My business is helping people. That’s it. I believe that God has called me to teach and guide people to being a better leader, better team member, better…them!

And because so much of what I do is done in a public format, like this website, speaking events, etc., I use social media to let people know that I’m here to help.

Chances are, if you haven’t become one of the cool kids who subscribe to this blog, (Click the “follow me” button now. Trust me, it’s worth it.) then you probably  learned of this post through one of the social media outlets I use.

Or, you have an incredible smart and attractive friend who forwarded this to you. Either way, part of me being effective is making sure that I do a good job using social media.

With that are many different ways of measure my effectiveness. While I won’t go into all of them, I will talk about one that is very effective at helping or hurting one’s ego. Yes, I’m talking about Klout.

Klout is a way of measuring one’s social influence. It takes a look at all you’re doing through social media outlets, and then ranks you and gives you a number.

The problem is, if you’re a gadget person like myself, then you have a smart phone. If you have a smart phone, then you’ve probably downloaded 17,000 apps to your phone, which you really only use about 10 of those apps.

If you do social media, then you probably downloaded Klout like I did. And being silly like I am, I allowed the Klout app to send me push notifications letting me know exactly what my score is at anytime, and showing me with the little badge icon number as well.

Therefore, every time I open my phone, that little number is staring at me. Which is not bad if you’re Mike Hyatt and your number is 82. But when you’re Chris LoCurto, your number is 69!

The worst is when you open your phone to see the little red badge of shame showing that you’ve dropped a point since the last time you opened your phone. DANG IT!! WHAT’S WRONG WITH ME?!

At least that’s what you begin to ask yourself in said times. The truth is, sometimes we can get a little carried away with social media, and the measuring tools used to define my competence.

That’s why I deleted it off of my phone, and I only check it once in awhile online. Because I refuse to be defined by a tiny red number. Instead, I like to measure my influence by the incredible people who come here for help.

That is what’s important to me. Well, that and my Google Analytics. Did I just say that?

Question: What’s your thoughts on focusing too much, or not enough, on tools like Klout?