I just came across an interesting Mashable article. It talks about Klout, the web-based high school popularity contest with fallible metrics, which isn’t so interesting, but the article also talks about how to legitimately boost your rating with Klout. And this is interesting only because, once you remove it from this misguided, self-important company, it’s good advice for organizations and independent businesses to establish and strengthen their online presence. And I quote:

1. Build a network. The key to increasing a Klout score is similar to finding success on the social web in general: Build a targeted, engaged network of people who would be legitimately interested in you and your content.

2. Create meaningful content. Adopt a strategy to create or aggregate meaningful content that your network loves to share with others. Provide links!

3. Engage. Actively engage with others in a helpful and authentic way. Ask questions, answer questions and create a dialogue with your followers.

4. Don’t scheme. Any gaming behaviors that fall outside the basic strategies will eventually catch up to you. For example, specifically targeting conversations with high Klout influencers will probably be more annoying than successful. If you keep focused on your network strategy and your content strategy, you’ll succeed.

5. Interact with everyone. Don’t be afraid to interact with Klout users with lower scores—it won’t hurt your own score. In fact, it helps build their score and in turn makes you more of an influencer.

6. Publish. Remember, you don’t have to make a movie or be elected to office to have power now. All you need to do is publish. Access to free publishing tools such as blogs, video and Twitter have provided users with an opportunity to have a real voice, so take advantage of these many platforms.

7. Keep at it. Don’t be discouraged by your score. It’s more important to just enjoy your social media experience and let the chips fall where they may.

Seriously, ignore all mentions of Klout and take the rest of it to heart. It’s not complex, it’s totally accessible counsel for someone trying to stay interesting and viable on the Net.