Ian M Rountree

Project Manager, Copywriter, Digital Marketer

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This is my blog. I write about copywriting, content marketing, SEO, and basically anything else that catches my fancy.

On Deciding Our Own Lessons

January 15, 2011 by Ian 2 Comments

You know what? I’m tired of talking about failure.

I’ve spent most of this month thinking about how to move on, to learn, to grow from setbacks – and that attitude hasn’t been helpful at all. Sure, I’m learning and growing, but I’d be really worried if I weren’t.

What we learn from our experiences is largely tied to how we treat them, both in the moment, and in hindsight.

We have this awful tendency to vilify the things that enact our setbacks, or to make golden the things that appear to have helped us succeed. Is this productive? Probably not, unless we live by way of avoidance – and that’s not productive. No matter how attached we are to praise, or unconcerned with whether people think we’re snobs online or not – retroactive adjustment is usually a bad idea.

Productivity – rather than just activity – is far more interesting, and far less tied to dedicated learn-by-failure kinds of work than one might expect.

I’ve been thinking about theory a lot lately. Applying theory to practice, adjusting our theories to match our work… These are all good things. But one of the things theory allows us to do – if we have a strong grasp of it anyway – is to conduct some analysis on our failures, and the failures of others…

But there we go again!

We need to shift our verbiage – instead of talking about our liabilities, let’s talk about our deliverables. Same thing, far different meaning. Instead of crossing things off your to-do list, highlight them – same action, entirely different mental trigger (and thank Susan Hurrell for that one).

It isn’t just how we react to our opportunities for improvement that impacts how we improve; it’s also how we react to our opportunities to show our strength, and opportunities to analyse whether it’s strength or improvement we’ve got.

Stop mitigating your weaknesses, and start bolstering your strengths.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: community, group dynamics, positive, productivity, strength, weakness

Obviousness Obviates Obfuscation

January 12, 2011 by Ian Leave a Comment

Let me explain.

“There are two ways to build any system; either make it so complex that no defects are obvious, or so simple that there are no obvious defects.”

You dig? There are basically two approaches to systems creation; finding the simplest, most basic route and building outward in an organic way… Or the other way.

The other way is how most people get things done. You assess individual tasks on a requirement basis, and find solutions for individual problems. If you find that a set of solutions works toward the same, larger problem – you’re likely to bolt the solutions together, and call it a system.

The problem with systems is that they have cracks – all of them. Any set of solutions developed for specific problems and repurposed for larger problems is bound to be flawed – within the scope of the new problem. So what do we do? We patch. We band-aid things, add adjustments to compensate for the cracks, and call the mortar “polish” or somesuch. But it’s still flaws, all the way down.

How do we accommodate for this? We can’t necessarily redevelop solutions for every problem, there’s a lot of waste there.

Instead, I’d suggest we encourage publicness – build out from our cracks without hiding them. Allow for them, manage expectations instead of adding polish.

First step? Catch yourself, the next time you start polishing with phrases like “it’s not that simple,” or “there are reasons for this” – weasel words and obfuscations are polish, intended to hide the flaws in our haphazardly built systems. What we don’t realize is that haphazard is a pseudonym of organic in almost every instance.

If you can learn to recognize the polish for what it is, and allow the cracks to be obvious, you’ll stand a much better chance of recognizing when, how, and why things call through them.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: 2011 themes, recovery, theme 1

Are People Actually Searching for Buzzwords?

January 8, 2011 by Ian Leave a Comment

Ever worry that Twitter is overtaking the blogosphere?

Well, it is. If you look at Google Trends and compare “blog” with “twitter” for search (like the screenshot below) you may think that Twitter has indeed taken over the search volume. However, looking at the numbers with a little more scrutiny, it’s entirely possible that searches containing “blog” are just as strong as it ever was, with Twitter accounting for more of the remaining available search statistics. This is probably a case of “everything is with, not instead of” (hat tip to Mitch Joel for that phrase).

Google Trends - Comparing Blog to twitter - Screenshot taken January 8th, 2011
Google Trends - Comparing Blog to twitter - Screenshot taken January 8th, 2011

Concerned that we’re too worried over Return On Investment?

