to integrate only the networks you see the most engagement in. However, it doesn’t mean you have to stop posting content on them.

The Effect of Scheduled Posts

Been using Hootsuite and Buffer to schedule my posts and they’ve helped me be more productive on a content management / marketing perspective. But, there is a slight disadvantage.

With Buffer, it’s easy and tempting to top up with heaps of links. As a start, you can bombard (lack of a better word) your followers with useful links. This is one way to add more followers and fans. Great, right? Yes, but in order to improve your influence, the number of posts being shared has to reach a sweet spot where the level of engagement is still high.

It’s easy to top up a lot. Hey, there is just so much information out there, right? Why not? Because you don’t want to reach a saturation point where people will stop engaging with you. Silence within the digital space is a scary thought.

If you were to use Buffer, I suggest sharing different types of content on each network. The schedule might be more frequent but customize it more to the network you have on each platform.

Did you notice that I have no posts scheduled on Facebook? Because I want more control on what goes out to each list I’ve created.

And this is also the reason I prefer HootSuite over Buffer. I can post relevant content to specific lists on every network. Admittedly, I love it because it connects all my social networks (unlike Buffer).

To recap, scheduling posts can be a good thing to improve your Klout score, as long as you customize it enough to ensure the highest level of engagement. The type of content, using your lists, and frequency of posts are keys to making it work for you.

And I’m off, to continue this experiment and see what else affects my Klout. Do you have your own tips and observations? I’m all ears!