Pinterest Hits 11 Million UMVs (and 8 Tips for Brands)

360 Digital Influence Blog - 3 hours 3 min ago

In case you haven’t heard, last night TechCrunch announced that Pinterest hit 11.7 million UMVs, becoming the fastest standalone site ever to surpass 10 million monthly uniques.

The #1 driver of consumer purchases is word of mouth recommendations from friends, and Pinterest holds the power to drive authentic “word of eye” recommendations in a way that is changing the landscape of social commerce.

How? The landing page for Pinterest is an endless visual stream of subtle product recommendations from the very people who influence your purchasing decisions - friends and strangers with good taste. This means that there is an endless opportunity for your brand and its products to be seen by Pinterest’s 11.7 million unique monthly users as endorsements from friends in the form of repins.

Currently availably stats show the average Pinterest user spends 98 minutes per month on the site, compared to 2.5 hours on Tumblr, and 7 hours on Facebook. Pinterest is most popular in North Eastern states, among females (estimates range from 58% to 70% female), and with people ages 25-44 (59% of visitors).

How it Works

In case you haven’t already joined the millions of others pinning products, here’s a quick overview of how Pinterest works: Pinterest enables users to “pin” images found around the Web into categorized collections, or boards. Think of it like an interactive, shareable scrapbook. Or as I like to say, it’s your virtual high school locker. Pinterest can capture the brand essence, personality, inspiration for product design, or company culture through visual boards. It could also be used to organically grow your brand’s reach through an influencer re-pinning strategy, to further engage with fans through themed boards, and to inspire consumers to action, perhaps through a “best board” or a “most pins” contest.

Why People Love It

“It’s lovely from a visual perspective,” says my colleague (and Pinterest addict) Sophia Aladenoye. Apart from Pinterest’s tactile and user-friendly experience, it helps people make visual mental notes of a life they aspire to, like a vision board. “Pinterest is personally helping me with my 2012 vision board exercises… helping me to more easily remember the images that represent my goals, wants or benchmarks for 2012,” say Sophia. Others claim that the site is helping them to “de-stress,” to plan their wedding, or help redecorate their home. And some say they honestly just like the fact that is invite-only and feels exclusive (or perhaps felt exclusive before its recent boost). Men are also jumping on the Pinterest bandwagon - my friend and colleague Maury posts vintage cars, and Grassroots Modern blogger Creede Fitch posts photos of modern furniture designs he finds inspiring.

How Brands Can Leverage Pinterest

1) Create a new social commerce touch point

With 11.7 million UMVs and counting, Pinterest presents an opportunity for brands to expand their audiences by going where the masses are. Consumers are always a step ahead of brands and its important for brands to follow behavior rather than dictate it. Your brand’s presence on Pinterest will create another consumer touch point and a way to be discovered by new people. The visual Pinterest boards would help invite new people into the fabric of your brand by setting a mood or encapsulating a lifestyle, helping users to imagine how your brand’s products, services or culture fit their lives.

2) Grow influencer networks

Brands can leverage Pinterest to find influencers with whom to engage. You can expand your influencer networks by following influential Pinterest users and boards, and repinning items to our own Pinterest boards, giving credit to the influencer. Brands may also choose to engage with influential bloggers and have them curate a board on their Pinterest page. Ask Ogilvy for advice on who to follow and repin, and who might be right to engage offline or on another brand platform.

3) Identify and engage super fans

Pinterest may also be a way to identify natural brand advocates or “super fans.” You can search for your brand’s products and discover who is most frequently pinning about your products and engage with those people. Surprise and delight super fans by rewarding them with products they pin to their boards. Eventually you may create a fan-curated board that allows super fans to add their pins.

4) Increase brand loyalty by sharing your brand’s culture

Pinterest is a fun, inspirational and highly visual atmosphere and your brand has an opportunity to engage fans in new and creative ways. Consider creating boards that align with product or service themes, for example, West Elm categorizes its boards by colors from its design palette, such as “Aquamarine.” Or create a board that reflects your company’s dedication to a CSR initiative. Or, compile pictures of everyday fans and influencers engaging with your brand, such as a board that features pins of people across the globe wearing a retail brand’s clothing.

5) Host contests for further engagement

Perhaps you can host a contest for fans to create the best Pinterest board with your products, and reward the winning fan with items from her board. Or, invite other users to co-create boards on your page around certain themes, and reward the winning team with product or a brand experience. For example, a travel brand can ask Pinners to create mood boards that reflect a destination like the French Riviera, and then reward the winning board with a trip.

7) Inspire repins (and purchases) through bold visuals

As mentioned earlier, the #1 driver of consumer purchases is word of mouth recommendations from friends, and Pinterest holds the power to drive authentic “word of eye” recommendations through a repin endorsement. To accomplish this, you’ll want to make sure that you have high resolution, professional quality, close-up photos to leverage. Photos of products should be taken in a way that enables the viewer to imagine herself wearing the product, engaging with an item, or taking part in the setting. Photos should taken in a way that makes them stand out in the visual stream that is Pinterest. For example, a bold-colored photo or a gray-scale photo might set itself apart from the photo stream.

