SEO Werkt!

Shutl, a delivery company that specializes in ferrying online retail purchases to customers, is offering Jamaican sprinter/fastest person alive Usain Bolt a deal: If he helps them set a world record for fastest delivery, they will give him a 1 percent stake in the company—and, because they don't know what his metabolism is capable of, "all the McNuggets you need." Check out the impressive offer letter below. Bolt, of course, claimed to have fueled up on McNuggets before the 100-meter final this year. I wonder if Puma or RockLive came on that strong in their respective approaches. All kidding aside, I hope he accepts the offer. I've never seen an Olympic track star get explosive indigestion mid-sprint before. Might be fun to watch. Photo: UsainBolt.com. Via Adverve.

Apple v. Samsung presiding Judge Lucy Koh on Sunday ordered Apple and Samsung’s lead attorneys to meet and hash out final jury instructions, a point of contention since the trial began two weeks ago.

Everywhere I look, I see B2B marketing that spouts "join the conversation," "get in the conversation," and other references to the word that skew it's meaning into the equivalent of "talk to the hand."

In my last post, I wrote about debunking the B2B buzzword, engagement. In the same vein, I'm wondering what the heck happened to the art of conversation? Have we become so numb by the ability to publish whatever we want that we've forgotten how to be human?

The words dialogue and conversation are also interchanged without thought but, in online marketing, they have different criterion:

Conversation: an interchange of thought, information actively shared between/among people. (Requires 2 or more people)

Dialogue: an exchange of information (Only requires one person)

The difference here is that a conversation is an active exchange of information between people where a dialogue (as an exchange of information) could be between a person and a website, blog, video, etc. without the need for two active (human) participants.

I think this is an important distinction. I do not think the two are interchangeable.

Let's look at some examples of what a conversation is NOT:

• A push email – even if the recipient clicks
• A Tweet with no commentary (title and link and handle)
• A blog post with comments from readers, but no response from the author (This does, however, change if readers are commenting in response to each other.)
• A white paper download
• Viewing a video

Examples of what transforms dialogue into conversation is response.

• I receive an email, click the link, and forward the email on to a colleague who responds back to me with comment about the content I shared. We may exchange several more emails in discussion about the content.
• I receive a comment on my blog, respond back and ask a follow-on question and the person comes back to answer the question. Or another reader jumps in and answers the question I asked and I respond to them.
• Someone posts a question to a LinkedIn group and provides a link to a blog post or article on the topic. Group members respond by leaving comments and referencing perspectives of others – discussion ensues.

If I had just clicked the link and read the information in the first example, there is no conversation. It's the act of involving others and adding my commentary that turns the dialogue into a conversation. There must be back and forth between people for a conversation to form.

The evolution is that we don't need oral communication to have a conversation. As long as two people are involved, a conversation can be facilitated by a variety of technology platforms, from email to communities to social media and beyond.

But, it's only dialogue if technology is carrying on half of the conversation.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge proponent of marketing automation. Use your technology to establish a dialogue that engages people through contextual information they want and need, GO YOU! But it's not a conversation until another person gets involved. This is because the "dialogue" is dependent on the behavior of the single participant, not both.

[If I visit this webpage, the system sends me a link to content A. If I visit a landing page and download a white paper, the system sends me content B. Etc. In a dialoge scenario, there's not a possiblity that it could veer off to content X.]

This is even more important when you consider social media. I see so many exchanges where someone is looking for help, only to be told to call an 800 number. Really? That's the best you can do? Although that fits the criterion for a conversation (2 or more people), there's also a difference between a valuable conversation and a crappy excuse for one.

So, when you think about "conversation" in marketing terms – what are you doing to make it more human?

And for those of you thinking "Wait. I get thousands of responses to my nurturing program! I can't possibly deal with this…" I would point you to buying stages and personas and battening down your lead scoring schema to get to intelligence that's useful. It's all in your approach to prioritization.

Don't let conversation become a meaningless buzzword. With a little art and science we can make marketing human, approachable, and definitely more social.

If you’re the type of person who never takes the time to chop up vegetables but know you need to start cooking at home consider going to a salad bar and only filling your salad container with mushrooms, diced ham, cheeses, and other ingredients that would work well in omelets, quesadillas, and other foods. More »

Google released Account chooser today, which lets you easily toggle between Gmail accounts without having to enter and re-enter your email or password.

Account chooser was first noticed by The Next Web, and undoubtedly excites any person that uses Gmail for both work and personal accounts. In order to enable the feature, you must first go to this link, which automatically signs you up if you’re logged into one of your accounts. That account becomes the default account from which you can add others. You must click “stay signed in” in order for the feature to work.

