Multi-Lingual, Global Marketers, Meet Kelly Rigotti, Emerging Markets Student

Kelly writes on a topic that is becoming more important to many of us - almost frugal. I like the fact that her site has a guided tour for people who are new to the concept.

Also, since I'm a bit of a generalist within the topics I write about, I do appreciate how a focused approach such as hers may work well.

The reason why Kelly and I feel mutually connected is that we're both living in a country other than our original place of birth. It takes real courage to leave your roots for a prolonged period of time.

This is something I've also thought about every time the issue of immigration comes up in the news. People would much rather be with their family and community - if presented with opportunity, they'd probably choose to stay. We've become more mobile for many reasons - Kelly, for example, fell in love - finding work and a way to sustain a life and family is a big one among those reasons.

This conversation with Kelly continues our series from the About You page.

Why are you online?

Kelly: I first started blogging like so many others- just as a way of keeping in touch with far-flung friends and family, but my interest in blogging quickly grew and evolved. I started my own blog on frugality at the same time I was going back to school for a graduate degree in marketing.

I started learning about how to connect with people- both around ideas, like a common interest in frugality (the subject of my blog), or around a tool, like Facebook or Twitter.

I love the fact that I can connect with people online with whom I would never have connected otherwise, or reconnect or maintain connections with those with whom I would have lost contact.

And I especially love that being online allows me, an American who has lived in France more than 9 years, to continue keeping my toes dipped in American waters. Being an expat is easier than ever these days.

What prompted to post in "About You" at Conversation Agent?

Kelly: I loved how other people shared their stories and information, as well as the diversity of the people and their stories. I felt a connection to each story told, be it small or large, and thought that maybe others might find the same value in what I can offer.

Plus I'm a natural born networker, and About You seems to be just another opportunity to network!

What are you working on that you feel will connect ideas and people? 

Kelly: I am currently researching my graduate school thesis project, which is an effort to determine the appropriateness of a company’s use of various Web 2.0 and social media tools, such as blogs, forums, Twitter or Facebook when engaging in marketing efforts in multi-lingual global and emerging markets such as the Middle East, North Africa or Central or Eastern Europe. 

Ideas that I'm trying to develop include how culture, language and technology affect the use of such tools, which tools are users using in which markets and how a web 2.0 marketing approach differs in such markets from the US/UK markets. 

Who would you like to connect with?

Kelly: Anyone, really! But I am especially interested in people who have (marketing) experience (working) in Albania or the Middle East, or anything involved or related to my project as described above.

I can offer people insights into French and American culture- work, marketing, networking, social and so on. I can also help people connect with the English or international community in France.

Another of my strengths is in helping people make their blogs better communicate their message visually, not through design as much as the optimization of the existing elements.

_________

I do know of such a person working on a Ph.D. thesis in Spain (I think that's where she is now) and I will be connecting you two offline. Does anyone else have tips or ideas for Kelly?

Comments

[Kelly Rigotti]

Thanks for featuring me Valeria! I'm looking forward to continuing the conversation.

[Brian DR1665]

I just had a sort of epiphany reading this interview today. Both of you seem to express a bit of regret for not being "back home," but this is tempered with the benefits of living where you do and exposure to new cultures. Being one who would sell both his beloved cars if it meant he could move to the EU tomorrow, I hadn't thought about this. The grass is always greener, is it not?

Just as the fabulous European vacation isn't something you do multiple times a year (for those of us without our own planes), living abroad renders those trips home to see family and friends a bit restrictive. Fortunately, for some of us (and seemingly more of us these days), most of our friends and interaction occurs online, so the relationships stand a better chance of continuing, if not delayed a couple hours.

I think the grad project is intriguing. After all, social media plays upon a subliminal need to fit into a larger whole. (Yeah. I'm still reading Herd by Mark Earls. Might finish it by Christmas.) We in the west have been brainwashed to consider ourselves individuals - brilliant little snowflakes - and the relative anonymity of the internet, combined with the facilitation of sharing these days (140 characters or less!), is making it easier for us to consider that there might be others, many others, out there who are just like us. We live our individual lives, but we are becoming aware of our role in a larger world. Social media is potentially fostering a renaissance of societal norms in the digital age.

So I think it's interesting to consider how those emerging cultures which undoubtedly already see their communities and their world in a social fashion, would take to the technology to do so on a global scale. Would they view their family or smaller social group as we in the west view our individuality and dismiss the value in such interactions? Would they turn out to be super-users who just inherently KNOW how to do the social media thing? What happens when you introduce tools designed to bring people together to a people already doing a pretty good job of doing so?

Very interesting.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Brian,

Still noodling over this amazing comment.

Yes, I do miss mostly my mother - although I came towards opportunity, I sacrificed 20+ years with her to do that. It's still hard today. We're indeed part of a community, a system, a society, and in the most evolved form, the same energy.

I hope Kelly is reading your comment and has a chance to add her insights.

[denis]

@kelly

"Ideas that I'm trying to develop include how culture, language and technology affect the use of such tools.", danah boyd touched this point on her presentation at Modernity2.0 in Urbino. It might help you.

Let's see if I can find some video around....

[Kelly Rigotti]

Hi Brian,

I appreciate your insightful remarks. To begin with, although I have some nostalgia about not living in the United States, (along with some angst about living in France) I don't think it's a grass being greener issue. At this point I think it's a fish and water kind of thing- it's hard for a fish to see the water until it's on dry land. That's one of the things that i most enjoy about living in France- the opportunity to see two countries both from the inside and the outside.

What you said about cultures and communities resonated me- and it's something that I'm hoping to be able to explore further in my research. It's true that North Americans are very individualistic, but yet we manage to create great communities on the web. There was a very interesting report on the Arabic world blogosphere published recently by Harvard- North Americans use social media very similarly and very differently from the Middle East.

Denis- thanks for your lead- I'll definitely be following that up!