Promote your culture first, products and services second

The trick with Pinterest is to leverage the “soft sell” and promote your brand culture over the products or services themselves. Pinterest is committed to maintaining a non-promotional atmosphere, and the hard sell could get you kicked off the platform. So to create the right atmosphere, think about what your brand has to offer and what the images say to people and what you want to ask, for example:

  • A tech brand: “Do you like innovation? We’re innovative too, and here’s a photo of our developers making our first-ever app for iPhone.”
  • A fashion brand: “Do you like bold, basic colors? We love everything bright and bold, and this painting by Matisse captures our upcoming line’s color scheme.”
  • A home furnishings brand: “Do you enjoy a clutter-free living space? So do we, and here are three books we love that talk about a clutter-free home.”
  • A credit card company or bank: “Do you imagine yourself living a lifestyle of luxury? Here’s a picture from the beach in the Virgin Islands where you could be right now.”

Through play and inspiration, Pinterest might just empower you to become the architect of your brand’s culture.

What do you think about Pinterest for brands? Do you think users will stay engaged once brands join?

Special thanks to Chris Heydt and Sophia Aladenoye of Ogilvy for their contributions.

KUM Pencut

Kevin Kelly - Cool Tools - 5 hours 35 min ago

I love scissors. I use them in my kitchen, in the laundry room, at my desk, and throughout my apartment. Yet, I rarely have a pair with me while on the go. Or, at least I rarely had a pair with me until I found the KUM Pencut.

Traditional scissors are potentially hazardous items to throw in a bag (which is why I never used to carry a pair with me). They rarely come with a sheath, and without protection the likelihood of dulling the blades, or accidentally tearing a hole in your bag (or hand) is significant.

The KUM Pencut is an ingeniously designed pair of scissors that masquerades as a pen. When folded the blades are kept hidden beneath a sturdily affixed pen cap. The pen-like form gives the impression that there is nowhere for your fingers to go, but pull the plastic sliders down and two pieces of nylon fold out creating comfortable finger holds.

Outside of being cleverly designed, the scissors are very sharp, while also having full tang blades (which gives the scissors a surprising sturdiness). With the cap on, it's very easy to mistake the scissors for just another pen that I've slipped into a pen-holder in my bag; it also means that it stays in place, and is there when I need it.

The biggest downside to these scissors is the price, but given they're sturdy build and how many conversations they've started I'm confident it's worth it.

-- Oliver Hulland

KUM Pencut
$15

Available from Jet Pens

Manufactured by KUM

Sample Excerpts:


The plastic sliders provide access to the nylon handles.


Categories: Ideas

The Costa Concordia 3D tour is now stunningly realistic

Google Earth Blog - 6 hours 13 min ago

A few weeks ago we showed you Peter Olsen's 3D tour of the Costa Concordia. It was a very impressive file, showing a 3D model of the ship as it progressed through its fateful voyage.

Peter has been hard at work since then, and we simply had to show you the file with his latest updates. He has rebuilt the ship model from scratch, added much more data to the timeline, built 3D lifeboats (which slowly descend into the water), and even a 3D helicopter to show how the rescue operation unfolded!

As you may recall from Peter's work on Stone Mountain and the MLK Memorial, his attention to detail is incredibly high. If you're curious where he got some of the data used in this animation, here is a list:

• The general conversation between ship and harbour master and times is from here.
• The specific conversation between the captain and coastguard is here. (his version is slightly abridged)
• Some of the timeline is from here.
•The AIS track data is from here.
• The list of dead and missing came from here, which is now a dead link, as well as here.
•The chaotic way the lifeboats departed is from here.
• The helicopter is an exact replica of the real one used in the rescue - call sign VF-57. It is an Agusta Bell ab412SP Air Ambulance, based on the Bell 412. It was manufactured under license by Agusta for the Italian Rescue Service. The photo at the end just before the list of names shows the actual helicopter hovering over the ship. The general line of Bell helicopters of the family, including the Agusta's is here.
• The Bell 412, with size specifications, is here.
• The shape of the helicopter is here.
• The actual VF-57 helicopter is here.
• A video of an identical model (call sign VF-67) is here.

To see it for yourself, you can download the file from the 3D warehouse or watch the video below:


Categories: Ideas

Instead Of Sales, They Seek Applause

MIT Advertising Lab - 13 hours 3 min ago
From a book about which David Ogilvy is quoted as saying: "Nobody, at any level, should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times":

 "Advertising is salesmanship. Its principles are the principles of salesmanship. Successes and failures in both lines are due to like causes. Thus every advertising question should be answered by the salesman's standards.

Let us emphasize that point. The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales. It is not for general effect. It is not to keep your name before the people. It is not primarily to aid your other salesmen. Treat it as a salesman. Force it to justify itself. Compare it with other salesmen. Figure its cost and result. Accept no excuses which good salesmen do not make. Then you will not go far wrong. The difference is only in degree. Advertising is multiplied salesmanship. It may appeal to thousands while the salesman talks to one. It involves a corresponding cost. Some people spend $10 per word on an average advertisement. Therefore every ad should be a super-salesman.

A salesman's mistake may cost little. An advertisers mistake may cost a thousand times that much. Be more cautious, more exacting, therefore. A mediocre salesman may affect a small part of your trade. Mediocre advertising affects all of your trade.

Many think of advertising as ad-writing. Literary qualifications have no more to do with it than oratory has with salesmanship. One must be able to express himself briefly, clearly and convincingly, just as a salesman must. But fine writing is a distinct disadvantage. So is unique literary style. They take attention from the subject. They reveal the hook. Any studies done that attempt to sell, if apparent, creates corresponding resistance.

