CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-25 21:39:11 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

No one ever changed the world by being normal.

Words to live by. : )   What an amazing coincidence that the black button is next to the orange one?

Our favorite doughnut place, four miles of bike ride away, has a whole bunch of buttons. These two stood out to me this morning. 

Be non-normal.

#wordstoliveby  

2013-05-24 22:00:55 (2 comments, 16 reshares, 54 +1s)

Things to hit when you're angry. Graphed. 

Advice you can use on any day, but perhaps especially so on a long weekend with your family. Have a good one. Don't be angry. And if you do, now you know what to do.

Have a great weekend!

Source: http://goo.gl/qjXgd

2013-05-24 16:00:18 (3 comments, 13 reshares, 24 +1s)

1985-2010: The Fattening of these United States of America.

This is something. Dark brown is greater than 30% obesity in population. Some people think... "Oh, obese? No, that's not us. That's somebody else!"  Nope. It is us. All of us. 

Though what is up with the south?

It does not matter how you define obesity. We are all getting fat. The downside is not that we will run out of food, no chance of that. The downside is that our fatness will bestow upon us the kinds of diseases and sucky old age that will be hard to deal with. No, not for the government. For each obese person. You and I and our friends and neighbors. At the end of the day the only reason to be healthy, is that the alternative sucks for a very long time.

PS: Can I gloat for a moment that my state is still in the pale yellow? We are going to get to orange and then brown.B... more »

2013-05-23 21:41:45 (17 comments, 13 reshares, 40 +1s)

Help, please.  Would you please do me a solid and take this quick Market Motive (my start up) industry survey? I'll really appreciate it: http://goo.gl/vQGZb  Thank you.

2013-05-23 16:03:24 (9 comments, 29 reshares, 30 +1s)

Most popular country in the world? GERMANY!  It seems just yesterday Germany was being tarred and feathered (not because of the war, though some still think of that) because of the EU crisis and economic recovery. This is nothing short of amazing.

You know what is astonishing? Even the Greeks and Spaniards, deeply unkind to Chancellor Merkel, rated Germany with greater than 70% positive ratings.

A couple of great lessons.

1. If you live your core values and deep inside you are good people (product) doing good things, your brand will survive temporary nonsense just fine. 

2. The only first world country that is lower than us (USA) is South Korea (what is up with that Koreans?). This is sad. Is this just the price we pay for our military industrial complex and self appointed role of policing the world? Our positive ratings are three points higher thanC... more »

2013-05-22 15:55:55 (4 comments, 28 reshares, 44 +1s)

[I'll disagree with the title of the slide, and change it...]
The power of "branding."  Yes, price is important, it is super important for households with less than $50k annual income (totally makes sense), but as you move up the segments, it is pretty amazing how the power of the brand grows steadily.

It even overtakes quality, by a lot, for households over $100k. Now that seems to make no sense. Would you rather buy something because of the label on it, rather than the quality of the product? Wait. What am I asking. Of course we do! : )

Branding it not just TV commercials and product packaging. It is a combination of your people, your values, your day to day actions. It is your ability to innovate, to merchandise, to be there at the point of pain (and solve it). It is insanely hard to establish, and yet often simple to explain.

Because we are on... more »

2013-05-21 16:04:46 (16 comments, 45 reshares, 66 +1s)

So what did Yahoo! really buy with Tumblr?  A part of the validation offered (by Ms. Mayer especially) was that the goal was to buy the users. Paraphrasing: "Take 700 mil we have, add 200 mil from Tumblr, and you have almost one billion, a huge audience to monetize." 

I'm not sure where those numbers come from, but if Yahoo! wanted to buy "people" they might have been better off buying wordpress.com or blogspot.com. (Is it not a shame that Blogger is not much cooler and in consciousness? Google needs to work harder on that!)

See graph 1 below, unique visitors each month on each platform from Compete. Tumblr is much smaller than people might imagine in its ability to attract an audience.

Perhaps graph 2 is the reason that Yahoo! bought Tumblr, the number of page views (attractive for delivering display ads). You can see that Wordpress hash... more »

2013-05-20 16:39:02 (9 comments, 27 reshares, 81 +1s)

Excellent Analytics Tip #24: Obsess About Real Business Profitability: http://goo.gl/R5qOU  My latest post is about an astounding mistake that we make every single day as marketers and analysts. Not caring about what really matters, often because it is not in our job description or analytics tools.

