The problem with influence? I don’t have any of it.

Well, I have SOME influence. Why, recently, as I was tweeting with my good friend Danny Brown, it dawned on me that I should check my Klout score.

60! My Klout Score is a 60!

Crap. Not only is it a 60, I am a “curator.” Unless it’s a museum of Tim Ferriss books or Joel Stein artifacts, I’m not interested in curating anything but my own IRA.

(Sidebar, @Ira would be a cool as hell Twitter handle.)

Bummed out by my newly discovered lack of influence, I decided to spin on over to Social Fresh, because Jason Keath is a cool dude and wears T-shirts. White T-Shirts.

Seeing all the stuff on his site got me thinking that my site, Area 224, should be much more “optimized” to maximize on its influence and get us out of the “barely passable” grade of 60.

So it’s off to Grader to do the Website Grader.

98! That’s more like it!

We have mojo.

But does this mojo translate into influence?

I decided to ask another close personal friend of mine, Gini Dietrich.

My question: “Does a Website Grader score of 98 make you influential?” Her answer:

“I don’t think it necessarily does. It’s just another number, like Klout, that people look at it when they’re trying to shortcut ways to find influencers.”

Wait, am I trying to “be” influential, or am I trying to “find” those who are influential?

Now I’m insanely confused.

Time to redefine influence. For your business. For your niche. For your industry.

Ah-ha! The point of the article: do you have an objective for your marketing? Your social media time? Your business?

If you need to be influential, start figuring out why.

If you need to find influencers, start figuring out what you want to find them for.

It’s a nutty game, this Influence stuff. Before you play, realize that there really aren’t any rules.