Introducing "The S.T.A.N. Plan"

ThingLink's Crystal Ball

I was busy, but I was also bored. I was busy and bored. Bored and busy...blah blah blah. Maybe a better way to say that is "I was bored of being busy."
I was converting a 125,000+ page website and had been dealing with MySQL, PHP, and Java for about a week. Every time my eyes closed for more than a minute, this is what flashed across my eyelids: <dreams>Crushed!</dreams>. {lame coding joke}


I Realized This Morning 

There were only two reasons I took the job. The first was because it was hard as heck.  The second was a little thing my wife likes to call 'the groceries'. But doing hard stuff for piles of money is just not that interesting to me. In fact, I've been known to jump in my 2001 Ford Taurus and drive way from situations like that. But when she reminded me we were out of coffee, the gauntlet was thrown and I caved in. A week later and I'm here waiting for the link verifier, drinking Peet's, and counting minutes.

I Needed A Break 

I was trying to figure out where I could get into the most trouble, in the fastest way possible.  The next door neighbor on the left had already figured out it was me changing his wireless password to "Ima_Id10T".  The neighbor to the right wasn't home so Changing her Cable TV Channel would be equally as boring.
I was seriously considering tucking a piece of ham under the dog's collar.

Send In The Clown

About that time I got an email from Facebook telling me that Paul Bond  had mentioned me in a post. AHA! Something completely unrelated to the work at hand and probably equally unimportant! There's nothing better than a match where both opponents are capable of one-punch no-holds barred round house 'has anybody seen my stapler' knockouts!  THIS IS PERFECT! I headed over to Facebook!

Paul's Post

Since it's a closed group, you might not be able to see his post. Here's what Paul said : "This 'cutting edge ' article comes 3 months after Stan Bush told us all about it !" And then the lovely Kittie Walker remarked that keeping pace with me is pretty difficult. What they were referring to is this post about "ThingLink".   I like both of these people and didn't want to come off as being "I Told You So!" Instead, I decided on an update of sorts.  That's what's posted below.

Concerning The ThingLink Image Stuff

Thanks for the shout out Paul and Kitty. This is a good article. The author did a good job of giving examples of how someone might use the technology.  I'm missing the 'clarity gene' and don't do that so well. Her idea concerning the rugby team will happen at some point. Just as there will be someone selling CarHartt using it one day.(be sure to check the search results below) The best thing about ThingLink technology is that people with limited resources, time and coding skills can use it.

Back To The Obtuseness and Boring Things

But even  more interesting to me is that searching Google for "Blog Topics Master Class" gives the top two  results to +Chris Brogan and Human Business Works. The third goes to somebody named +Stan Bush  and then 8th in that list is the BTMC Image with everyone's links on them. +Carol Dublin is also in those results In other words, five of the top ten results are linked to that image. If it were a goal, that number could be increased.  But there are no other BTMC class members in the top ten. There is no +Paul Bond , +Chris Montoya  , +Chris Lema , +John Baronian , +Gwen Daubenmeyer+Leanne Stewart  or even +Diane Brogan . There are some results that appear to be 'of questionable intent'. I say that because of the titles, article verbage, and meta tags. But that's only when a 'human' looks at it. Currently search engines can only guess at intent.  After all, they are computers. They may have artificial intelligence, but they don't have 'feelings".  That's why even though they may invent these devices  , they will still need "Pre-Cogs" to make them work. :-)

What's that got to do with the image again? 

The goal of the search engine community is to become more user friendly. Have you put much thought into how they go about doing that?  Search engines try to emulate what humans do. They attempt to use the same tools that humans do.
So think about this phrase. "A picture is worth a thousand words."  Now think about which is most easily understood.
  • A picture of a man from the shoulders up, looking at the small woman in a bikini sitting on his shoulder, with a big smile on his face.
  • A 1000 word essay on ALL of the possibilities of what he might be thinking. Key word is ALL. 
The real answer is, it takes both! It's easy to see how the image could be misunderstood.  Is it his daughter, his wife, his girlfriend, or what?  You can't simply read his mind, especially from a picture. Things that a search engine will never be able to ask. The variables are just too great. It doesn't understand intent. 

What's All That Mean?  

It means that there are things in all that Google search algorithms that can't be seen in data mined reports. It means that there isn't a single person in the BTMC that doesn't have a 'gift' based on some incredibly 'human' quality. (I do note the possible exception of +Josh Patrick but only on the 'human' part). People like +Pat Zalewski and +Lisa Weikel have some sort of view into a person's personality that is 'different' than most.  +Jackie Hutchings and +Linda Plano have a motivational thing going for them. +Barbara Nelson and +Renee Inman can read minds.
It means that if you create an image with the intent of it becoming a marketing vehicle, then you should consider using ThingLink.
It means that the reason I created the ThingLink BTMC "group" is so that we can take advantage of the importance of the links as well as the 'relationships' of our 'G+ Circles".

In Closing

Have you noticed all the +'s in this post? Well, that's part of the next big thing to 'tie it all together" with Google.  Currently it's not supported by any platform outside of Google.  Without making this post any longer...let's just say it's important.

What Makes Me Say That?

I 'd rather let something emotional explain it to you. Chaka Khan does a good job of it. Be sure to listen to the video.  If you haven't heard it before, get ready for a treat. If you have heard it before, no thanks necessary. It was my treat to you for taking time to read this. I appreciate it.


BTW: ThingLink And Google+

Neither of them have the ability to read minds. They are adding relativity to the results based on the massive numbers of 'connections' made through GooglePlus. But, they can't understand the 'feelings' created by the images they are indexing. Because of this, search is going to change. (rinse and repeat here) Take a look at these search results and consider their results.  Then think about how you can take advantage of it in your markets.

Gwen Daubenmeyer Blogs Topics Master Class
Josh Patrick Blog Topics Master Class
brixworkwear Carhartt
Jacq Blog Topics Master

Comments

Unknown said…
Thanks for the reminder Stan. For some unknown reason, I've resisted fully engaging on G+. I think the time has come :-)