Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

Auto Enthusiasts, Meet Brian Driggs, Steering Communities Since 2002

He wrote recently in a comment that participation in the community - online or otherwise - improves lives. That is also my belief. Brian can write - he gets right to the core of an issue with the ability to craft an honest story. Take a look at what he writes to introduce himself on LinkedIn: It's all about adaptation these days. You do what you need to do in order to keep moving forward. If that means you leave a stable service technician position in the Midwest to attend school in Phoenix and proceed to get laid off from... Read more →

1/4 Inch

This is a concept than anyone trained in martial arts - three years of Karate-do for me - or schooled in any other kind of physical activity - especially gymnastics - knows well. If you played European football or volley ball, like I did, this idea applies there, too. It is the distance that can make the difference between a brilliant and effective move, and a near flop. A small adjustment in posture can and does make a really big difference in business. Call it flexibility, culture, awareness, or call it change - the result is measured in hard metrics.... Read more →

Trust and Corporate Blogs

A couple of days ago, Brian left a pretty interesting comment to my post on why B2B companies have a distinct advantage online. He wrote: I believe in the idea of customer communities. Not so much those hosted by the company, as that tends to imply a lack of trust, but those in which the company ventures outside the fortified walls and participates in the conversation with their customers. Communities hosted by companies don't necessarily imply lack of trust. I think if there is a way that a company can facilitate an unmet need, for example for customers or people... Read more →

100 PR People Worth Following on Twitter

PLEASE NOTE: this list was created as an experiment for research purposes at a specific moment in time. It is not a long standing recommendation, ranking, or blanket validation of skill sets and level of experience. +++ When I speak at events and the topic of Twitter comes up, people often ask me how to build their streams with interesting peers to follow. I build mine starting from all the bloggers I knew first, then looked at the profiles of those they replied to (@reply), then added those who participated in planned chats and conversations. While there is no steadfast... Read more →

Google on a Roll: Sidewiki

[link here for YouTube] On September 23, Google announced Sidewiki, a feature on the sidebar of Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers that will allow you to contribute content to any page of the Web. Which means that companies can now stop having meetings about whether to open the comments to their blogs or not - and whether to legislate them. With Sidewiki, visitors will be able to share what they think with each other anyway - and right on your Web page. Still think you can sit this one out? Perhaps you're thinking that you are understaffed for this. If... Read more →

Awesomeness and Conversation

“There's nothing you can really do to prepare to rock. Do you prepare to eat a delicious meal? Are you hungry? Then you're gonna eat it.” [Jack Black] If I were to give anyone a gift, it would be that of awareness - the ability to uncover and pursue what they can do best. What's your drive? How does that scale in organizations? What does that look like in the marketplace? Has the definition of value changed? Jim Collins talked about the three circles, the intersection of what you are passionate about, what you do really well, and what people... Read more →

Julien Smith, Trust Agents

Before learning about his project of co-authoring Trust Agents, I didn't know much about Julien's work. Now I'm in over my head - and it feels right to write that. There's a lot of good enough thinking going around these days, I like how Julien challenges us to make decisions - the opposite of marketing fluff is, after all, a decision. Do you stand for something? After I published my interview with Chris Brogan, a couple of people asked me why I was giving him yet more press. In case you haven't noticed yet, I like to have conversations with... Read more →

How to do Stuff Well

Right now we're thinking about marketing and communications because of this incredible attention that social media is getting, especially by those who are doing it. We pay attention when we're attuned to something. Notice when you want to buy a car, you keep seeing that very model everywhere? That's because you're thinking about it specifically. Social is not new, businesses have known about social for a long time. It's the greater access that we now have (potentially) to learn more about how to do stuff well through collaboration that we are excited about - or we should be. Imagine if... Read more →

Time, Attention, and Drama

Your customers are very needy. They're upset when they call you, they're constantly looking to get free services, and would not refer you explicitly to anyone. Since they are so difficult, you decide to change the customer service process, you make it more efficient, which means less personal - hey, who needs to be berated by customers? - and answer calls only with official-looking communications. This could have happened even as you decided to put more time and attention into communicating with your customers, using new channels, as you think of them, to let them know about all of the... Read more →

Journalists (like Businesses) Must Adapt to New Media

New media has changed the way we receive and share news and information. If it's true that people shifted from just consumers of news to news makers, it's also true that without mass media, we would have a really hard time getting most of the information that is passed on as newsworthy today. Taking a very brief class on the characteristics that make a story newsworthy: Timing - this is pretty easy for us to tell, if it's something that is happening now, or just happened, it is news. Proximity - it is also likely that something that happened locally,... Read more →