So with countless questions. Measure them by salesmen's standards, not by amusement standards. Ads are not written to entertain. When they do, those entertainment seekers are little likely to be the people whom you want. That is one of the greatest advertising faults. Ad writers abandon their parts. They forget they are salesmen and try to be performers. Instead of sales, they seek applause.

The reason for most of the non-successes in advertising is trying to sell people what they do not want. But next to that comes lack of true salesmanship. Ads are planned and written with some utterly wrong conception. They are written to please the seller. The interest of the buyer are forgotten. One can never sell goods profitably, in person or in print, when that attitude exists."

Claude C. Hopkins, Scientific Advertising, 1923 (pdf)
Categories: Ideas

Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, Content Is Cash, Nominated For 2012 Small Business Book Award

Bly.com Blog - Tue, 02/07/2012 - 13:51
Content Is Cash: Leveraging Great Content and the Web for Increased Traffic, Sales, Leads and Buzz [Que Publishing] by friend and colleague, Wendy Montes de Oca — which hit #1 on the Amazon web marketing bestseller list in Sept. of 2011 — was recently nominated for the 2012 Small Business Book Awards. SmallBizTrends.com celebrates the [...]
Categories: Ideas

Cool Tools Library Update and Contest

Kevin Kelly - Cool Tools - Tue, 02/07/2012 - 13:19

We've had such a fantastic response to the Cool Tools Library request I mentioned on Friday that we're going to turn it into a contest (previous submissions will be grandfathered in). Feel free to submit recommended books until Monday, February 13th. The authors of the two best reviews can pick a prize from the Cool Tools Prize Pool (which has been updated with some really great prizes!)

Once more for good measure:

What's the essential book for carpenters? Metalsmiths? Landscape designers? Tailors or seamstresses? What about information design? Or sous vide? Tanning or taxidermy? Home brewing? Car repair? Bicycle frame building? The list goes on and on.

Every trade and hobby has their own bible, and we want to identify and collect them all in one place so that others may benefit.

Submit your recommendation (or request) here, post it in the comments below, or feel free to email it to editor@cool-tools.org.

-- Oliver Hulland


Categories: Ideas

The most ridiculous thing a salesman told you

Collected from AskReddit

Monster cables are the only cables to give you a “true HD” experience.

Fact: More glasses get broken in the presence of alcohol.

Greenpeace activist telling me that nuclear power causes both global warming and the ozone hole over the Arctic and Antarctic.
I could not even start arguing, she was so clueless.

I was told by the guy at the liquor store that I should not buy wine because it will not get anyone drunk. “The alcohol in there is so low you would need to drink ten bottles.” He then suggested PBR.

person trying to sell me a water filter and talking about how bad our water is under the ground.
Bitch I’m a geologist.
The chicot aquifer if amazing.

AT&T sales lady just told me I had to use their router so my internet would work with the “special underground wires” that they use ?_?

Bestbuy employee trying to get me to pay an additional $90 dollars to let the “tech experts” there optimize the laptop I wanted to purchase. Apparently my computer would run up to 100x faster and I wasn’t qualified to do this myself. A quick Google search on my smartphone revealed it was a scam where they would just delete some of the programs that come with the laptop and do the initial turn on.

I went with my younger sister to buy her first laptop for school, about a year ago when tablets were becoming a huge thing. I explained to the Best Buy salesman that we were here to buy a laptop or perhaps a netbook, and he kept saying that “laptops are basically obsolete now, everyone is switching to tablets.” I told him that we wanted a simple computer for her to type essays etc. on and that a touchscreen keyboard wouldn’t be ideal for that anyway. He seemed extremely reluctant to sell us a computer and kept stressing that “nobody uses laptops anymore.”
I couldn’t believe it.

Gold-plated optical cables give a better connection.
Optical cables. With gold plating.
They really do exist.
EDIT: 3000 people voted on this, not a single one pointed out I couldn’t spell “cables”. I don’t know whether to be happy or disappointed.

I was once told by a woman at the local farmer’s market that only organic food has any nutrients and everything else is just empty, because that’s what genetic farming does, it strips all the nutrients from food.
Edit: Wow, I guess I’m still new to Reddit. Didn’t expect so many people here to be so… fierce for their love of organic food. So just so I fully offend everyone and make sure no one is left out, here are a few words.
ahem
If you want to support a program like Organic Farming, with absolutely no scientific backing and led forward on the premise that you can’t prove it wrong, you should go support creationism in school.
What does your Girlfriend and Organic Farming have in common? They both offer you more body, but just end up taking more of your money.
What’s the difference between an Organic Meal and a Genetically Grown Meal? About $3000 dollars a year.
If I wanted to spend more money to get an inferior project, I would go buy a game with Ubisoft’s DRM.
And last but not least,
What’s the difference between buying dinner for an Organic Lobbyist and going to dinner with your mom? When I buy the Organic Dinner I get fucked in the ass, when I buy your mom dinner, I get to fuck her in the ass.
I hope that covers everyone,
Love lots, Genetic Farming
Edit 2 Sorry, was thinking about this after some dinner. I’m sure I came off as fierce on this subject. So to be serious a moment (sorry if it ruins the mood, Don’t read if you’d rather be amused!), there is a reason. For those who wish to know: I have a close friend, a single mom who is a really sweet, determined woman who wants the best for her kids. She is a redditor too I think, so if you see this, you know who you are. She is dirt poor, trying to keep her family afloat, and about a year ago she changed all her food to Organic. Even though it cost her to cut out a lot of her children’s, and her own entertainment. When I found out, I asked her why. And she said she kept hearing in the news and on TV how Organic for is healthier for her family. How Organic food is better for the growth of her children. It took me months to convince her this was utterly false, and she should be putting her money towards better things for her kids.
Any business practice that relies on exploiting the love and worry of a mother for her children to pull more money that she doesn’t have out of her pockets can burn in Hell for all I care.
So if you ever want to explain to someone why the Organic Movement harms people, feel free to share this view.

