Fast Company on Popularity, Ego, and Influence
This morning, Fast Company's Mark Borden, the editor who's heading up the magazine's Influence Project, responded to critics:
"In roughly 24 hours, nearly 6,000 people have registered to participate in an experiment we started called The Influence Project. It's been written about by TechCrunch, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, and a score of personal blogs."
He continues:
"We've created a platform where anyone can see what happens to his or her social network when people are asked to take an action. The scoring is based partly on how many people click on the link to your profile, and partly on a bonus awarded to people who get others inside their network to sign up and take part. (Someone with 100,000 followers who only gets 100 people to join the project is less influential than someone with 150 followers who gets 100 people to join.) We didn’t give guidance on how people should pursue their influence goals. Some people may engage in deception to get others to click on their link (hello 4Chan), some may use tactics that feel like spam to boost their results (hello, SEO consultants). Some may want to use charity as a lever to push engagement--go ahead, we won't stop you. Is that inappropriate? Is that unfair? Is that a popularity contest? Maybe. But it's also reflective of behavior that happens on the internet everyday."
That last bit -- that the project is reflective of Internet behavior -- sounds about right to me. While I agree with this critic, who said the Fast Company experiment was confusing ego with influence, so much of what the Internet is about, particularly for businesses, does precisely that.
As for me, my own prediction -- that I'm more influential offline than on the Net -- has ended up being exactly right. I've been unable to influence a single person to sign up for the project. (On the other hand, if past experience is any guide, several hundred people will read this blog post within an hour after I post it.)
I'll make another prediction, this upcoming story, will be highly read, especially by those who loathe what my friend Daria Steigman calls "click on my junk" Internet behavior.