The new Gmail login screen is a small box that displays your name, the email address, and an image if you have one on your account. Multiple sign-on will be enabled across many of Google’s products, but the company notes that some of its products are not friendly with the feature yet. If you attempt to access a Google product that does not support Account chooser, then you will be automatically reverted to your default account.

Google does provide a set of suggestions on how to protect your accounts if you’re using Account chooser on a shared computer, but it’s always best not to have a signed-in account on a computer accessed by others.

You can always disable the feature and turn it back on when you’re ready.

hat tip The Next Web

Filed under: cloud

In lieu of the Chick-fil-A religion uproar, which was blown far out of proportion and followed with the company’s PR chief suffering a lethal heart attack, I thought I’d share this one…

A hopeful intern candidate sent me his resume last week with a cover letter that closed with “And God Bless”.

In all my years of reviewing resumes of job candidates, I’ve never experienced this before.

I couldn’t tell if this person was being sarcastic, seeking a chuckle, or attempting to express genuine religious blessings. I was confused.

Nonetheless, poor writing skills and a hollow resume eliminated this candidate at the start.

But it made me think…

I am supportive of God (or your religion or your lack of one). Faith is a very personal matter, and I’m tolerant and respectful of people’s choices. I think religious diversity is a good thing.

Oh, I patronize Chick-fil-A whenever I visit Atlanta. In New York, I frequently patronize Muslim street vendors who not only sell lamb gyros, but kneel on the street to pray right in front of me. I also frequent Thai restaurants, many owned by Buddhists and they’re not shy about decorating their establishments accordingly.

But if I were applying for a job, interacting for the first time with an organization with no stated religious affiliation, I would probably wait a while before introducing God into the conversation.

What do you think?

Many of you know I LOVE MONKEYS (cough, Jason Konopinski, cough) and you may have already seen this image floating around Facebook, but I just had to share it here…as a special addition to Gin and Topics.

Every time I see this posted on another person’s Facebook page, I squeal. I mean, look at him! Cutest. Thing. Ever.

It makes me want one! I wonder if he and Jack Bauer would get along? I could walk Jack Bauer on a leash and hold my monkey’s hand, and we could share ice cream cones. It would be grand!

Alright. So on to the weekly specials. We have tight pants, a seal dancing to Michael Jackson, a song about the differences in women ages 29 and 31, a kid who has to apologize to a plane full of people, and a skinny white kid rapping about his bike.

5. A Fight Over Tight Pants. Holy. Cow. So this is what it’s like when your friends are celebrities and you have an audience and you can totally make fun of hipsters and tight pants. Kyle Akerman sent me this Jimmy Fallon clip where he fights with Will Ferrell over whose tight pants are the best. Trust me. It may be the second best thing you see all week (behind the monkey, of course)!

4. Seal Dances to Michael Jackson. I guess I’m pretty predictable because Claudia Scimeca sent this to me, knowing full well it would make it in Gin and Topics (I don’t just love monkeys; I also love dancing animals). But wait until you see it! It’s a seal dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal.” I mean, it could be MJ reincarnated. Super freaking awesome!

3. 29/31 by Garfunkel and Oates. I think I’ve watched this at least five times because it’s H-I-larious! It’s two women – one aged 29 and the other 31 – singing about the differences between the ages, when it comes to love, wedding, and a marriage. At 29, you think you have all the time in the world to find “the one,” but by 31, you’re desperate and ready to settle down with cats. It’s funny because it’s true. And Konopinski gets a second nod from me today because he also sent me this (which I then sent to my sister-in-law, who just turned 30).

2. Kid Apologizes to Plane for Cutting in Line. We’ve all been there. The person who cuts in line, particularly in security at the airport or at the grocery store or at a sporting event, and everyone shakes their head and looks at one another, but no one says anything. Well, this kid did it to get on to a Southwest flight with his buddies, his coach caught him, and they made him apologize to the entire plane, over the sound system, once it was ready to take off. Thanks to Ken Mueller for the find!

1. Performance by MC Spandex. I fully understand you might not appreciate this last one if you’re not a cyclist, but my dad sent it to me and I find great humor in it. It’s a skinny white guy rapping about why his bike is better than yours. And, when I had to stop on a dime during a ride earlier this week, I began to hum this tune.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

What does it mean to be bold? To be better than you were the day before? Google’s BOLD Internship is an 11-week internship designed to provide exposure into the technology industry for students who are historically under-represented in this field. However, the program isn’t just about work experience, it’s about growing as a person and befriending some of the coolest people you’ll ever get to meet at the same time.

