work Archives | Ian M Rountree

Absence Explanation and Going Forward

September 26, 2014 by Ian Leave a Comment

Why hello there. It sure has been a while.

The last time I wrote anything substantive here was over two years ago, and while I don’t expect that most of you have hung on the silence waiting for some grand return, I have had enough questions from friends about “that blog I used to run,” that I feel like I should explain what happened. I won’t bore you with a lot of details, but it should explain a bit about why I’ve been so quiet.

There’s a TL;DR at the end, if you’re impatient.

The amount of free time I had changed.

The last two years have been very turbulent. Between changes in my family situation, living arrangements, falling out with some valuable people – leaving one job, not having a job, working for myself, then (recently) being brought on with a new agency (Hello Websites), there’s been very little time to constructively research my work, keep up on trends, and – overall – develop commentary that I felt would be of value here.

My relationship with social media also changed.

While my experience getting attention, growing a readership, and communicating with movers and shakers was valuable, it’s lost a significant amount of luster. I look back at the frantic pace I tried to keep, between managing twitter, Google+, a Facebook page which never ended up with traction (mostly because I barely cared about it), and so on… And none of it is terribly attractive.

I’ve lost my itch to get noticed as a person, to have a following. Because of this, my work is evolving in a positive way.

What does that have to do with this blog?

I used to feel as though I was making commentary here that was valuable to some people, and with all the many changes in priority the past two years have required, that commentary dropped right off the radar. I would expect this of anyone having a reasonably full life suddenly double in workload. Without expecting it, planning for it, or adjusting to it, the volume of things I needed to do elsewhere was vastly superior to the amount of care I had for keeping up with this blog, and balance my other social media involvement fell by the wayside as well.

My needs have changed, it’s as simple as that.

Does that mean I’m done blogging? Well, clearly I haven’t been – so I don’t think I can comment there. You’ll probably see some posts here and there, but they’re far more likely to focus on personal interest than business.

Does that mean this site will disappear? Not a chance. The archives here have entries more than a decade old, that’s nothing to sneeze at. However, changes will be happening.

Going Forward.

This site will be getting an overhaul, far more than just getting the new theme I threw on it today. I expect to put more emphasis on Page content than Blog content.
My other social media properties are getting some review. My old Facebook page has come down, and my Twitter account will probably get some attention. Others, such as LinkedIn, Instagram, and Google+ will get looked at as well.
You will be seeing new content here. In line with this site becoming a lot less about “my work” and a lot more about “my self” – there will eventually be a change in direction for posted content.
I’m happy to chat about the changes and the past year. Hit me up on Facebook or Twitter, or send me an email – I’m always here.

TL;DR:

If you’re subscribed, connected, following, favoriting, or what-have-you-ing this blog because I used to talk marketing and SEO, chances are the future will disappoint you. There’s a lot of commentary in those areas going around already, and I’ve simply lost interest in adding to the pot. My effort on that side is remaining with my daily work.

If you do feel like sticking around, however, even after this massive chasm of a sabbatical – thank you! I’ll probably start commenting on my field again eventually, but it won’t be the core focus of my personal website.

That’s all I’ve got. How have you been doing this year?

Language Problems – From Verbs to Nouns

May 23, 2011 by Ian Leave a Comment

“England and America are two countries divided by a common language.”

George Bernard Shaw

One of the biggest confusions people can have in communication is using the same words, but meaning different things.

I don’t mean homonyms, stereotype, or any other typifying agent. I’m not talking about the pronunciation of tomato or potato either. I’m talking about literal speech, interpretation, and where it all falls down between people.

We see this kind of improperly filtered language problem all the time with conversation. Whether we’re speaking or listening, we miss bits where they’re important.

If you ask how I’m doing, and I respond with “I’m fine.” – what do you think I mean? Do I really mean I’m doing well, or am I perhaps masking a bigger problem that I’d rather not discuss?

If I tell you things are hectic or ridiculous at work, does that mean I’m struggling with my job, or that I’m in my glory as an organizer and producer?