An incomplete picture looks like the one below. It causes massive waste of marketing dollars, misplaced priorities by your business, and  general super-lameness. 

Read the post, http://goo.gl/R5qOU, for what the prescription looks like.

I do a detailed walk through of the case study below, it will shock you how dramatically the picture changes, and also apply it to e-commerce and omni-channel B2B businesses. 

#howtorockmore   #analytics   #besmartergetpromoted  

2013-05-20 04:32:45 (100 comments, 438 reshares, 942 +1s)

I believe I've shared this once before, but can't find it so you get to delight in it once more. From the inimitable Matthew Inman: http://goo.gl/EqmKO

While @hotmail is dead, it is now outlook.com (and at least for me) served on a bay175.mail.live.com/mail, it is unclear what to think of outlook as a brand. It reminds me of Outlook the software, which I equate to non-cloud old thinking and hence back to, for now, the same type of brand impression as @hotmail. 

#branding  
PS: I wonder if there is a category for "own domain but based on the Google Apps stack." I would be in that one. :)

2013-05-18 15:53:43 (59 comments, 578 reshares, 672 +1s)

This. Is. Hilarious.

Some of the jokes are too inside the beltway. But even if you know nothing about the VC game, you are still going to smile.

If you've had the privilege of pitching to VCs, you are going to die laughing.

#gotesla   #creativity  

Nikola Tesla Pitching Silicon Valley VCs

2013-05-17 16:47:15 (47 comments, 153 reshares, 359 +1s)

World's Greatest Social Media Advice.

I was watching the comedian Craig Ferguson for a few minutes and somewhere in his comedy special he was ranting about social media. Then he said the single greatest piece of advice I've ever heard about the thoughtful consideration you should give before your post something on Facebook, Google+, Twitter and the rest.

Three simple questions. They'll awesomize your social presence.

#adviceyoucanuse  

2013-05-16 19:03:19 (16 comments, 6 reshares, 29 +1s)

Did you ever think that the saviors of our world were those creepy, crawly, noise, disturbance generating, stuff of nightmares?  It is true. Bugs are going to save humanity!

If we are willing to switch away from cows, pigs and chickens - to insects - we have incredible benefits waiting for us. 

Over 9 kilograms of cow feed is required to produce 1 kilograms of edible weight. Crickets? Around 1.5 kilos only. So we feed them less, they feed us more!

Greenhouse produced? 80 - 160 for cows. 18 for Mealworms. They pollute the planet less!

Finally checkout the Protein chart at the bottom. You are going to rush to switch to Insects, Termites, Crickets, Silkworms!!

Now. As a vegetarian trust me I appreciate how difficult it is to put something you are not used to into one's mouth. Yucky.

But at some point in human evolution someone said:"... more »

2013-05-16 14:14:04 (5 comments, 13 reshares, 50 +1s)

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

An amazing quote by Margaret Mead.

This is an incredible video, it summarizes Google's thinking on going for moonshots.  For someone who passionately hates shooting for incrementality, me, this is such an inspiring video.

If you are not sure of this in a business context consider this.... I'm paraphrasing something I've heard +Larry Page say....  

If you attempt a "crazy thing," you are not going to have a lot of competition because people don't like attempting crazy things. Even if you fail at it, you would have made more progress than if you were going for 1% improvement (rather than 10x with a moonshot). And if you succeed, you'll have the space to yourself for a while.

#moons... more »

2013-05-15 16:23:09 (5 comments, 13 reshares, 57 +1s)

I love flow charts.

And I believe that everyone, regardless of age/location, can find benefit from totally internalizing this simple flow chart.

Print it. Stick it on the wall. Take action.

#savemove   #livebetter  
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2013-05-14 15:42:30 (7 comments, 38 reshares, 54 +1s)

It's time to buy, maybe something new, who you gonna call? Not paid ads!

Perhaps that is not really surprising. Those closest to us, friends/family, still hold an amazing influence over our decisions. That has been true forever, and always will be.

But there are surprising bits to chew in this data. We prefer professorially written reviews more than consumer-written. Perhaps that is a reflection of how much companies have tried to game the online reviews game.

SEO is the digital king. People place surprising power in Google's ability to rank brands/companies/recommendations. So get that brand halo.