That megabytes are the same as megabits. ?_?

A salesperson from a home security company told me the motion sensors will not detect cats because it can sense their brain waves. Didn’t go with that company.

I was told that the used Ford Escort I was looking at was a real panty dropper.

My brother (an idiot) was told that a special cleaning spray would make CD’s and DVD’s play better.
My brother now claims it makes his video games load faster and improves the movie quality beyond BluRay.
I tried explaining why he was a dolt, but it just made him defensive.

I was buying a set of 4.1 computer speakers at a major chain and the salesman told me I should get the product service plan because “if one speaker is disconnected, then the current that was going through it is directed to the other speakers and that could overload and damage them”.

“You need to get a screen protector because the oils and heat from your fingers will wear down the touch screen on your new Android phone.”
That day I learned that my fingers will destroy gorilla glass.

There are scummy electronics/gadgets shops on Tenerife – don’t buy anything from them.
I was looking at a display of binoculars and the sign said they had nightvision ones for sale. I asked the salesman which ones had night vision
“all of them”.
These were regular binoculars. I asked where would the batteries go in them – he said they had a coating on them to see infra-red. I looked through them and they were regular optical binoculars. I called him on this, and he says
“Did I say infra-red? I meant infra-green”.
Infra-fricken-green!

Bonus: Drop Test!!!


Categories: Ideas

Real Kid Shades

Kevin Kelly - Cool Tools - Tue, 02/07/2012 - 11:30

We bought these kids sunglasses about 2 months ago (at REI), when my son was 4 months old. Before that we had about given up going out during the day, as my son would become agitated within a few minutes of going out. Now going out of the house is one of our best times.

I was a bit concerned when buying these, figuring my son would knock the glasses out of place continually. However, after a very short period he acts like the glasses aren't even there, only complaining when they are askew.

Reviewers on Amazon have complained that the strap is too big for a 4-month old. 4-months is probably near the lower limit on age for these. We needed to adjust the strap to the smallest position and use them with a hat for them to fit. But we also found that they didn't need to be very tight to stay in place.

I bought this brand because it was carried by REI, who I believe carries quality merchandise. I'm not sure if I would trust the UV protection of the cheapest model that Walmart sources at the lowest price (poor UV protection in sunglasses being worse than no protection at all).

Besides the UV protection and ability to be out in the bright sun, there is also the cool factor, which was really unexpected. Every time we go out walking, I'm amazed at the number of turned heads and comments we get about the shades. The words "cool dude" are used frequently. I'm also now aware of the parents who are out in the bright sun with sunglasses while their infant or toddler is left to squint.

-- Michael Nystrom

Real Kid Shades (0-to-24 months)
$15

Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Real Kid Shades


Categories: Ideas

The tales of the Arctic Tern and the Sea Grapes

Google Earth Blog - Tue, 02/07/2012 - 07:44

Last fall we showed you a great file from the people at Encyclopedia of Life that tracked Bluefin Tuna across the Atlantic. They're back with a few new files that show how a type of sea algae (known as "sea grapes") and Arctic Terns travel across the world as part of their annual migrations.

Ari Daniel Shapiro has worked with others, including Marie Studer and Eduardo Garcia Milagros, to put together some remarkable new tours. Ari's background is in radio, so the audio narrative on the tours is excellent. Combine that with the images, video and Google Earth content and you've got a very engrossing and educational result.

The tours are available below, both in KMZ format and also as embedded YouTube videos for you to enjoy:

Sea Grapes Tour | KMZ

Arctic Tern Tour | KMZ

For more, you can view all of their tours on the Encyclopedia of Life site.


Categories: Ideas

The Greatest Books of All Time, as Voted by 125 Famous Authors

Written by theatlantic

Tolstoy holds a 11-point lead over Shakespeare in these literary opinion polls.


“Reading is the nourishment that lets you do interesting work,” Jennifer Egan once said. This intersection of reading and writing is both a necessary bi-directional life skill for us mere mortals and a secret of iconic writers’ success, as bespoken by their personal librariesThe Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books asks 125 of modernity’s greatest British and American writers—including Norman Mailer, Ann Patchett, Jonathan Franzen, Claire Messud, and Joyce Carol Oates—”to provide a list, ranked, in order, of what [they] consider the ten greatest works of fiction of all time- novels, story collections, plays, or poems.”

Of the 544 separate titles selected, each is assigned a reverse-order point value based on the number position at which it appears on any list—so, a book that tops a list at number one receives 10 points, and a book that graces the bottom, at number ten, receives 1 point.