This time last year, “Social Media ROI” was a massive idea – the concept of measuring the business value of human interaction is very appealing. but – was this because social media was on the rise? Or because people were more concerned with ROI itself?

Again, Trends gives us what we needed here – comparing Google Trends for “social media” with “roi” for search terms shows us that the latter saw very little overall fluctuation; our awareness of all things social media, however, increased very strongly. This of course must include ROI, as the social media ideal began to enter the business world.

Google Trends - Social Media compared to ROI - screenshot taken January 8th, 2011
Google Trends - Social Media compared to ROI - screenshot taken January 8th, 2011

It’s good to be aware of trends – but it’s also important that trends get some perspective. Scale, volume, and capacity don’t always mean the same things.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: analytics, blog measurement, Blogging, buzzwords, google trends, hack analytics, mitch joel, never mind the buzzwords, perspective, roi, social media, statistics, twitter

Entrepreneurship Is The New Secret Skill

December 1, 2010 by Ian Leave a Comment

My parents did a very smart thing when I entered high school. Rather than worrying over whether or not I would continue to take French class – and it’s still my regret that I decided against that – they made darn sure that I took keyboarding. I’d already been typing for years, but the hard skill that developed out of that one class overtook much of my natural speed, and made me a more efficient typist.

Keyboarding was a secret skill. It gave me a leg up over time.

It wasn’t prerequisite for anything when I took it, and was treated like a throw-away class by most. I was lucky – I’d broken my arm the previous summer, so I actually had a sense of lost ability I wanted to get back. Other students did the minimum required speed, kept under the maximum allowed errors. I turned it into a grind.

Fast forward fifteen years. We’re in the internet age. I type for a living – guess what? If I’d never taken keyboarding and regained – at personal cost – the skill I lost when I broke my arm, you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog (because I wouldn’t be writing it).

The new secret skill is not a hard skill, it’s an entrepreneurial approach to life, the universe and everything.

I work for a small business – the number of jobs I do at Modern Earth covers more than the entire scope of some small entrepreneurial ventures or solopreneur businesses. I’ve learned more about not just management, but business (because there’s a difference) since I came on in February (bonus points; see the letter I wrote to retail when I left) than I had in five years before.

Looking for openings to grow a business, addressing diverse and unique problems, being agile in the face of dropped balls (because you will drop things, don’t even try to fool yourself otherwise) is now a distinct advantage. The ability to juggle large numbers of projects, manage people in human ways that help them grow their own personal business (even within the construct of a company) and get things done with celerity and great fortitude… These abilities are what we see all around us when we look at examples of resilient businesses, startups in the tech sector, or non-profits making massive strides on behalf of the people they server.

Entrepreneurship is now the business equivalent of opposable thumbs – the way simple computer savvy was in the late nineties. Except I’d argue that, unlike the hard skills that have proven secrets to success in the past, the very social and communal nature of entrepreneurship has the capacity to change much more than just available jobs.

In five years, entrepreneurship will be an essential survival skill.

Business owners have it already. Many people working on the web and building their skills, their personal brands and, in some cases, their businesses also have a natural tendency towards self-directed professional growth.

What can you do to prepare yourself for the coming trend of increased independence?Where do you see the advantages – and perhaps disadvantages – of this trend in your business?

Better yet, how can you embrace this personal – and professional agility now, before it becomes mandatory?

Image by eGuidry.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: business, entrepreneurship, essential skills

Video Saturdays – Clay Shirky on Collaboration vs Institutions

November 27, 2010 by Ian Leave a Comment

Clay Shirky. Need I say more? Not usually. However;

When we talk about creating community, we need to make sure we know what we’re talking about. We want to build communities – but are communities what we need?

What’s the outcome we’re looking for? What’s the benefit of organizing, compared to loosely aiming a large, unorganized group?

Are we looking for documentation – or can we get by with serendipitous coordination of correlated data?

Enjoy. Then, please, discuss.

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing Strategy

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