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Is there such a thing as "online clout"? What do you think of those "twelebrities" or super facebook fans with thousands of friends or who can forget Tila Tequila whose claim to fame was having excessive numbers of friends.
I read a post on Seth Godin's blog about online clout which made me think - http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/09/clout.html
The question I do have is: Even if you have a high "clout level", can you personally pick up the phone and call these so called friends and contacts?

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Yes — there is a meaningful difference between raw audience size and real influence. asked whether large followings translate into usable relationships, and pointed out that people have long tried to quantify influence. The practical point: clout is earned when an audience both listens and acts. Big numbers without engagement are mostly signal, not leverage.

Practical steps to build durable, usable influence:

  • Narrow your value. Pick a clear topic people can rely on you for.
  • Create useful work consistently. Long-form posts, case studies, or helpful how-tos outlive one-off blasts.
  • Show up in conversation. Reply, thank, and follow up. Public mentions matter; one-to-one outreach converts influence into relationships.
  • Turn promising contacts into direct channels. Move productive threads into email, DMs, or meetings so connections become dependable.
  • Measure what matters. Track engagement rate, shares, referral traffic, leads or signups, and response rates instead of just follower counts.

A caution: avoid buying attention or treating metrics as trophies. Trust and reciprocity scale slowly but persist. For background on why audience size alone is a weak proxy for influence and why relationships and measurable engagement matter, see the Pew Research social-media overview and the concept of social capital (Pew Research, Social capital).

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So my question is: how do you build online clout?

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I don't know if they still use it but their used to be this thing called a 'Q' rating and it was based on a formula using media presence, box-office/ratings draw and a few other ratings and it determined a celebrities viability as a spokesperson. What it all came down to was if you are a big name you are a sought after spokesperson. I think the same applies to the super facebook fans and 'twelebrities'.


I have to go shoot myself for using that word now.

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