It’s not just interpersonal communication either – language affects how we do business. [Read more…]

Consistency is King

March 18, 2011 by Ian 12 Comments

It’s easy to write one awesome post on your blog.

It’s easy to spend five hours doing research, creating relevance where none existed before. It’s easy, relatively, getting an interview done with your hero.

It’s easy to write ten awesome posts on your blog.

What you can do once, you can do again, right?

What’s hard is writing ten awesome blog posts, in a row, on a schedule, and following that with ten more posts, on the same schedule.

That’s hard.

When you know how to create content, creating content becomes the easy part.

Whenever people say content is king, I feel the inexplicable urge to giggle like a school kid. Content, as king, is dead. Long live the new king, consistency.

Being on time, every time, takes a lot of practice and hard work. It means building habits you may feel challenged for building, and doing work that might not otherwise be up to your standards all in the name of hitting the almighty Publish button every time you say you’re going to. It means asking for help when you need it, and not treating failure quite the same way as you used to.

But, in the end, if you can become consistent, you’ve won.

Because, if for every ten blog posts you publish you only have one gem, publishing eleven posts is a great way to improve your changes of finding that gem.

Remember: Repetition is the motor of learning.

Repetition is the motor of learning.

Repetition is what?

#TEDxMB un-Wrap-Up

February 16, 2011 by Ian 2 Comments

I had the extreme honour of being part of the Modern Earth Tweet Team covering TEDx Manitoba yesterday – Susan Hurrell and I spent 12 hours yesterday with our duelling laptops doing the platform journalism on Twitter for the event.

Susan Hurrell and Ian M Rountree - Modern Earth Web Design Tweet Team - TEDxManitoba — Susan Hurrell and Ian M Rountree – Modern Earth Web Design Tweet Team – TEDxManitoba

But, I can’t talk about it. Not properly. Not yet. My head is still swimming a bit, from lack of sleep, 12 hours of extreme Twitter goodness, and a number of fantastic talks.

If you want to get a sense of how it went, though…

The Modern Earth Facebook page has some pictures from the event in a #TEDxMB Photo Album.

Check out the What The Hashtag stats and see the transcript. We owned the trends in Manitoba, were number 2 in Canada for the majority of the day, and got into the top 40 trends in Canada according to Trendsmap. More than 1200 tweets were sent with the tag #TEDxMB on the day, from more than 200 participants, from 5 countries on 4 continents. We’ve got tweets from Canada, the US, Hong Kong, Ghana, and Guatemala.

To put that in perspective, that’s fully one third of this week’s #blogchat activity, or two #tweetdiners, with a very niche audience, a closed attendance list, and a livestream. Very little non-new-media promotion before the event, and mostly guidance from the Tweet Team and those on the volunteer crew who were digging in as well. Not too shabby.

The Winnipeg Free Press’ Melissa Martin wrote up a pair of great recaps, as well as an article about “Fast Flying Ideas at Conference” relating the nature of the event’s speed.

UPDATE: I don’t know how I forgot to mention, but I also met Kevin Hnatiuk, Leanne Havelock, Lisa MacKenzie, Ryan Caligiuri, Matt Shepherd, Kevin Glasier and Erica Glasier at the event, and made a point of saying hi to David Pensato again – all of whom I follow and most of whom I’ve spoken to for some time on Twitter. I’ve met many people I’ve known online before, but never so many at a single event.

I’ll say more when I can. Promise.

Not Just One More Client

November 24, 2010 by Ian 2 Comments

How many clients do you work with on a weekly basis?

How often do you brush them off, even in tiny ways? Give it some thought. Pushing deadlines, sub-standard work – signs of a brush-off, even if we’re the only ones who know.

To you, they’re one out of ten – twenty – ten thousand clients. To them, you’re the only you they have. Think about that, next time you miss a deadline, or mis-communicate your capabilities without considering the inflation (or deflation) of trust that goes along with that.

Image by Robert Snache.