My journey to BOLD was a product of circumstance. As a freshman in college, I was looking for something meaningful to do in the summer and I came across the inaugural Google BOLD Immersion program. As an 18 year-old, the tech world was virtually unknown to me. I did know however, that any opportunity with Google, is an awesome one. Even though I was intimidated by the odds, I gave it a shot anyways and applied.

No one was more surprised than me when I actually received an offer to participate in the program. BOLD Immersion builds pipeline for the BOLD Internship Program, and from there I was fortunate enough to get selected for the summer internship at the Google headquarters in Mountain View. This summer 175 students (including myself) are interning at Google across nine offices in the US and Canada as a part of BOLD.

Working at Google really is surreal. From free massages to music festivals, and all the free food your stomach can handle, all of the perks you hear about working at Google actually exist. Google is a company that places a lot of trust and respect in their interns. One of my projects for the summer writing a post for the Official Google Blog about tools and products that students can use as the head back to school. That’s a lot of responsibility for an intern. I’ve also had the chance to sit in on lunches with top executives, work on external facing projects, and really learn what the word “Googley” means. I can’t really think of other internships in which enjoying a three-tiered cruise party in the Bay with endless food, drinks and dancing with the SVP of Knowledge (Alan Eustace) would be possible.

The BOLD program emphasizes the value diversity brings. They recruit students from the usual suspects like Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and Harvard but interns come from a variety of universities like Spelman College, Rider College, and the University of Florida (where I go to school.) Your major is not as important as you are as a person and what you’ve accomplished. I’ve met interns here who own (and have sold) their own businesses, conducted research in Africa, and were even babysat by Whoopi Goldberg as a child. BOLD interns are an eclectic bunch that are incredibly smart but at no expense of personality.

There are no limits to the person you can become. I learned that at the BOLD internship.

Greylock Partners announced tonight that it has added a new member to its team, with Mike Hanson joining the firm this week as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. Hanson joins Greylock from Mozilla, where he has been a principal engineer at Mozilla Labs for the last three years, playing a central role in conceiving the company’s distributed identity verification system, also known as BrowserID, and developing APIs and apps for Firefox’s apps platform — among other things.

Prior to Mozilla, Hanson was a principal engineer at Cisco, working on app delivery, particularly device virtualization, clustering, as well as data center strategy. Hanson also co-founded and was the chief architect at Reactivity and spent several years at the Apple Research Lab working on Sherlock, perhaps better known as the precursor to Spotlight. He also counts 16 patents to his name.

Greylock’s former Entrepreneurs-in-Residence include Josh Silverman, the President of Consumer Services at American Express and former CEO of Skype, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner and Google VP of Engineering Venkat Panchapakesan, among others. Michael Callahan, the former CTO of PolyServe, is also currently an EIR at Greylock.

John Lilly, a partner at Greylock and the former CEO of Mozilla who worked with Hanson at Mozilla among other places, penned the firm’s announcement today — which you can read here. Copied below:

It’s with great pleasure that I get to write this post letting you know that Mike Hanson has joined Greylock this week as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence.

He’s what I call an “Anytime, Anything, Anywhere” person: someone who I would drop whatever I’m doing to get a chance to work with him on anything, anytime, anywhere. I’ve been very fortunate to work with Mike many times, dating all the way back to his time at Stanford, where he studied computer science and interaction design.

When he was there, Mike did seminal work on early web search, and worked in some technology for the company that would eventually become Excite. After that Mike worked at the Apple Research Lab on Sherlock (precursor to Spotlight) before co-founding Reactivity with me and a couple of others. He’s worked on startups at the very beginning, but also massive organizations like Apple & Cisco. Most recently he’s been at Mozilla, working on web-scale identity and application systems.

I’m particularly excited he’s come to Greylock now because we’re in such an incredibly fertile innovation period. The widespread adoption of both mobile and cloud technology, and their sudden pervasiveness have created a massive opportunity to reinvent huge industries, and to rethink many of the ways we live our lives and spend time with each other. Mike is an especially perfect person to think through these opportunities because he’s a “full stack” thinker, from deep server-side technologies all the way through to engaging and durable and useful user experiences.

It seems to me that there’s never been a better time to work on “thick innovations” that marry the best of deep technology and amazing user experiences. There are few people in the world who can think like that better than Mike, so we feel very fortunate to have him here at Greylock, thinking about and building the next big thing.