Feifei Hello and welcome to The English We Speak. I’m Feifei.
Roy And I’m Roy!
Feifei I’m really impressed, Roy. Neil said you have real clout!
Roy What?! You mean that Neil wants to hit me? Is he angry with me?
Feifei No, Roy. ‘Clout’ can mean to hit someone as a verb, but it can also be used as a noun to mean ‘your influence or fame on social media’. Neil was talking about how much clout you have with all your followers.
Roy Ahh – that kind of clout. But I don’t have that many followers.Sometimes people get my name confused with…
Feifei Rob – it’s Rob who has the clout! He has lots of followers and some real influence on social media. He’s using it to sell biscuits his mum made.
Roy Hmmm! I’m going to try and find some more followers while we listen to some examples.
Examples Esmeralda has some real clout on social media. She has so many followers who watch all her vlogs.
We’ve decided to hire an influencer with real clout to help us launch our new project.
Derek used his clout to sell the new perfume to his millions of followers.
Feifei This is The English We Speak from BBC Learning English, and we’re talking about the informal expression ’clout’, which means your level of fame or influence on social media. It can also be used in another situation, can’t it?
Roy That’s right – it can also be used in business or politics, to refer to the level of power and influence a person has. For example, ‘My boss used their clout to get the deal done’.
Feifei That’s right. So, Roy – did you have any success in getting any more followers? Do you have some more clout?
RoyYes! My mum just followed me and as soon as I posted my new photo, someone liked it!
Feifei Liking your own photos doesn’t count as clout – you can’t influence yourself! Right – I’m off to get a photo with Rob so I can get more followers.
RoyThat sounds like a great way to increase your clout!
FeifeiIt does. Bye, Roy!
RoyBye, Feifei!