In introducing the lists, David Orr offers a litmus test for greatness:

“If you’re putting together a list of ‘the greatest books,’ you’ll want to do two things: (1) out of kindness, avoid anyone working on a novel; and (2) decide what the word ‘great’ means. The first part is easy, but how about the second? A short list of possible definitions of ‘greatness’ might look like this:1. ‘Great’ means ‘books that have been greatest for me.’

2. ‘Great’ means ‘books that would be considered great by the most people over time.’

3. ‘Great’ has nothing to do with you or me—or people at all. It involves transcendental concepts like God or the Sublime.

4. ‘Great’? I like Tom Clancy. “

From David Foster Wallace (#1: The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis) to Stephen King (#1: The Golden Argosy, a 1955 anthology of the best short stories in the English language), the collection offers a rare glimpse of the building blocks of great creators’ combinatorial creativity—because, as Austin Kleon put it, “you are a mashup of what you let into your life.

The book concludes with an appendix of “literary number games” summing up some patterns and constructing several overall rankings based on the totality of the different authors’ picks. Among them (*with links to free public domain works where available):

 

Top Ten Works of the 20th Century

1. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

2.The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

3. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust

4. Ulysses* by James Joyce

5. Dubliners* by James Joyce

6. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

7. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

8. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

9. The complete stories of Flannery O’Connor

10. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

 

Top Ten Works of the 19th Century

1. Anna Karenina* by Leo Tolstoy

2. Madame Bovary* by Gustave Flaubert

3. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

4. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

5. The stories of Anton Chekhov

6. Middlemarch* by George Eliot

7. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

8. Great Expectations* by Charles Dickens

9. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

10. Emma* by Jane Austen

 

Top Ten Authors by Number of Books Selected

1. William Shakespeare – 11

2. William Faulkner – 6

3. Henry James – 6

4. Jane Austen – 5

5. Charles Dickens – 5

6. Fyodor Dostoevsky – 5

7. Ernest Hemingway – 5

8. Franz Kafka – 5

9. Tied: James Joyce, Thomas Mann, Vladimir Nabokov, Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf – 4

 

Top Ten Authors by Points Earned

1. Leo Tolstoy – 327

2. William Shakespeare – 293

3. James Joyce – 194

4. Vladimir Nabokov – 190

5. Fyodor Dostoevsky – 177

6. William Faulkner – 173

7. Charles Dickens – 168

8. Anton Checkhov – 165

9. Gustave Flaubert – 163

10. Jane Austen – 161

As a nonfiction loyalist, I’d love a similar anthology of nonfiction favorites—then again, famous writers might wave a knowing finger and point me to the complex relationship between truth and fiction.

Bonus: This guy was elected President of Finland yesterday, first morning after elections.


Categories: Ideas

Wind Chimes: Design and Construction

Kevin Kelly - Cool Tools - Mon, 02/06/2012 - 09:40

Make your own. Not those tinny flea market varieties, but large striking sonorous chimes tuned in all manner of unusual styles. (Listen to samples on the book’s website or included CD). There are several dozen unusual ways to tune the chimes. All tunings are fairly mathematical, which is the core of this book, but not difficult to execute with hardware-store tubing. My son and I used this short but very explicit manual to create a large copper pipe one that emits a lovely melody in the breeze. The bigger the better. (The bigger the more wind they need, too.) This guide is a very practical way to experience the math of music and the beauty of alternative music systems.

Setting up the hanging strings at the correct spacing.

Our copper chime hanging in the cherry tree.

-- KK

Wind Chimes: Design and Construction
Bart Hopkin
2005, 68 pages
$15

Available from Amazon

Sample Excerpts:


Categories: Ideas

All Streets: Highlighting terrain by only showing the roads

Google Earth Blog - Mon, 02/06/2012 - 08:39

What if someone were to create a map that showed every street in the country and nothing else? Fathom Information Design did just that, and the results are amazing!

It feels kind of like the city lights of Earth that we recently wrote about, as you can clearly see cities form without any kind of borders or other overlays in there.

What's even more remarkable about the "All Streets" map is how clearly the mountain ranges are defined. Simply by drawing in the roads, you can see them without any difficulty. A great example is the Appalachian Mountains, seen here:

You can view and/or purchase the map over on the Fathom website.

(via +Adrienne St. Aubin)


Categories: Ideas

Preparing for the Social Media Bowl

360 Digital Influence Blog - Sun, 02/05/2012 - 16:57

We’ve been watching social media chatter around the “big game” intensify over the past week – especially if you live in Indianapolis. But since Volkswagen first teased its teaser ad with the barking dogs (and garnered over 11 million views along with way), the ad community has slowly followed suit and rolled out their wares.

Consumers that wanted to gain clout (and Klout) passed it along as quickly as possible. But will two weeks of conversation or two minutes of 1.5 million tweets (like those amassed around Tim Tebow’s heroics this season) sway opinion, increase favorability or drive sales? Or are brands just trying to be “part of the conversation”? The answer to both is yes.

Sometimes we overlook the power of social media to actually drive business. We spend time counting tweets, status update comments and blog posts instead of sales. But with #SuperBowl being a promoted trend on Twitter all day and the social media command center created by the Host Committee in Indianapolis, this Sunday’s investments in more than just television airtime surely sound like a ringing endorsement from CMOs across the country that social media isn’t a nice to have, but a need to have.

