Measuring “The Conversation”

January 27th, 2009

Tags: conversation, measure

One of my favorite phrases these days is “Join the Conversation”. It’s used by marketers, social media enthusiasts, and many others to point out that you can gain prominence or importance simply by engaging in conversation (usually about a particular topic). And who doesn’t like to feel important? “Join the Conversation, be part of something greater”, right? Most who use this concept rarely go so far as to explain it, but what they really mean is that you can easily participate in a large, webbed network of day to day personal interactions that establish and drive the current zeitgeist, and that such participation will support you as an individual. This concept of “The Conversation” also has a bit of a technological spin to it given the plethora of communication sites and services out there, but ultimately it is inclusive of all forms of conversation.

Yet… how big is it really? Let’s really narrow down our numbers and show you the ridiculous amount of talking that’s going on here. According to the bureau of labor statistics, there were 857000 software developers employed in the US in 2006. While that’s a measly 0.28% of the total american population, it makes a little more sense in context of an area where a conversation can legitimately take place. For argument’s sake, Columbus Ohio’s metropolitan area has a population of 747,755, which means that there are likely around 2147 software developers in the area.

Now let us assume that software developers only talk with one another, and that the Conversation is limited to them. Using myself as an example I talk with at least three other developers every day, about various topics which amounts to an average of 10 conversations or so. Assuming that other developers are like myself it means there are 21,470 conversations happening every day, in Columbus, Ohio, in one small segment of the workforce. Extend that to the entire population and increasing the conversation number to about 20 (We don’t just talk to our direct colleagues, do we?), we’re looking at ~8.5 million conversations amongst software developers, ~14 million conversations in Columbus Ohio, ~17 million conversations that software developers have with their peers, and a grand total of 3 trillion conversations happening in the entire American population, every day, for a grand total of one quadrillion every year. And that’s only an eyeball estimate of actual in-person conversation communication. Who knows what that number is once you include journalism, microblogs, instant messaging…

My, we’re a chatty bunch, ain’t we.

The downside of this, of course, is that being part of “The Conversation” means precisely squat. No matter what that sales guy or social media enthusiast over there tells you, you remain one tiny voice among trillions. Even if you slice and dice the population down to a specialized group that might let you have an impact, that group does not exist in a vacuum and remains influenced by anyone and everyone else that’s out there.

Humbling thought, isn’t it? That’s right, we’re really not as important as we think we are.

2 Comments »