Most surprising to me were that the social hype for companies is not paying off. Most brands "shout" and "pimp" on social channels, it has come back to bite them in the butt. Lastly the soiled, awful, limited mobile app"e... more »

2013-05-13 16:23:38 (12 comments, 2 reshares, 15 +1s)

Real care, real service. Frankfort.

Two photos to illustrate one big difference between American and European airports.

When was the last time you got free tea, coffee or newspapers at an US airport?

Physically I appreciate this because I'm tired. But even times when I don't get the coffee it makes me emotionally feel a little better that they care about us passengers, that we are not cattle to be herded around.

I don't know that the US airport are making so much more money that will die if they have more clues that they care about us. It might even have unintended consequences, like improve the quality of paid coffee (I had to pour out the last $5 "coffee" I got in ORD).

There is also a lesson here for your job. Are you doing the minimum possible and maximizing profits, or are you giving up a small amount of... more »

2013-05-12 20:07:31 (9 comments, 0 reshares, 16 +1s)

Let's play ball!!

An incredibly beautiful day in San Francisco, our team is on fire.

Looking forward to a great game.

#gogiants
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2013-05-11 23:23:07 (13 comments, 41 reshares, 97 +1s)

Visualizing the major causes of death in the 20th Century.

Human beings are the 3rd biggest major cause of deaths of... human beings.

The rest of the data is quite interesting as well (though you might need a large screen to truly appreciate this infographic).

For example not including anything past 1999, the US in the name of democracy seems to have caused 14 million deaths. Seems big. For freedom.

The most interesting bits of course are the diseases, the preventable ones. I'm sure many would be surprised that diarrhea caused 226 million deaths. A disease we don't really know in the western world.

Lots more to explore. #foodforthought
 
Source: http://goo.gl/qx75Z

2013-05-10 23:57:21 (28 comments, 92 reshares, 179 +1s)

#offtopic  

If, like me, you've had a tough day, this video will make you happy.

I love this guy's initiative, his passion, and how impressively he seizes the moment. Then he goes all out! When you watch the video you'll see how  awesome it is. 

Make sure you watch it all the way through, it only gets good with the girlfriend.

Carpe diem baby, carpe diem!!

#life   #joy  

via +Chris Brogan 
[Update: There's a conclusion/part 2! http://goo.gl/9M3dG]

2013-05-10 16:07:03 (5 comments, 15 reshares, 32 +1s)

I love David Foster Wallace's 2005 commencement speech at Kenyon College.

It is incredible. I listen to it a couple times a year, it is that incredible. Full of insightful stories about people, lives, challenges and beliefs.

This is the dedactic parable he starts with: "There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes "What the hell is water?” 

That's in the first minute. If you've never heard it, consider setting aside 20 mins. I promise there is a ton here that will make you think - in a good way.

PS: There is a "remix" excerpted version of this speech with modern images.  I find itdis... more »

2013-05-09 16:08:08 (16 comments, 26 reshares, 64 +1s)

What is social media?

It is very hard to capture the essence of anything in a pithy way. This is especially hard for people (like me!) who understand the value of nuance, and all the shades of gray.

But for a recent keynote to a group of senior business leaders, I went out on a limb and tried to 1. define clearly what it is not and 2. identify what it is and 3. go to the root cause of why so many companies, big and small, fail at social media.

How did I do? 

And how would you answer the question what is social media, in a business context?

#occamsrazor  

2013-05-07 22:39:30 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 17 +1s)

When in doubt, wear pants!

This is extremely hard advice to follow when you live in Northern California. The weather here is criminally awesome (and in case you were curious, so are the taxes).

But this "data visualization" is very much on the money, and quite hilarious.

I hope you love it....

Source: http://goo.gl/IsRXd

#adviceyoucanuse  
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2013-05-06 22:35:11 (13 comments, 31 reshares, 57 +1s)

(A little off-topic....)

This is an amazing amazing video.

I was unfamiliar about the whole Russian dashboard cam phenom until the unfortunate recent meteor incident. This is a great compilation of good deeds by every day people as they go about their lives. So sweet.

Favorite moments... I smiled when the old woman crosses herself before trying to cross the road, the man picking up the car (literally), the young man  picking up the handicapped person, man helping ducks.... so many more.

