Review of The influencer
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[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The influencer" by Jack Klinger.]
What is influence? What is persuasion? In modern society, anyone who publishes something in the public space is a creator whose creation can influence the audience it reaches. What about algorithms? Based on the feeds you spend time on, search engines and algorithms learn the things you like to see, and when you see them, you do not necessarily consult your seat of reasoning or intellectual reflection. Hence, creators have influence over their audiences, shaping the perceptions they live with. In prior times, it wasn't so; influence relied on early theater displays or printed text before photography gave images permanence, and so, it was a few centralised institutions that determined what the public consumed.
The Influencer by Jack Klinger talks about this influence, from the psychology of why it works on humans to the trail of how the tools conveying it developed over the decades. It presents an ethical framework that informs the creator that this power isn't to be abused for the sake of benefit but to share genuine human values. It further dives into how to create content and build a community from an audience, as well as approach monetisation, all within the perimeters of good ethical values.
This is an eye-opening book, I dare to say. The concept of the book is what a lot of people subconsciously know, but the book portrays it in a more systematic way. So, the systematic writing is the major highlight of the book. I appreciate the inclusion of theories and historical references to buttress the author's points. Monetary gain is usually why people don't want to stay within the ethical perimeter of content creation, so I appreciate the author's inclusion of monetisation in the ethical framework. The style of writing was straightforward and interesting. The chapters are also quite brief.
However, I have two dislikes of this book. The author talked about the “lab phase” where creators should try out their ideas before bringing them to the public. While the author mentions spending decades observing these principles in his own career, the specific model of “ethical content creation” that he proposes lacks real-world proof in the text. Such a model should have been extensively tried amongst many real people, and the result trend included in the book. This dislike will cost 2 stars in my rating, because if you can't provide real data for the model, what's the main point of the book? And why would someone try it if they're not certain of 100 people it has worked for out of millions of content creators? Another dislike I have about this book is that it didn't read like a human talking to me. I didn't feel like someone was talking to me. That'll cost my rating one star. I didn't notice any errors while reading this book, which shows it is professionally edited.
For the things I have discussed above, I rate this book 2 out of 5 stars. I recommend this book to content creators. It was an interesting book, but it has its limitations.
******
The influencer
View: on Bookshelves
What is influence? What is persuasion? In modern society, anyone who publishes something in the public space is a creator whose creation can influence the audience it reaches. What about algorithms? Based on the feeds you spend time on, search engines and algorithms learn the things you like to see, and when you see them, you do not necessarily consult your seat of reasoning or intellectual reflection. Hence, creators have influence over their audiences, shaping the perceptions they live with. In prior times, it wasn't so; influence relied on early theater displays or printed text before photography gave images permanence, and so, it was a few centralised institutions that determined what the public consumed.
The Influencer by Jack Klinger talks about this influence, from the psychology of why it works on humans to the trail of how the tools conveying it developed over the decades. It presents an ethical framework that informs the creator that this power isn't to be abused for the sake of benefit but to share genuine human values. It further dives into how to create content and build a community from an audience, as well as approach monetisation, all within the perimeters of good ethical values.
This is an eye-opening book, I dare to say. The concept of the book is what a lot of people subconsciously know, but the book portrays it in a more systematic way. So, the systematic writing is the major highlight of the book. I appreciate the inclusion of theories and historical references to buttress the author's points. Monetary gain is usually why people don't want to stay within the ethical perimeter of content creation, so I appreciate the author's inclusion of monetisation in the ethical framework. The style of writing was straightforward and interesting. The chapters are also quite brief.
However, I have two dislikes of this book. The author talked about the “lab phase” where creators should try out their ideas before bringing them to the public. While the author mentions spending decades observing these principles in his own career, the specific model of “ethical content creation” that he proposes lacks real-world proof in the text. Such a model should have been extensively tried amongst many real people, and the result trend included in the book. This dislike will cost 2 stars in my rating, because if you can't provide real data for the model, what's the main point of the book? And why would someone try it if they're not certain of 100 people it has worked for out of millions of content creators? Another dislike I have about this book is that it didn't read like a human talking to me. I didn't feel like someone was talking to me. That'll cost my rating one star. I didn't notice any errors while reading this book, which shows it is professionally edited.
For the things I have discussed above, I rate this book 2 out of 5 stars. I recommend this book to content creators. It was an interesting book, but it has its limitations.
******
The influencer
View: on Bookshelves
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