Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

Speak Easy and Other Clever Marketing Acts a Conversation Make

It just might be the other kind of conversation, the one surrounded by doubt -- is my friend who is telling me they love this product being sincere or are they getting something out of it? By 2011, research company eMarketer estimates that 20% of adult Internet users will be word-of-mouth influencers. I haven't seen the report, yet I do wonder if this is also based on the use of social media to publish information and opinions. Are you passionate about a product and service? Do you like being in the know? Chances are marketers are looking at you as... Read more →

Inaugurating a New Series on Connections: Kata

People often ask me how I can maintain such a large number of connections over time. Connections make the web and social media work -- connections take place in conversations. As well, connections continue to contribute to the good health of businesses and people. In marketing, connections live right alongside the brands that resonate with us. While when you hear someone say they are "connected", they may mean that they are in the inner circle of people and issues, to them personally that may also mean they feel included. Today, connected customers are bringing about new, creative ways to do... Read more →

Skype Outage as Reported by... Customers

I got home last night and logged onto my computer to check email and open Skype. Except for it didn't seem to be working. The program kept telling me Skype was loading but nothing was happening. And sure enough, there it is, all over the Internet as reported by... Skype users. I looked briefly at a lead article at Information Week -- Skype Outage leaves Million Speechless -- that reported the bare bone facts, and then googled the topic. Traditionally, everyone interested in learning what's going on would have turned on the TV (most Americans still rely on TV for... Read more →

Comcast: It's Not My Job

And it's not about you. It's about them. Today's FC Expert blog post is about what happens when people in a company think it is not their job to help customers -- not much, it turns out. Many of you may have learned from me that until June of this year I blogged on a dial up connection. Well, I have no TV cable as the set is never on unless I am watching a DVD so there was no need to make a fuss over fast Internet connections, I just lived with it. One of the reasons why I... Read more →

Google Planning to Cut the Chord

I read the news on La Stampa a couple of weeks ago and thought I would see it all over the place so I did not pay too much attention to it. Google pledged to spend $4.6bn in a wireless spectrum auction by the US Government taking place this November. I went back and googled, hem, searched the news. The Guardian says: Google looks likely to enter the US wireless market after the Federal Communications Commission bowed to pressure to change the way it plans to sell off part of the airwaves this year. The Californian dotcom group is part... Read more →

B-to-B More Likely to Spend on New Media than B-to-C

B-to-b companies are significantly more likely to allocate a higher percentage of their media budgets to new media than their b-to-c counterparts. These are the results of an online survey of 146 b-to-b, 107 b-to-c, and 73 hybrid marketers conducted by research company Guideline in June. B-to-b companies appear to be earlier adopters of new media platforms, with 31% of the respondents reporting an allocation of 20% or more of their budgets to online marketing. As reported by BtoB Magazine, Frank Dudley, VP-marketing at Guideline, new media platforms fall into three distinct tiers: Top tier – like proprietary Web sites,... Read more →

Luxury Brands: Are Their Stories More Compelling?

We've been talking about reinventing the auto dealership experience at our last BrandingWire challenge. And if you think these monthly riffs are easy to think through, think again. On one side we play consumer, on the other, we play the side of the marketer -- would I recommend that to a client? Is it a good strategy, would it work? Once again I bow to the skill and stamina of fellow BrandingWire team members. Certain cars do not need to go through the dealer at all; they can afford the rarefied world of demand outstripping supply. They win by making... Read more →

Meet the (New Media) Editor -- Tony Hung, The Blog Herald

Have you found that writing articles for print publications is quite onerous? For example Marketing News has a very rigid set of guidelines one must follow and a lengthy process to be approved. Yet the magazine's content is often not very original. One could argue successfully that not much of what is published today is original. Why argue? New media editors are as hands off as one could be with writers -- they let the audience go at the posts. The advantage of this method lies in liberating more ideas and voices, as many as can represent the diverse group... Read more →

Creativity, Innovation, and Execution

If this reads almost like the three Musketeers, you're not far from thinking in the right direction. Today more than ever it is necessary to look at things differently to succeed. A commitment to develop the creative side and work in collaboration with others are some of the building blocks to develop the respect of your peers and the community at large. In my post at The Blog Herald I flesh out 5 Things You Can do Today to gain respect. Respect is a component of reputation and an ingredient of strong connections. Strong connections and respect for the environment... Read more →

Would You Consider Switching to Apple?

"Would you consider switching?" was the payoff of an old TV ad I remember from way back when I lived in Italy. Apparently there is an enterprise PC shop that did just that a couple of weeks ago. Computer World reports that Auto Warehousing Company (AWC) is pulling the plug on all its Windows-based PCs and powering up Macs. AWC is the largest full-service auto processing company in North America, with 23 sites across the U.S. and Canada. This story caught my eye because we were just talking about cars and auto dealership and because it is a significant move... Read more →