Russians, thank you for the smiles and this warm feeling inside.

#life   #gohumans !

PS: My favorite YouTube comment on this video: "Marco Ahumada:
I can't believe these are the same people I targeted in Call of Duty. My teenage life is a lie! *Dies [Crowd Cheers] end of scene..."

2013-05-06 16:29:15 (15 comments, 28 reshares, 50 +1s)

Remember saying this when you were young: "But mom, when am I ever going to use Math!! WHEN was the last time you had to use Calculus?"

Turns out you were right.

It turns out a tiny percentage of Americans actually use math at work. Add, subtract, multiply... you know the stuff you learned in Grade 1, most Americans top out at that in the work environment.  Basic algebra, geometry are less than 19%, calculus is below 8%.

Now here's the surprising part. Advanced math's max users are.... wait for it.... Upper Blue Collar Workers! It is not you on the computer, the Upper White Collar Worker. How amazing is that? Ditto for algebra and geometry.

Does this mean we should not teach kids advanced math? Of course not.

Even if I had not written two books on analytics I would say that. Math teaches you how to think smarter and makes you... more »

2013-05-05 16:09:27 (7 comments, 12 reshares, 25 +1s)

In news that might surprise you... it turns out money can buy happiness!

Economists  Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers used data from Gallup's World Poll. The top represents the best possible life. The respondents were asked simply where they are on the ladder and how much they earn. 

"Though some countries seem happier than others, people everywhere report more satisfaction as they grow richer. Even more striking, the relationship between income and happiness hardly changes as incomes rise. Moving from rich to richer seems to raise happiness just as much as moving from poor to less poor."

One never really grows tired of earning more.

:)   #foodforthought  

Yes there is more to life than money.  

Source, and more context: http://goo.gl/UbtZ4

2013-05-03 20:09:26 (11 comments, 2 reshares, 22 +1s)

Top CEO Pay Ratios: Observations.  Top 250: http://goo.gl/Qk4DQ

I'm not sure this is a fair way to stack rank CEOs. The Average Worker Pay, if nothing else, skews things a lot. For example it is quite likely Mr. Ellison would be ranked highest were he to pull the same salary by be the CEO of JCP.

+ It should be crystal clear from this list that actual performance of the company seems to have no bearing on exec pay. Some of these companies are giant losers. Some are barely surviving. Some doing ok.

+ The average worker pay in all clothing companies seems to be standardized around $29k. It does not matter if you sell clothing, JCP or Target, or you make clothes, Ralph Lauren, Abercrombie. How does that happen? And how are the employee families supposed to live good lives?

+ How come Ebay pays its employees so low, compared to techcomp... more »

2013-05-03 16:21:51 (11 comments, 22 reshares, 55 +1s)

Why do Averages suck?

This picture is from an excellent article by +Thomas Baekdal. "Making Sense of Social Media Monitoring and Sentiment Analysis" http://goo.gl/ZqRTJ You should read it and also sign up for Baekdal Plus - best $9 you can spend each month!

This graph illustrates vividly why making decisions on averages can often, in the best case, hide insights from you or, in the worst case, a severely career limiting move.

Regardless of if the context is social sentiment or ecommerce or train schedule or salary comparisons (between me and +Larry Page) or ..... you want to know much more urgently if you are in the second bar.

If you want to learn more about why Averages, Percentages, Ratios and Compound Metrics are stinky poo, see my post: http://goo.gl/s2gku

2013-05-02 18:39:24 (10 comments, 27 reshares, 69 +1s)

Seven dirty secrets of data visualisation

There has been a raft of "let'a make data pretty/accessible/easy to understand" efforts in the last year or so. All immensely welcome. But I do feel that we are forgetting some of the fundamentals. Hence I was delighted to read this post: http://goo.gl/9hbpi 

It is hard to pick from such a good list, but I think #6 is my favorite. It is the reason you can take data out of an analytics tool, automatically make a infographic/"dashboard" and spit out a kind of pretty looking pdf... that is completely value-deficient. 

Just as reporting != analysis, visualization != analysis. You are still puking data out, no matter how pretty/brief/graphical. Here's the proper order, imho, reporting > analysis > visualization. If that second step (often but not always powered by a human) is missing  you arejus... more »

2013-05-01 23:34:34 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 25 +1s)

New York, New York, New York!

