OverLinked

Google added some much needed functionality to their Presentations product (part of Google Apps / Docs) that now almost makes it equivalent to Microsoft PowerPoint as far as the core feature set goes. They have a list of enhancements that came out listed here, but the major ones as far as I’m concerned are: Animations, Enhanced transitions and Shape linking.

Slide Animations - This is a critical part of any Powerpoint ninja’s repertoire. Now finally we’re able to create more interesting animations to bring results alive on a slide. Currently they have about 6 different animations available but hopefully more will roll out.

Enhanced Transitions – Moving slide to slide is always a necessity, and although I don’t usually like to use involved transitions because it usually takes the focus away from your presentation to the technology driving your presentation, I realize that it has it’s place. More work seems to be needed on this aspect, however, as some transitions like “Cube” works well when you have light colors as the majority of a slide, however if black is the main color, transitions like “Cube” seem a bit awkward and clunky.

Shape Linking - This is an excellent tool that not enough people use in whatever platform they’re working in. Now you can link any shape in your google presentation to a) another slide b) a specific url or c) an email address. This is great if you want to do simple wireframes of a website in your google doc or use it to other resources (like publicly shared google docs, or google sites or another cloud service). Right clicking is supported which is awesome. Note too, that you can link other things besides shapes, like lines, words and images. You need to use the hyperlink icon for this, as currently I’m not seeing an option to link to these things under a right click context menu.

All in all, these are important elements that have been keeping me from using google’s presentations product. We’ll have to see if presentations can now completely rival Microsoft’s product or if MS still has the upper hand here.

Often I use Starbucks as one of the best examples of a company doing customer loyalty marketing right – as they typically use their marketing database very well, sending out emails and direct mail postcards personalized to myself as an individual. Yet today a chink in the armor surfaced, and it actually points to a deficiency that I think is very common across companies & marketing departments. While it’s very easy today to make an email “personalized” in terms using a person’s name across the content, it’s much harder to take other interactions that a prospect / customer has and overlay it across all your touchpoints to ensure all your messages are relevant.

Case in point – I was sent an email about Starbucks’ new iphone app. (Apparently the old one will break, and you gotta get the new one.) The problem is that I don’t currently use an iphone app. However, I just downloaded a Starbucks Android app a few weeks ago. If Starbucks were truly at the cutting edge of customer relevancy they would have taken the data that I gave them when I downloaded my app and matched the email that I used within the app, which is the same email address as is linked with my rewards account and email opt-in subscription. All of that data should have fed to a database that updated my profile in terms of what channels I’m using to relate to the brand. Android, yes. iPhone, no. It’s a pretty simple distinction, but it’s a data complexity that’s hard for Starbucks, and I think all major consumer brands to get a hold of.

Part of the problem is that usually companies use a stand alone service to send out their marketing emails. That service, while excellent at delivering emails and producing reporting for those emails, fails when it has to integrate data from other systems. It’s not just email, because companies have to deal with data collected from social media efforts, customer website visits, loyalty program interactions, direct mail responses, phone calls and other touches. This is why it’s critical that every company invests in their systems so they communicate with each other. There isn’t yet a holy grail company that will handle this perfectly across channels, but there are quite a few that are coming close and make it a priority to easily integrate with other systems whether it be custom apps for that platform, or more generally, an API that can be used to sync relevant fields.

In the end, it’s really the customer’s experience that matters. When a loyal Starbucks customer like myself gets disappointed by a “miss” experience like this, and I get an advertisement from Pete’s Coffee or a local coffeeshop that impresses me, then I’m one step closer to being an ex-customer. But for now, I’ll forgive Starbucks, because I know how frustrating data silos can be.

How does content help with SEO efforts? The folks at Brafton have produced a “Why Content For SEO” infographic with lots of stats and information about the topic that you might find interesting:

Want the infographic for yourself? You’ll find it here: Infographic: Why Content for SEO?

via Infographic: Why Content For SEO?.

Facebook FAIL: Missteps and Shortcomings Revealed [INFOGRAPHIC] – Does IT Matters?.

via Luis’ shared items in Google Reader:

Talal Qureshi ft. Friedi – Sketches (Download Audio) Artists: Talal Qureshi ft. Friedi Song: Sketches Download Now! “SKETCHES”, the first single off his upcoming debut EP titled ‘The Equator’. Also featuring Faizan Riedinger of Mole! Listen to this… (in post Talal Qureshi ft. Friedi – Sketches (Download Audio) from KoolMuzone. More by this artist at )

original article: http://hypem.com/item/1f529/Talal+Qureshi+ft.+Friedi-Sketches

via Luis’ shared items in Google Reader:

original article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/marginalrevolution/feed/~3/ry_toq0cwMI/how-to-live-before-you-die.html

In the world of social networking, there is little more valuable than a trusted referral from a friend. Whether it be Twitter’s “Follow Friday” phenomenon, where users point out accounts that have value once a week, or bloggers creating lists in their blogroll (at least back in the old days), it is a good rule of thumb that someone you trust probably has good insight into more new people who you would like to know, but haven’t found yet.

As people have expanded their online interactions beyond those who they already know offline, the barrier to adding new people to lists, groups and circles is reduced. And if a respected cog in the network sees their recommendations pushed further downstream, the network effect is something to behold indeed. Popular social networkers can drive dozens, hundreds or even thousands of new connections in a single day. Whether its driving pageviews, like the Slashdot Effect, or mentions, like the Scoble Effect, a big push from a major participant can have ripples downstream that last for days.

Yesterday, I took some time and shared a list of women who interact with tech and media who I follow on Google+. Working on the Google+ team, I think a lot about how I consume content and want to make sure other people have the same opportunity to see the updates I enjoy. So I made a quick post highlighting about 200 or so women from the service, and said the circle would make your stream more “diverse, engaging and smart”. That’s my belief, and I’m sticking to it.

As the shared circle made its way through the stream, from person to person, share to share and comment by comment, it reached the view of Tekzilla’s Veronica Belmont, who thoughtfully added on a few dozen more to the circle and shared it herself. With 100,000 or so people following her, this expanded the number of people who could see it dramatically. But it got even better when The Guild’s Felicia Day shared the list. Felicia has almost twice as many connections as Veronica and so, again, the velocity of discovery and following was accelerated.

For years on this blog, I recommended new blogs to follow each month, and during FriendFeed’s heyday, I shared new accounts to follow. I think doing this made sense as it helped solidify the community and help bring visibility to many people who were doing great work, but possibly not getting the awareness they deserved. There’s little more exciting to me as a participant in these networks to help give a boost to high quality people. That doesn’t mean that everyone following will agree with my recommendation, but putting somebody on the list puts a stake in the ground and ties my personal reputation to theirs. By endorsing someone, I am saying that I personally vouch for their content, and hope you will see value.

The Web gives us amazing potential, good and bad, for content to zip around the globe quickly. Seeing how the network shares information and builds on it in real time, is incredible. So when you are participating online, don’t just think about yourself and your numbers and how you are being seen, but instead of how you can pay it forward and bring value to everyone else. This knowledge is power.

Lagniappe (la·gniappe) noun \ˈlan-ˌyap,’ – 1. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. 2. Something given or obtained as a gratuity or bonus. Welcome to the fourth installment of the Lagniappe Sessions in which we invite some of our favorite artists to cut exclusive covers paying tribute to some of their favorite artists. This week [...]