Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

Snow (Leopard) Storm in August at Adobe

Snow Leopard has been out less than a week and already there are compatibility issues - with Adobe CS3 to be exact. I didn't upgrade, Louis did, and I do not have Adobe CS3 suite on my Mac, only at work on my PC. So I won't launch into a highly technical post on the compatibility issues. Adobe and CS3 users have been at it for days now. John Nack even wrote a post about comments to the post. What I'd like us to explore is a few learning points about handling customer conversations on a blog, or a forum.... Read more →

Are You Hiring the Right Public Relations Candidates?

public relations, new media Job Trends public relations jobs - new media jobs If you were to describe the position for the communicator of the present - and future - in a new media environment, how would you do it? The open positions I usually come across are for marketing, communications and public relations. I thought it would be worth exploring how a standard communications / media relations job description would look like in a new media world. _______________ Position Overview: Create, curate, network, execute, and facilitate communications strategies to tell the company's story and interact with its communities, using... Read more →

#twittertales - Your Connection Story for an eBook

In less than one week, Conversation Agent will be 3 years old. This has been a very interesting ride - and quite a commitment. On the onset, I promised I'd post every day but Saturday. 945 posts later, I know I kept that promise and some. That some is the 105 posts at Fast Company expert blog, including what was probably one of the first posts about Dell changing its business model thanks to social media, the 26 post at MarketingProfs Daily Fix, the 33 post at The Blog Herald, the 12 posts at Marketing 2.0, and the contributions at... Read more →

Being Helpful is the New Black

I'm almost thinking of changing my tagline from connecting ideas and people to being helpful is the new black. Here's why I like it as a brand: it's simple, descriptive, it inspires action, evokes emotional intelligence and it's sustainable - all in one phrase. Alexandra said it well, it could be an organization's mantra. I'm thinking it definitely is good karma. What does being helpful translate to as behaviors? Does it help move, attract, inspire different behaviors in others? I mean we're pretty much done with the conversation, right? We want to have more agent, a little less conversation now.... Read more →

Small Business Owners, Meet Steve Gaines, Passionate Marketer

One of the reasons why I really like this series of conversation with professionals looking to network is that I get to hear their stories. It's also probably a way for those who step forward to clarify to themselves as much as to us, why they are using social media tools actively. Take Steve Gaines, he's clearly quite an experienced professional. In his work he helps small business owners benefit from marketing. He's in great company as many passionate marketers have been stepping up to help small business owners and bloggers recently. Here's a collection of tips pulled together at... Read more →

The New Gymnastics of Business: Part 2, the Vault

Let's jump right in, shall we? Last week we talked about balance. This week we tackle scale. To recap: The new gymnastics of business requires you to make your activities even more of a balancing act. Promote or not promote your stuff? This is the question. If you ask yourself the question, you're already working on balancing. These tools are amplifiers - they will highlight what you do and magnify it. You could be small and act big, you could be big and act nimble. Increasingly, you can go all the way to niches that were unthinkable with traditional media.... Read more →

Making Someone's Life Better

[put pocket video, running time 2:51] Yesterday, after my run at the park I was listening to NPR and came across a piece of interesting news. TalkTalk launched what they call PutPocketing - the art of putting money INTO people's pockets without them realizing, using real ex-pickpockets. Which is something that might make a few individuals uneasy, but that definitely makes people talk. I like the idea of turning a skill used for personal gain into collective benefit. Just like the hacks who decide to work with the good guys to help hold the world wide web together. Which is... Read more →

Creating the Desire for News

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch! If there is a what if category in your reading, you might file this there. In the three key part of the news stories you usually don't get, Matt Thompson highlights how documenting and sharing the longstanding facts would create a desire for news. These longstanding facts provide the true foundation of journalism, he writes. He goes on to list the other two components we miss: how journalists know what they know - the story behind the story the things we don't know - why don't more journalists ask questions in their stories and open up... Read more →

Approval Ratings and Influence

Do you listen more to someone who has high approval ratings thinking they have more influence, or does someone with the potential to influence (in your eyes) gain higher approval ratings? Do recency and like mindedness play a role in that? Does someone you think you know (do we really ever know anyone?) exert more influence over you? What makes you accept authority? As we go about this conversation of change - for there needs to be change in business (and in individuals) to accommodate for the rise of social - it's clear that the traditional notions of career titles... Read more →

Top Ten Reason Why we Need Another SxSW Panel on Social Media

SxSw Top Ten List @Conversation Age View more documents from Valeria Maltoni. Description: Advertising is good at creative, public relations is good at relationships and marketing is good at sales. Hear representatives from each of these three worlds discuss how working together can yield much better social media campaigns than any one can accomplish on its own. Will address: How different functions *can* overcome parochial interests to create awesome campaigns, why you need the skill sets of all three disciplines to succeed, and the downsides of using just one of the skill sets. Typical questions we get: Do people want... Read more →