Having A Strong Social Media Presence Can Save You Money

Whenever someone tells me that social media is a waste of time, I can usually come up with a valid excuse. Sometimes I mumble that I would miss a lot of events, lose out on a good deal or be socially outcast if I didn't use social media.

But today I found a better excuse.

According to Smart Money having a strong social media presence can save you a lot of money. Sites like Klout, PeerIndex and PeopleBrowsr, rate a person's social media influence and gives them a score (Klout does their ratings on a scale of 1 to 100). In the article it states that  having a higher rating may help you get a better mortgage rate.

"Movenbank founder Brett King says clients with high scores are probably a better lending risk -- after all, thousands of followers trust their judgment. And they're valuable customers -- if they're happy with a service, they tweet about it," the story reads.

It also goes on to say that companies are using people's scores for sales deals or response times.  Gilt, the online fashion outlet, recently offered discounts to customers based on their Klout score; Capital One offered extra bonus miles to its highest-scoring customers.

Advertising and marketing employers are also using these scores to help them in the hiring process. 

Knowing that social media will soon become the main channel for communication inspires me to get more involved.

So go ahead-- post something you didn't know, re-tweet a funny comment or add to your blog-- you never know how it might pay off.
 
--Klydi Heywood