That’s because social media makes the viewing party and the water cooler the next day exponentially larger. As we all look down to our phones rather than up to our neighbor to share our instant opinion of that play or that ad or that tweet, social media allows messages and implied endorsements travel much farther than Neilsen ratings on TV. Based on ever-increasing platform usage, consumers have told us that the size of our circles matter. And that’s why every star uses Twitter (and why the NFL has invested in a player’s application so they can own the content instead of Twitter).

Since I don’t really have a favorite in today’s game, I’ll be watching to see if Twitter crashes. And then I’ll see how long it takes for this giant conversation to fade. According to Google Trends, although the search volume peaks the week of the event and then subsides into the ether until the next year, the overall conversation volume continues to climb year over year. The goal of social media is for brands to take advantage of those event peaks to increase their baseline of online conversation. Intuitively, that should work better for those with lower brand recognition, rather than the behemoths that can afford to pay. We look forward to finding out how long the proverbially tail can actually be not just in the social media conversation, but also for sales, awareness and preference.

The.Best.Phone.Manual.Ever.

Samsung you’re doing it right. More and more companies need to do this.

watch on vimeo

Bonus: My fiancee said that we don’t have any interesting pics of our dog. I gave her these…


Categories: Ideas

HOW TO PROPERLY PLACE NEW EMPLOYEES

Written by Tracy L. Crawford

1. Put 400 bricks in a closed room.

2. Put your new hires in the room and close the door.

3. Leave them alone and come back after 6 hours.

4. Then analyze the situation:

a. If they are counting the bricks, put them in the Accounting Department.

b. If they are recounting them, put them in Auditing.

c. If they have messed up the whole place with the bricks, put them in Engineering.

d. If they are arranging the bricks in some strange order, put them in Planning.

e. If they are throwing the bricks at each other, put them in Operations.

f. If they are sleeping, put them in Security.

g. If they have broken the bricks into pieces, put them in Information Technology.

h. If they are sitting idle, put them in Human Resources.

i. If they say they have tried different combinations, they are looking for more, yet not a brick has been moved, put them in Sales.

j. If they have already left for the day, put them in Management.

k. If they are staring out of the window, put them in Strategic Planning.

l. If they are talking to each other, and not a single brick has been moved, congratulate them and put them in Top Management.

m. Finally, if they have surrounded themselves with bricks in such a way that they can neither be seen nor heard from, put them in Congress.

 

Bonus: The fifties were a simpler time…

 

 


Categories: Ideas

Cool Tools Library

Kevin Kelly - Cool Tools - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 15:30

In the past we've highlighted an astonishing array of useful books that covered topics ranging from bioremediation to underground home building to fermentation. These books are tools because they not only help us learn but also put knowledge to use.

Help us fortify our library of useful books by submitting your favorite text for a particular subject including an explanation of why you think it's essential. We want to feature that dog-eared book that you wouldn't lend to a friend for fear you wouldn't get it back. It can be the best beginner's guide, or a slightly more advanced technical manual detailing materials or techniques. If you can, please include scans of pages that we can use to illustrate the book's content. This has been done before but never with any insight or explanation of what makes the book useful or cool.

What's the essential book for carpenters? Metalsmiths? Landscape designers? Tailors or seamstresses? What about information design? Or sous vide? Tanning or taxidermy? Home brewing? Car repair? Bicycle frame building? The list goes on and on.

Every trade and hobby has their own bible, and we want to identify and collect them all in one place so that others may benefit.

Submit your recommendation (or request) here, post it in the comments below, or feel free to email it to editor@cool-tools.org.

-- Oliver Hulland

Sample Excerpts:

Examples of the kind of books we're looking for:
The only fly fishing guide you'll ever need: The Curtis Creek Manifesto
The mushroom forager's bible: Mushrooms Demystified
The best book on breadmaking: The Bread Baker's Apprentice
The essential cook book: How to Cook Everything
The ultimate bike repair manual: Barnett's Manual


Categories: Ideas

30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself

Written by marcandangel

When you stop chasing the wrong things you give
the right things a chance to catch you.

As Maria Robinson once said, “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”  Nothing could be closer to the truth.  But before you can begin this process of transformation you have to stop doing the things that have been holding you back.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