I love you New York!

Beautiful day to hold the YouTube upfront.

#brandcast
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2013-05-01 20:32:00 (6 comments, 1 reshares, 40 +1s)

I was trying to figure out how best to capture how dramatically our world is changing / has changed.

Then the perfect little example came to me. Tweet: http://goo.gl/yRdhR

It is amazing to think that where we live, this is normal. My hypothesis is that this is going to be normal everywhere in the near future. No more human silos based on age, nationality, skin color, ancestry, psychographics etc.

From a human point of view are you, and your mental model, ready for this new world order?

From a business point of view, are you and your company ready for this new world order?

#foodforthought  

2013-04-29 17:44:00 (14 comments, 26 reshares, 65 +1s)

8 Silly Data Things Marketing People Believe That Get Them Fired.

That's the ambitious title of my latest blog post: http://goo.gl/Wv2og

Eight simple things that present an insanely complex challenge for Marketers to figure out, no matter how obvious they might seem to be.

The post collects the "why" around each challenge, the "what" in terms of alternatives and presents "how" you can evolve and become rich, famous and earn your mom's love. 

As is always the case on Occam's Razor, we have a lot of fun learning. Checkout the post, http://goo.gl/Wv2og, and share your own experiences and insights via comments there. 

#stayhungrystayfoolish   #datadrivenjobpromotions  

2013-04-29 04:23:06 (7 comments, 31 reshares, 64 +1s)

The World's First TV Commercial

It was aired at 2:29 PM on July 1 1941. It was a ten second spot aired on NBC, prior to a baseball game.

It cost Bulova $9. :)

Pretty amazing.

#nostalgia   #history  
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2013-04-27 17:59:46 (10 comments, 3 reshares, 23 +1s)

Why a relationship is like a yacht?

An insightful little graph from the always amazing +Jessica Hagy.

See. Ponder. Go hmmm.....

:)

#life  

Source: http://goo.gl/N5Ig4

2013-04-26 15:57:53 (14 comments, 13 reshares, 30 +1s)

Which is the world's biggest employer?

The notable thing about this small graphic is how surprised I was about who is on it. I expected to see the North Korean army, given all the hoopla. I did not expect to see Foxconn!

And should we really fear the Chinese army if our beloved Walmart will have more employees soon? Ok so Walmart does not have guns. Wait. No that's not true. They do have guns at Walmart! 

And does the UK's National Health Service need so many employees because McDonald's has even more employees feeding the world fat? (Also made me think why no social services in the US, with our massive population, show up here?)

So many great questions...

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17429786

2013-04-25 22:24:47 (6 comments, 12 reshares, 28 +1s)

Incredible "Sandwich Art"

David LaFerriere is a graphics artist. He has been drawing on his kids homemade lunch bags almost every day since 2008.

2008!

Insane dedication. Incredible art. Inspiring effort.

You should see the pictures in high resolution: Flickr: http://goo.gl/Kyj7k

#creativity   #parenting   #passion  
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2013-04-25 16:20:49 (17 comments, 3 reshares, 28 +1s)

Thoughts after a few days with the HTC One (developer edition).

It makes my iPhone5 look cutsey. HTC has done a fantastic job with hardware/industrial design. The raw touch, look, feel, depth of the blacks and colors of the screen, the screen itself, the hold (so much more comfortable with the interesting angled hold rather than the boxy rectangle). The only thing I now miss about the iPhone5 is the lightning connector.

It makes my Samsung Galaxy S3 downright lame from a industrial design perspective. Until I actually held the HTC One in my hand (videos, pictures don't do it justice), I did not realize how lame plastic feels (and I had an iPhone 5!).  Maybe in my mind I was compartmentalizing Android phones. Regardless, I would have migrated up to the S4 but I refuse to let Samsung slide by going with plastic again.

For iOS the controlled software experience is ac... more »

2013-04-24 18:20:25 (7 comments, 56 reshares, 47 +1s)

A Google Proposal: Yes, Googlers do it in style!

Do not watch this video with other people around you. You are going to tear up, you don't want them to see your emotional side. :)

As the description says, the video, is of a proposal. It is at a Google office. It is spectacular.

I'm touched that everyone chips in to make this so special for the couple. I can't imagine the logistics of what it might have taken to pull it off.

