TechWag

If you have ever used IRank’s internet famous calculator, you know what your internet fame number is. The number is on a scale of 0 to 100, and people like Bill Gates are at 72, while Robert Scoble is 76, and Louis Gray is 58, while I am at 42. The question is how to parlay that internet fame into real gigs, real jobs or speaking gig’s.

The IRank page is not a perfect instrument; I know that there are others running around with the name Dan Morrill, one works at Google, one works at the University of North Carolina, so you have to take this with a grain of salt. It is not going to ever accurately reflect the internet fame of people who have Google gangers who are also active on the internet. Yet it is still a way to determine if you are at the catalyst point where crossing over from the internet to real life makes sense as a way to make money, and increase both types of fame, real and internet.

Coming off speaking at the IACBE PNW, there are those shining moments when you realize that talking to a room full of people about how the internet can transform education is like erupting into what people say “he exploded on stage in a happy mushroom cloud of joy”. Not everyone can speak to an audience and be entertaining.

While death by PowerPoint is never pretty, unfortunately that is one of the major ways we communicate at conferences. What does make this problematic is the translation from doing things on the internet to doing things in real life. If your PowerPoint is dull, and your speaking ability is nil, then translating from the internet to real life is going to be a disaster. That does not mean that it cannot be done, it means you need to go take a couple of public speaking classes and learn how to speak in public better. You can do this at a local community college, pick one, and go learn.

The movement from being internet famous to real life famous is to start reaching out beyond the internet and getting involved with people who can land you speaking gigs. It is also important to have a message to go along with that. Would I want to listen to Louis talk about his kids, probably not, would I like to listen to him talk about how we came out of nowhere and started developing the relationships to become even more internet famous, yes.

Not only do you have to be internet famous, you have to have a message, and you have to become the standard bearer for that message. Real life requires more interaction on a personal level, where on the internet you can interact by drive by voting, or dive by commenting. In a room of 200 people, you need to be as real as possible, and you have to hone your message. It is the message that matters and the delivery of that message in real life that will garner real world fame. If you want to make the translation from the internet to real world, those are the important things to remember.

1. You must have a message
2. You must be the standard bearer for that message
3. You must support everyone who supports your message
4. Friending and voting are good

As you make more friends, more people hear the message, at some point someone is going to notice and ask you to speak about your message to a group of people. You can even plug your message and your availability (if anyone wants to know about education, web 2.0, and how we need to change give me a shout, support@techwag.com) in a blog entry. It can also help if you can get people to do interviews about you and your message (I am available for interviews too), and start plugging the message where and when you can without being obnoxious about it. An annoying standard bearer will kill the message quickly.

Going from the internet to the real world means that people will need to take a different approach, the internet is easy, people are not. If you can work with people in the real world, then your message and your real world fame will start getting some traction.

Tags: internet, real world, world, fame, irank, translation, message, medium, humor, someone please notice the humor, interesting

Tags: education, fun, idea //