Work Babble

You and Your News: Q&A with Zite CEO Mark Johnson

The way people get and interact with news and information has fundamentally changed the way we do everything. Thanks to technologies that can scan, filter, and deliver information, the expediency and usefulness of that data is also speeding up the way we make decisions and conduct our personal and work lives. The sophistication of personalized aggregated information media brings an entirely new dimension to the way we connect, translate and exchange important topics between people.

Nowhere is this more relevant and valuable than in organizations. Important news about how people communicate, lead, and stay on top of trends becomes a powerful ally in a globally connected ecosystem. One of the tools leading this revolution in relatable and smartly distributed content is Zite.com.

I recently had an opportunity for some Q&A with Zite’s CEO Mark Johnson about the technology and future of the platform.

Q: If you have to describe the value of Zite in a single 140-character tweet what would you say?

A: Zite is an intelligent magazine that discovers interesting things for you to read.

Q: Why do you feel that technology like Zite better assists users in curating information versus the way information is collected and distributed by traditional news and content bureaus?

A: Humans can only read so much every day; by contrast, Zite looks at millions of articles and finds those gems that you would never otherwise find.

Q: How does the average blogger benefit from Zite’s content?

A: On any given day, tens of thousands of different publications are seen, read, and shared by Zite readers.  The vast majority of those publications are average bloggers who produce great content relevant to a certain section, like HR.  One of the main powers of Zite is discovery: that we can help you discover an amazing blogger who writes about topics in your area of interest.

Q: Many new players are emerging in the market. Does the connection with CNN hinder or hurt your ability to get access to the best content? Why or why not?

A: Though CNN bought Zite in August 2011, we've continued to run ourselves very independently. CNN sees the consumer value in Zite and has given us the freedom to continue to improve the Zite product.  This also means that we're constantly talking to publishers and figuring out how to build a relationship between them and Zite that allows their content to be discovered within Zite and gives our users a great experience

Q: Has information personalization gone too far in terms of choices or is it just getting started?

A: Discovery and personalization are in their infancy and there's a ton of runway.  For example, wouldn't it be cool if Zite knew about my upcoming trips to NYC and South America and gave me articles to read?  

Q: How can Zite be leveraged internally in companies to connect people and information more effectively?

A: No matter what industry you're in, Zite can deliver news to you.  However, Zite is working on features this year to connect users around affinity groups of information.  We think that it would be really neat to know what other people in your community are reading -- whether that is your company, your city, or your obscure interests.  

Q: What changes do you see happening in your business in the next five years?

A: Certainly media is undergoing a major shift right now and the outcomes of that are still being worked out.  In terms of our specific-industry -- intelligent aggregators of information -- there is going to be so much innovation that what we see news deliver as today will change significantly in the next 5 years.

Q: What is the one most important takeaway you want people to have about Zite’s technology?

A: It's really, really smart, but only requires you to enjoy reading Zite.  As Lavar Burton on Reading Rainbow used to say, "But you don't have to take my word for it…” Try it out yourself!

As Mark points out, we are at the beginning of how media aggregation will change how people interact both at home and at work. Imagine using Zite to find the best companies to work for or the best ways to advance your career, delivered right to your smartphone or tablet without the fuss of hours of web searching. 

If you are interested in test-driving Zite you can download the Zite app for free for Apple, Android, and Windows phones. 

Big Data and Job Search

If you have not heard yet of the Big Data movement you had better start reading up. The term is associated with the burgeoning field of taking everything there is to know about you, your habits, your preferences, and general life activities, to provide you with laser focus choices from the food you are most likely to enjoy to the next car you will buy. Now the growing trend is for companies to find out about potential employees long before they are considered for openings.

In the world of Big Data, the web can be crawled and analyzed so your social media, testimonials, resume, or any other data traces left on the internet can be catalogued, reviewed, and given a value. These values can be used as predictive measures of your fit and ability for a company’s workforce and it’s all happening behind the scenes even if you never applied for a job.

The advent of the Big Brother feeling behind Big Data may seem concerning, but actually job seekers can take advantage of being discovered and targeted my recruiters more easily. The importance of a consistent online and offline presence is more critical than ever in terms of standing out and painting a professional image to employers who leverage the power of aggregated unstructured information. This is not a keyword dilemma it’s about your job profile. Activities like blogging can be searched and aligned to stated expertise on your resume. Testimonials on LinkedIn can align with your award for best soccer coach of the year.

Your data should flow both in your skills and your personality so the model of who you really are, your profile, emerges. If you think this level of computational sophistication is not as predictive as it seems, just look to the joint research between staffing data firm Evolv (www.evolv.com) and the Wharton School of Business. In their collaboration to look at job satisfaction and predictors of engagement to work, their research uncovered the following insights:

• People with criminal records in many cases make better employees.
• An individual employee’s success can often be tracked and predicted based on their manager’s performance.
• People with two social media accounts are high performers, but those with more or less are less likely to succeed.
• Graduate degrees and higher education aren’t predictors of employee loyalty. Personality traits like reliability and curiosity are stronger signals

Their goal is to uncover the nature of when a person might quit and allow companies to predict attrition. They are starting to look at managers as well to understand when and how supervisors become blockers and drive employees to leave. Imagine the same logic applied to leadership in general – can we predict which CEOs are likely to drive new business ventures to huge success or which ones will go bust? Understandably, investment houses are taking notice and see the potential Big Data has on human capital initiatives.

For the job seeker, getting ahead of the Big Data crunch is a matter of doing a little clean up. Review your social media profiles and posts to make sure the professional piece comes out strong and the personal side is appropriate. Think in terms of a random person finding a piece of information about you but with no context. What would that information contain and how would it cast you in a favorable light? This is no different than the way people judge you based on your appearance. The cleaner and more put together you look - the more people will attribute positive things to you. Big Data works the same way collecting all there is to say about you and aligning it to what employers need at a particular point in time.

Embrace the convergence of cloud computing and the web in terms of the Big Data push to make sense of all the information out there. The better you are at harnessing this new technology trend, the better positioned you will be for your next big opportunity.

VIDEO: Hiring for a Start-Up

As a long time Silicon Valley HR and Recruiting professional, both in the trenches and as a consultant, I have experienced my share of hiring strategies for a variety of work environments. All have unique requirements and processes, but the smaller startup-ups demand a specific framework to building the talent foundation that will accelerate the growth and success of the company. Bad hires here can have immediate and devastating effects on whether a company will make it and as most people know, the stats confirm most startups fail (unfortunately).

To help think about what goes into successful hiring for a startup, check out the video below provided by OnlineMBA. The video outlines an easy to understand process that provides a guide to identifying the right mix of passion, flexibility, and cultural fit in talent acquisition for any start-up organization.