I wish my peers all the very best with their engagement, and a very long happy marriage.

#thingsthatmakeyoutearup   #lifelibertyandthepursuitofhappiness  
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2013-04-24 16:25:11 (5 comments, 24 reshares, 62 +1s)

Fix your biggest Web Analytics problem, figure out what's important!

Perhaps the single biggest hurdle analysts face is that they don't know what to focus on. Most of the time they are really good analysts and really understand analysis and really jump in quickly to do a whole bunch of stuff. But then nothing changes. 

Why?

They don't know what to focus on. Wait. Did I say that already? :)

+Justin Cutroni has a really great blog post on how to use the Digital Marketing Measurement Model to fix this problem. He's applied it, in a beautiful step-by-step manner that will immensely please you, to Non-Profits. But every type of company should go through this. Only if they want to win big. Sure you want to. Go: http://goo.gl/4e2Wg <Click

2013-04-23 22:36:41 (8 comments, 3 reshares, 28 +1s)

Second example in as many days of advertising that you want to watch. Because of the message being communicated. Because of the creativity on display. Because of deeply human connection you feel.

The poster child for today is the Dove Real Beauty Sketches.

Unless you've been living under a rock you've probably seen it. But watch it again. Then genuinely ask yourself the question: What does your brand stand for? And why does it stand for what it stands for?

PS: Speaking of success... The most important success metric is your brand's ability to seed the conversation. One manifestation of that is parody videos. There's one for Dove, it's halirous: Dove Real Beauty Sketches - Men

#creativity  

2013-04-23 16:44:23 (19 comments, 215 reshares, 229 +1s)

How well do you know Google Analytics? Is GA all it's cracked up to be?

Now it's easy to figure out the answers to those questions, just checkout the wonderful Periodic Table created by the talented +Jeff Sauer.

You can access a easier to see mouse hoverable on each element version on Jeff's website: http://goo.gl/XDnQq <Click

It is also a handy list you can use when starting the process of buying a digital analytics tool. Use it for your RFP. [More: http://goo.gl/idgdJ]

For the next iteration it would be cool to link the table to helpful articles or even the support site so that you can learn more - and get so deep into this that you never come up to see the light of the day! :)

2013-04-22 22:33:09 (11 comments, 35 reshares, 70 +1s)

Did you think Evian could never top their massively successful Evian Roller Baby ad?

Well. You thought wrong!

Bow to the creativity on display here....

Here comes the hotstepper. :)

PS: Why is it that so few companies get what it takes to break through the clutter?

2013-04-22 16:42:33 (21 comments, 122 reshares, 155 +1s)

What is the best time to spam people?

I meant to say "marketing promotions," aka email marketing. :)

This is a very interesting table. It seems the highest click-through rates are in the very early morning or late in the night. What is fascinating is that while only 2% of the volume was in the night. 2000 - 2400 hrs, every other number is hugely positive, including Average Order Size.

Lesson: Get to your best customers after they've had dinner but not before they've fallen asleep, while they are likely on their iPad!

Page 11 of this report is quite fascinating as well. The shelf life of an email campaign is shorter, and shorter, and shorter. 

Direct link to pdf: http://goo.gl/yqggu If you do email marketing, my post on magnificent email metrics: http://goo.gl/p2Nao

2013-04-22 03:16:52 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 24 +1s)

Guess what city we were visiting today?

Yep. San Francisco.

We honked. :)

There was something cute about a minivan with this message. The family vehicle and what not. 

Tip: The bike ride from Fisherman's Wharf to Fort Point is pretty amazing. Even our kids were able to do it easily. I recommend it.

Fort Point was open today, a very nice place to visit. We are on top of the Golden Gate so much, it was interesting to be directly below it - surrounded with old cannons and cannon balls. Do visit if you are in San Francisco.

2013-04-21 16:25:54 (1 comments, 4 reshares, 10 +1s)

Deciding where to live? Here's some food for thought...

On the left are the most obese metro areas in the US, on the right are the least.

There are of course many other factors to consider, but there is a ton of research that has clearly established that people who surround us have a huge influence on our own eating / health behavior.

In case you have not seen it, this obesity map of the US is pretty scary: http://goo.gl/o5BRP It shows how in less than 50 year obesity has spread like wildfire across the US.