  1. Stop spending time with the wrong people. – Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you.  If someone wants you in their life, they’ll make room for you.  You shouldn’t have to fight for a spot.  Never, ever insist yourself to someone who continuously overlooks your worth.  And remember, it’s not the people that stand by your side when you’re at your best, but the ones who stand beside you when you’re at your worst that are your true friends.
  2. Stop running from your problems. – Face them head on.  No, it won’t be easy.  There is no person in the world capable of flawlessly handling every punch thrown at them.  We aren’t supposed to be able to instantly solve problems.  That’s not how we’re made.  In fact, we’re made to get upset, sad, hurt, stumble and fall.  Because that’s the whole purpose of living – to face problems, learn, adapt, and solve them over the course of time.  This is what ultimately molds us into the person we become.
  3. Stop lying to yourself. – You can lie to anyone else in the world, but you can’t lie to yourself.  Our lives improve only when we take chances, and the first and most difficult chance we can take is to be honest with ourselves.  Read The Road Less Traveled.
  4. Stop putting your own needs on the back burner. – The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.  Yes, help others; but help yourself too.  If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do something that matters to you, that moment is now.
  5. Stop trying to be someone you’re not. – One of the greatest challenges in life is being yourself in a world that’s trying to make you likeeveryone else.  Someone will always be prettier, someone will always be smarter, someone will always be younger, but they will never be you.  Don’t change so people will like you.  Be yourself and the right people will love the real you.
  6. Stop trying to hold onto the past. – You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one.
  7. Stop being scared to make a mistake. – Doing something and getting it wrong is at least ten times more productive than doing nothing.  Every success has a trail of failures behind it, and every failure is leading towards success.  You end up regretting the things you did NOT do far more than the things you did.
  8. Stop berating yourself for old mistakes. – We may love the wrong person and cry about the wrong things, but no matter how things go wrong, one thing is for sure, mistakes help us find the person and things that are right for us.  We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past.  But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future.  Every single thing that has ever happened in your life is preparing you for a moment that is yet to come.
  9. Stop trying to buy happiness. – Many of the things we desire are expensive.  But the truth is, the things that really satisfy us are totally free – love, laughter and working on our passions.
  10. Stop exclusively looking to others for happiness. – If you’re not happy with who you are on the inside, you won’t be happy in a long-term relationship with anyone else either.  You have to create stability in your own life first before you can share it with someone else.  Read Stumbling on Happiness.
  11. Stop being idle. – Don’t think too much or you’ll create a problem that wasn’t even there in the first place.  Evaluate situations and take decisive action.  You cannot change what you refuse to confront.  Making progress involves risk.  Period!  You can’t make it to second base with your foot on first.
  12. Stop thinking you’re not ready. – Nobody ever feels 100% ready when an opportunity arises.  Because most great opportunities in life force us to grow beyond our comfort zones, which means we won’t feel totally comfortable at first.
  13. Stop getting involved in relationships for the wrong reasons. – Relationships must be chosen wisely.  It’s better to be alone than to be in bad company.  There’s no need to rush.  If something is meant to be, it will happen – in the right time, with the right person, and for the best reason. Fall in love when you’re ready, not when you’re lonely.
  14. Stop rejecting new relationships just because old ones didn’t work. – In life you’ll realize that there is a purpose for everyone you meet.  Some will test you, some will use you and some will teach you.  But most importantly, some will bring out the best in you.
  15. Stop trying to compete against everyone else. – Don’t worry about what others are doing better than you.  Concentrate on beating your own records every day.  Success is a battle between YOU and YOURSELF only.
  16. Stop being jealous of others. – Jealousy is the art of counting someone else’s blessings instead of your own.  Ask yourself this:  “What’s something I have that everyone wants?”
  17. Stop complaining and feeling sorry for yourself. – Life’s curveballs are thrown for a reason – to shift your path in a direction that is meant for you.  You may not see or understand everything the moment it happens, and it may be tough.  But reflect back on those negative curveballs thrown at you in the past.  You’ll often see that eventually they led you to a better place, person, state of mind, or situation.  So smile!  Let everyone know that today you are a lot stronger than you were yesterday, and you will be.
  18. Stop holding grudges. – Don’t live your life with hate in your heart.  You will end up hurting yourself more than the people you hate.  Forgiveness is not saying, “What you did to me is okay.”  It is saying, “I’m not going to let what you did to me ruin my happiness forever.”  Forgiveness is the answer… let go, find peace, liberate yourself!  And remember, forgiveness is not just for other people, it’s for you too.  If you must, forgive yourself, move on and try to do better next time.
  19. Stop letting others bring you down to their level. – Refuse to lower your standards to accommodate those who refuse to raise theirs.
  20. Stop wasting time explaining yourself to others. – Your friends don’t need it and your enemies won’t believe it anyway.  Just do what you know in your heart is right.
  21. Stop doing the same things over and over without taking a break. – The time to take a deep breath is when you don’t have time for it.  If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.  Sometimes you need to distance yourself to see things clearly.
  22. Stop overlooking the beauty of small moments. – Enjoy the little things, because one day you may look back and discover they were the big things.  The best portion of your life will be the small, nameless moments you spend smiling with someone who matters to you.
  23. Stop trying to make things perfect. – The real world doesn’t reward perfectionists, it rewards people who get things done.  Read Getting Things Done.
  24. Stop following the path of least resistance. – Life is not easy, especially when you plan on achieving something worthwhile.  Don’t take the easy way out.  Do something extraordinary.
  25. Stop acting like everything is fine if it isn’t. – It’s okay to fall apart for a little while.  You don’t always have to pretend to be strong, and there is no need to constantly prove that everything is going well.  You shouldn’t be concerned with what other people are thinking either – cry if you need to – it’s healthy to shed your tears.  The sooner you do, the sooner you will be able to smile again.
  26. Stop blaming others for your troubles. – The extent to which you can achieve your dreams depends on the extent to which you take responsibility for your life.  When you blame others for what you’re going through, you deny responsibility – you give others power over that part of your life.
  27. Stop trying to be everything to everyone. – Doing so is impossible, and trying will only burn you out.  But making one person smile CAN change the world.  Maybe not the whole world, but their world.  So narrow your focus.
  28. Stop worrying so much. – Worry will not strip tomorrow of its burdens, it will strip today of its joy.  One way to check if something is worth mulling over is to ask yourself this question: “Will this matter in one year’s time?  Three years?  Five years?”  If not, then it’s not worth worrying about.
  29. Stop focusing on what you don’t want to happen. – Focus on what you do want to happen.  Positive thinking is at the forefront of every great success story.  If you awake every morning with the thought that something wonderful will happen in your life today, and you pay close attention, you’ll often find that you’re right.
  30. Stop being ungrateful. – No matter how good or bad you have it, wake up each day thankful for your life.  Someone somewhere else is desperately fighting for theirs.  Instead of thinking about what you’re missing, try thinking about what you have that everyone else is missing.

