Clout
Etymology
From Middle English clout, "a blow, a heavy hit," which gave rise to the sense of "influence, pull" (as in "political clout") in American English. Internet culture revived and reshaped it around the mid-2010s to mean social-media influence, and coined "clout-chasing" for pursuing it nakedly.
noun · /KLOWT/
Social influence and pull, especially the kind measured in online attention and followers.
What it names
It names reputation as a currency — the leverage that comes from being widely seen and talked about. Its dark twin is "clout-chasing": doing something not for its own sake but to harvest the attention, which is why the word often carries a whiff of cynicism.
Example
He picked that fight purely for clout, and the quote-tweets delivered.
Related idea
Overlaps with influence, but clout is blunter and more transactional — attention you can cash in, not respect you’ve earned.