For some of our peers obesity is not a choice, but if you have a position to choose here are 10 reasons to consider: http://goo.gl/Zky0O

2013-04-20 22:32:55 (6 comments, 47 reshares, 79 +1s)

Get two sticks. 

Try to balance one on the other. Horizontally. 

See how hard that was?

Now watch Maedir Eugster in the video below.

Scary amazing right? It really is five minutes of "OMG, no, he can't possibly do that!!"

#creativity  #inspriation  #madskills 

http://vimeo.com/62422161

2013-04-19 20:49:10 (12 comments, 16 reshares, 45 +1s)

The best gift you can give yourself? Self awareness.

It is a bold statement to make. Right now I would rather have an HTC One. :)

We all spend very busy lives with many things competing for our attention. We have no time for contemplation.

One of my favorite life lessons has been to work hard on being self aware. There is a lot of complicated stuff wrapped in those two words, I just want to you take time to answer two: 1. What is it that I'm really really good at. 2. What are my deal breakers (sounds better than saying what you are bad at).

I ask people for feedback (constantly). I take every personality test I bump into. Not because personality tests are perfect (far from it). It's because regardless of the answers they give me, they always make me think. About me, about my environment, about my relationships. And that gets me to the two answersab... more »

2013-04-18 22:01:45 (4 comments, 2 reshares, 18 +1s)

How squished do you feel where you live?

I really like this visualization. Purely from how the data is visualized perspective (it is interactive, play with it here: http://goo.gl/0VmyY). 

But what I really love about this visualization is that it turns the metric on its head. Rather than measuring population density, how many people are in a given area, it measures how much space is around an average person.

This allows us to understand the metric a lot better (because it is so personal, as I play with the graph I actually feel squished when I hover over Manila!). 

It also proves some opinions wrong. I felt really squished in Moscow, I felt it was so crowded - on the streets, in the subway - but according to the data that's not really true. :)

#dataviz  

2013-04-17 17:28:09 (11 comments, 6 reshares, 24 +1s)

Large companies/ecosystems don't die quickly, they die slowly.

And sometimes it takes a very, very long time to realize 1. they are dead and 2. that they should have known that 5 years ago.

I believe that applies to many different industries (apples or shoes or restaurants) and many different companies. But the latest IDC data, http://goo.gl/DdyUR, made me think of Microsoft/Intel and the aforementioned thought.

It is nothing short of astonishing at how effectively Apple has challenged Microsoft/Intel's way of doing business (/computing). In a few short years our work life is mobile (tablets/phones), on ARM chips (not Intel Inside), and on a different operating system (iOS). 

And Microsoft/Intel have known this was coming. They've known this for five years, yet neither company has a credible alternative to threaten Apple in either of thosethre... more »

2013-04-16 16:29:37 (10 comments, 8 reshares, 14 +1s)

If your government is rich, economy gangbusters, is that great for you?

I love the idea of a Social Progress Index. It ignores how much money governments spend (like USA is pretty close to #1 in healthcare spending) and focuses on the outcomes (we are NOT #1 in better health outcomes). 

It focuses on answering three questions: 1. Does a country provide for its people’s most essential needs? 2. Are the building blocks in place for individuals and communities to enhance and sustain wellbeing? 3. Is there opportunity for all individuals to reach their full potential?

I.E. Are we as citizens better off from our government's cash spend and public policies?

Sweden is #1, followed by the UK, Switzerland, Canada and Germany.

Costa Rica is higher then Israel, UAE, substantially higher than China, Russia (super rich nations).

The USis... more »

2013-04-16 04:14:01 (1 comments, 5 reshares, 37 +1s)

Heartbreak in Boston

It is difficult to understand what causes some jackdonkeys to wreck this type of havoc on fellow humans. Difficult is a wrong word. Impossible. It is impossible to understand.

I'm confident the jackdonkeys will be found and brought to justice. I refuse to think of the jackdonkeys. 

I'm reserving all my brain cells and heart to thinking of the brave souls, uniformed and non-uniformed, that ran towards the destruction rather than away from it. There were tons upon tons of them. They showed the best side of humanity, in horrific conditions. We can't thank them enough.

My heart goes out to all the victims, and I pray that they recover soon. 

#bostonmarathon   #weshallovercome  

Cartoon source: Boston Globe: http://goo.gl/yCgCq