Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

Tiffany Monhollon: The Future of Communication

It’s difficult to picture a future without communication being a large part of – well, everything. We live in an age of instant electronic communication that characterizes and informs the way we operate our lives, essentially on every level in the developed world and increasingly in the rest of it. This creates an interesting dependency, especially for a new generation. Looking Forward, Who Will Make Sense of the World? When the VP of PR at Disney shared this video at a PRSA conference I attended this summer, I quickly found myself sharing it with everyone I knew and engaging in... Read more →

Oxfam Mastercard You're Gorgeous Christmas ad

As Christmas ads go, I give my first prize to Oxfam's Mastercard ad -- the music, the images, the cause are all priceless. Take a look. Yes, you are gorgeous, too! Read more →

Acts of Kindness: Make the Impossible Possible

Today is Bloggers Unite in Acts of Kindness day. According to the site: The Acts of Kindness bloggers unite challenge aims at putting a human face on bloggers who are responsible for so much good in the world. The goal is to expose their kindness and generosity as well as serve as an example to non-bloggers that volunteering for a charity, donating to a cause, or simply doing something kind for another person has a ripple effect around the world. "Maybe 20,000 bloggers, vloggers, and photographers will make a difference." My belief has always been that one person can make... Read more →

New Media GigaOM Om Malik's Reporting Better Than WSJ

When the story about Verizon's announcement of the opening of its network and platform was posted online by the Wall Street Journal, it was already a few hours old. Ben Worthen had been outpaced by Om Malik who offered a much clearer analysis of what the move by the US wireless company meant to the public in GigaOM with not one, but two posts. This is not the first time Om Malik does a tremendous job reporting on technology. He had a great post on the Skype Outage a few months back, one that clearly demonstrated a greater passion for... Read more →

Whose Party is it Anyway?

I was thinking about the upcoming holidays and wanted to have some Friday fun. Today at The Blog Herald I am talking about tapping into the power of Tupperware parties to market your blog. Did you know that you can host an online party now? When you sell Tupperware, you know you are commercially leveraging your friendship. Marketing a blog is the same way. Sure, blogging "friendships" are different than the real life, meat space friendships which shape our daily lives. But they're still relationships. You're selling Tupperware, whether you like it or not. Is your blogging home inviting? You'd... Read more →

The Other Story on Twitter Tuesday: Best Buy and Laughing Squid

Another storm was brewing on Twitter Tuesday, and it was courtesy of Best Buy. Although the company later apologized in writing, their legal department took the initiative to send Scott Beale of Laughing Squid a cease and desist letter for running a picture of a t-shirt which parodied their brand. Scott had been Tweeting the whole affair starting on December 11 This here is the story unfolding on Scott Beale's Twitter stream. The story does have a happy ending. After Scott called the Best Buy Corporate Public Relations Group explaining the situation regarding their demand letter, the company quickly issued... Read more →

Using Foresight to Provoke Strategy and Innovation -- Guest Post Series

During my travels and activities I have met a number of smart, well-rounded young professionals eager to make a contribution. It has been my privilege to serve in a couple of capacities to help students launch into the world of work. As I was making plans to have a steady stream of posts during my travels to Italy at Christmas and New Year's, I thought of going back to a conversation we started here. Picking up the threads and carrying them forward is a group of young bloggers who I have come to admire and respect. When I shared my... Read more →

Let Customers Finish Your Story

"A brand can be more than a snapshot, more than just a list of adjectives. If it is going to achieve depth, or that is to say realism (and all stories need a degree of that), then a brand needs to have come from somewhere and be going somewhere. It must have lived, and be living, in real time, like the rest of us. They need wrinkles and bumps and stretch marks." [Rob Lewis, Staff Writer, MyCustomer.com] Take a look at the list of best seller books, say the New York Times Best Seller list, and what do you see... Read more →

If I Were an Agency Today

I read a series of posts today that made me want to write about agencies, digital or otherwise, and partnerships from the client's point of view. The series titled If I Were a Client Today is authored by The Kaiser. [hat tip to Kris Hoet] Gavin Heaton writes in the comment to Kris' post (emphasis mine): I strongly believe that the Agency World is well overdue for an overhaul. In fact, I fully expect a wave of business consultants to descend on the rich agency pickings any day now… once they have a model that can demonstrate the linkage between... Read more →

Connection Kata: 5 + 1 + 1 Business Books I Gave Away in 2007

Every year I invest in the publishing industry by buying in bulk. There are books that are great to read, even better to share. Many of the books I share are new or newer releases, some are just classics for me. The criteria I use to determine what I give away are: I read it and learned something unique that no other book taught me; It contains potentially a life changing methodology or way of thinking; It speaks to trends in a way that is researched and requires some leap in attitude; It provides a great synthesis of insights and... Read more →