Fast Company

Each week, we’ll cull the interwebs for the most relevant articles, videos and commentary about Millennials and social change, and then present them right here in a weekly round-up.

It’s not to say we won’t also provide our own fresh content and perspectives throughout the week, because we will -- as will our provocative and savvy Social Citizen Ambassadors. But you can view this space as a central repository for all of the great stuff that’s filling our newsfeeds, twitter feeds, and Facebook streams. We’ll do the curating for you, just come by and pay us a visit – and drop a comment every now and then to let us know how we’re doing and what we’re missing. And now for this week’s round-up…

 

The Millennials: Best Generation Ever

Despite being touted as the most tech-savvy, educated and entrepreneurial generation by many, Millennials still face plenty of challenges today. As Cliff Kuang, Editor at Fast Company's Co.Design noted, “Simply put, they were born at the worst time in 50 years as far as careers go, having entered a horrid job market.”

In their latest infograph, Fast Company suggests that as a result of these “challenges,” Millennials are finding a “silver lining” to this situation by breaking out of traditional career paths and leveraging talents, skills and entrepreneurial ideas to shape their own futures. In this stat-packed infograph, Fast Company posits that this new found innovation is driven largely in part out of an economic necessity, and that’s a good thing.

 

The Next Generation of Leaders

It’s no secret that a change is coming to offices around the world as an increasing number of workers from the baby boomer generation retire. This inevitable “changing of the guard” has employers looking ahead for new ways to attract and retain younger employees—in particular Millennials who are poised to take on leadership roles within organizations.

Lauren Rikleen who runs the Rikleen Institute for Strategic Leadership just released an executive briefing called “Creating Tomorrow’s Leaders: the Expanding Roles of Millennials in the Workplace.” In the thought piece, Rikleen notes that “to successfully accomplish this [shift] will require capitalizing on the Millennials’ generational strengths and helping them overcome perceived weaknesses.”

Read more of Rikleen’s insights into this evolving leadership dynamic and learn what this change may mean for you and your organization or career.

 

Time Magazine Selects the “Protester” as Person of the Year

Just this week, Time Magazine paid tribute to this nameless and faceless figure of the protester, by awarding its “Person of the Year” title and cover to each and every one of them. Kurt Andersen from Time noted, “’Massive and effective street protest’ was a global oxymoron until — suddenly, shockingly — starting exactly a year ago, it became the defining trope of our times. And the protester once again became a maker of history.”

At Social Citizens, we look to this for inspiration in how people can change the course of history through dialogue and action. Taking a step back and removing ourselves from the specific issue, geographic area, or end result, we see the creation of movements that are bringing people together and facilitating change. What do you see?

 

And, that's where we've rounded out this week, but stay tuned and let us know your favorite picks and "wish I wrote this" moments. We're excited to reengage and look forward to making 2012 the year of the Social Citizen.

There’s no question social media has given rise to a number of things we couldn’t have imagined just a few short years ago.  One of the more interesting things we’ve witnessed is the changing dynamics of individuals as “influencers” based on superficial metrics like how many Twitter followers or Facebook friends one has. Businesses and organizations have always strived to have a positive influence, but when we look at the role that social media has played in breaking down barriers and catapulting individuals into “influencers” the waters become a little murkier.  After all, what is influence?  

To me, influence is not about the number of retweets or votes in a contest, it’s about following and engaging with people whom I genuinely respect for their opinions and outlooks on topics that I care about.  This is the kind of engagement that has opened me up to new friends, new possibilities and exposed me to new ideas – none of which are things that I believe can be measured with metrics or algorithms.  That’s why, as I was peeling back the onion on Fast Company’s new Influence Project, I was surprised with what I saw.  

Truth be told, Fast Company is my favorite magazine and is the only magazine I still subscribe to and receive in the mail.  When I read about an experiment they were going to do a couple of issues back with the viral marketing company Mekanism, I was intrigued.  But in watching the execution of the campaign over the course of the past week, it has completely missed the mark. Fast Company set out to turn their readers into marketing machines using their personal influence to get their friends to click, register, and boast their own influence.  Think of it as an online yearbook where the cheerleaders and prom king and queen have the largest pictures, based solely on their popularity.

Here’s how it works: users interested in providing their data to the project can sign up in about a minute and are given a unique URL to Tweet, Facebook, blog, etc. Every time their unique URL is clicked, their influence goes up – the concept is pretty simple. But, the scale of your influence, and therefore the size of your photo, is based on two measures (as outlined below by Fast Company):

1. The number of people who directly click on your unique URL link. This is the primary measure of your influence, pure and simple.

2. You will receive partial “credit” for subsequent clicks generated by those who register as a result of your URL. In other words, anyone who comes to the site through your link and registers for their own account will be spreading your influence while they spread theirs. That way, you get some benefit from influencing people who are influential themselves. We will give a diminishing, fractional credit (1/2, ¼, 1/8 etc ) for clicks generated up to six degrees away from your original link.

Fast Company started this campaign with a simple question – who are the most influential people online right now?  But, online influencers and interested bystanders alike are asking, who cares?  Would you tweet your followers, email your friends and update your facebook status in order to be considered an influencer?  What could Fast Company do to turn this into less of a gimmick and more about why influence matters? Does online influence really matter?