Ian M Rountree

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Education and Social Media

May 19, 2011 by Ian 3 Comments

Graduation 2008 - Thirty30 Photography | FlickrThere’s a lot of discussion in professional social media circles – from publishers, to consultants, to agencies – about education. Clients need it, businesses need it, the public needs it – but so do the professionals working in these very complex, highly unorganized fields.

There’s now very little stringent education directly related to social networking as a business communication tool; while there are plenty of dyed in the wool professionals, the building of a knowledge base accessible through higher education seems slow in catching up. This isn’t even a theory versus practice problem – I think it’s an educational system problem.

How can we create education for new kinds of professionals, when education itself is failing?

This article from MENG Blend on May 17th tells a strong story about the state of education in general:

[…] even though the real ROI of college over time is well-documented, college completion rates are falling rapidly.  On average, four year public schools graduate only 37% of their students within four years.  The story at community colleges, which account for 46% of all undergraduates, is even worse:  just 25% of those at 2-year colleges graduate within three years of the time they start.

Damning, isn’t it? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: business, college, commentary, education, on-the-web, qualifications, rant-alert, reaction, social media, sociology, statistics, teaching, the-web, university

Earning Your Face’s Value – The Influence Project

August 17, 2010 by Ian 2 Comments

Sant Pere de RodesFast Company has done an interesting thing with the Influence Project. They’ve shown people (for a limited time, anyway) that even tiny actions can have a massive effect on how others perceive you. Your visible inclusion in public places,  in any number of small ways, can add value to your visibility.

But does this visibility have any value?

Let’s use me as an example – I’m probably at the high end of average as far as savvy with online media goes. I’m not claiming to be special here, just making a statement; I’ve been online most of my life, building communities. Did it help with my placement in the Influence Project? Here’s the breakdown, as of right now:

  • Two people have signed up for the Influence Project directly from my link.
  • Two people have signed up from the links of those I’ve influenced.
  • When last I looked on Thursday after signing up, I was ranked around 3,400 our of 29,000
  • Oh, they removed the numbers: It now says I’m in the 94th percentile out of 32,000+ users, meaning I’ve gone up to around 1,900

So, does this mean I’m influential? Oddly, not at all. Four people signed up, out of 13 clicks on the bit.ly link I circulated (by one Facebook post, three tweets, and one blog post).

We need a better example for contrast. Case study: iJustine Ezarik. Justine is very well known online – in fact, so well known that I’m almost hesitant to use her as a study because I can guarantee I’ll miss critical details. So we’ll be really minimalist about this, and only look at some specifics:

  • When I signed onto the Influence Project, iJustine was ranked 9 out of 26000 users. Pretty impressive.
  • At the moment, she has more than 4,600 direct sign-ups recorded to her name, and sits in the “99th percentile” meaning she’s likely maintained her ranking quite nicely over the last week.

99th percentile, out of 32,000 users? This conceivably puts Justine anywhere from rank 1, to rank 320 – which is a wide range to be in. What effect does this have on comparative value?

Face value is a quantum currency – as soon as it’s measured, its perceived value changes.

Yes, I’d have expected to see people like iJustine, and even Mr Shoemoney in the top 1 percent. That’s not surprising. When we think about web celebrities and influencers, we can all probably name between fifteen and twenty people – most of whom will end up in the top 1 percent.

Putting people in the top 1 percent isn’t proper perspective for this Project, however. Guessing at where we’ll sit – and being proven right or wrong – is much more interesting.

Fast Company’s concept is pretty simple, and it’s all over the project’s site: You’re more influential than you think. It’s true – I wouldn’t have expected to be in the top 5 percent of influencers online. But look at the numbers – from Justine’s 4,600+ links, to my two is a big gap. That was enough to get into the top 5. What about the other 96% of those who signed up?

Over 30,000 people have less than a combined 13 clicks to their profiles, 2 first-tier influences, and 2 second-tier influences.

This tells me the web, as a whole, is entirely ineffectual at getting people to do the simplest thing it could possibly ask them to do: “Click this link, because what you’ll see there is pretty cool!”

The biggest argument in favour of building community and being a leader – in any arena – is influence. Making a place for yourself where you are given the implicit permission to ask for things (assuming you’re ready and able to reciprocate) is touted as a good idea. What the Influence Project says, however, is that gaining any kind of measurable influence is easy, but can be very distracting from the reality that any influence is only as good as what it’s used for. Using your power for self-assessment (like asking people to pump you up on Fast Company’s dime) or frivolously expending energy flailing your clout about the net is bad business practice.

How can we do better? How can we build lasting influence, measure it, and then put it to good, practical use?

Image by Reinante El Pintor de Fuego.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: face value, Fast Company, iJustine, on-the-web, real value, study, ubiquity, value, visibility

Good Examples of Bad Behaviour.

July 4, 2009 by Ian Leave a Comment

A lot of consumers feel they’re treated like dirt by salespeople, and for good reason. Lots of salespeople are only in it for themselves, with their highest priority being their paycheque. But some of us get that way because of how we’re treated by our customers. It’s no exaggeration that retail is one of the hardest industries to find fulfilment in, and after a while, many people-who-sell-things either turn into jaded jerks or cynical jokers, largely because even if they didn’t have that attitude before they went in, those two become the only options when dealing with some markets and groups of people.

If you ever want some good examples of how not to treat the people you rely on to sell you the stuff you want, head on over to (The Customer is) Not Always Right and read a few of the stories there. I’m not kidding when I say I shared this site with everyone in my house immediately on finding it, and I wish I had found it long ago. Technorati is a wonderful thing, some days.

The lesson to take from this? People behind the counter are human too. Sometimes they legitimately make mistakes. Sometimes they simply CAN NOT give you what you want – whether that’s because it’s totally insane of you to ask, or because it would cost them their jobs to comply is not something debatable. It just is what it is. The effort it takes to get worked up over most of this junk is seriously never, and I mean never, worth the payoff you might get from it. Chill out.

By the way, a bit of a caveat? I think the fact that someone not only made a site like Not Always Right, but has been running it for quite some time, is really just sad. This means the saturation of flat out jerks and ill-meaning idiots in the world has been pretty high for long enough that the internet took notice. When the internet notices you, you’re either doing something awesome, or something really really terrible. I’ll let you all decide which one this site represents.

Filed Under: Communication Tagged With: cool stuff, on-the-web

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