Photo by: Rob Brucker

 


Categories: Ideas

Safeglides Tap-In Felt Furniture Pads

Kevin Kelly - Cool Tools - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 09:23

When you get sick and tired of reapplying those adhesive felt furniture feet to all your furniture every time they come off (go ahead, look under something; a lot of them are coming off or missing aren't they?), you can get these improved ones that I found a few years ago.

The round metal rivet hammers easily into the end of the leg with a tack hammer, and the metal part doesn't break like the kind with the single skinny nail in the center. (And the adhesive kind, as you no doubt have noticed, do not stay properly attached for very long at all.) I have never had one of these fail yet.

This vendor has them for a good price; they have a $25 minimum, which means you have to order about 80. However, you can also get them at Amazon.

-- Charles Kiblinger

Safeglides Tap-In Felt Furniture Pad
$8 for pack of 16

Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Highland Woodworking

Sample Excerpts:


Categories: Ideas

Improved imagery of the Google Earth seafloor

Google Earth Blog - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 06:46

To celebrate the three year anniversary of the release of the 3D Ocean in Google Earth, they've just released a major update to their bathymetry (underwater terrain) and it looks great!

Similar to their recent update "Pretty Earth" update, this one does quite a lot to help clean up stray artifacts and images visible in the ocean. A great example of that is Guam, seen here alongside the Marianas Trench, the deepest trench in the world:

Another noteworthy change is that "Atlantis" is now gone. A few years ago some people thought they had found the lost city of Atlantis, but it turned out to simply be sonar tracks from a ship. While that was a reasonable and accurate explanation, the sonar tracks were still pretty ugly on the surface of the ocean. They're now cleaned up as part of this update and the area looks as clear as it should:

To see more of what's changed, Google has created this short video to give you a tour:

Combined with the new patchless imagery, the earth is suddenly looking remarkably better all the way around. For more, check out this entry in the Google Lat Long Blog.


Categories: Ideas

Why Facebook Will Do Search And Why Google Needs Social

MIT Advertising Lab - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 04:03
Mark Zuckerberg posted a picture of himself in front of his computer, and an eagle-eyed blogger noticed that his version of Facebook sports a larger-than-usual search box. An unintended leak or not, Facebook competing in search is only a matter of time just as, in retrospect, it was inevitable that Google would integrate social elements deeper into its main product.

This is why.
It wouldn't be a revelation to say that no large-scale ad delivery system is perfect.

Reason one is that, at any given moment, only a fraction of the exposed audience is actively on the market for the benefit that the advertised product delivers.  Yes, I actually might be interested in switching to your cell phone plan, but talk to me in 15 months when my contract is about to expire. This is the efficiency problem of advertising: in order to reach the few people who are interested right now, the delivery systems by necessity overshoot and spam the crap bejesus out of thousands who promptly tune out.

Reason two is that few would admit they believe advertising. People consider the source and recognize the nature of the claims as self-serving and discount them accordingly.  This is the effectiveness problem. The advertisers' typical recourse is to bypass rational thought altogether and to beat the claim into the audience's subconscious through incessant repetition.

(Now is a good time to note that we are are talking only about ad delivery here. Effectiveness of creative is a different topic.)

That's what the main media planning principles of "reach" and "frequency" are about -- solving for efficiency and effectiveness. In the picture above, this situation is illustrated by the undesirable lower-left quadrant that says "You Are Here." You are there because most of the existing large ad delivery systems are both inefficient and ineffective.

Except for two.

Google with all its imperfections is the most efficient way to deliver ads -- only people who need something now would actively look for something and see an ad for it.

And even though it took them awhile, Facebook is figuring out that they have this whole effectiveness thing down. According to many studies (the one below, and others, including my own), friends are the most trusted source of product information. Facebook has hundreds of millions of friends, and Facebook also sells advertising, and now Facebook is putting two and two together to make advertising that comes from friends.


But Google and Facebook each solve only half of the efficiency/effectiveness problem.  The impeccably timed search ads Google delivers are still self-serving. And the perfectly trustworthy social ads on Facebook still show up at the wrong time. In other words,  Facebook and Google each have what the other doesn't, and they are going to fight for it.

On Google's end, this is what the whole Search Plus Your World business is about -- fixing the source problem.  That's why the push to get people to +1 stuff, and then connect people into social graphs via Gmail and Google+, and then use +1ers as implicit endorsers. Not, you might notice, unlike Facebook.

And Facebook needs to fix its targeting. "Interests" have an expiry date and "likes" of pop-culture icons are only tangential indicators of predisposition towards, say, vacuum cleaners. Facebook does have several more precise mechanisms for intent targeting useful for certain categories (a recent change of status to "engaged" is a reliable signal for the wedding industry), but by and large nothing as precise of an intent indicator as search.

Hence the picture of Zuck in front of an extra-large search box.


Categories: Ideas