Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

The Internet Wasn't Around Then

This week I started a new experiment with this blog and I've been looking at the metrics and thinking about what I would change and do differently next time to keep learning. I'm quite fortunate to have a platform such as this to try new things. Even as building the platform took a lot of work and many sleepless nights, I couldn't have imagined connecting with so many people on the strength of the ability to create helpful content vs. depending on others -- media, influencers, etc. -- to find the time or have the desire to sponsor my work... Read more →

The Empire Building Kit for Entrepreneurs

For entrepreneurs who devote considerable thought and energy to starting and growing a business, getting the marketing funnel right is vital. It's hard to find content that is helpful in a very actionable and measurable way online today. I made a promise to myself and to my community that I would pass on only information and links of the highest quality -- and honesty. Chris Guillebeau has written a very comprehensive resource for entrepreneurs who are looking to take that next step in their business. The earlier launch of the Empire Building Kit sold out in 24 hours. This resource... Read more →

Conversation with Donna Fenn on Upstarts

It's a small ― and connected ― world. I was researching Gen Y attitudes for a work-related project and came across the book Upstarts!: How GenY Entrepreneurs are Rocking the World of Business and 8 Ways You Can Profit from Their Success (Amazon affiliate link) by Donna Fenn, which looked really interesting. A couple of weeks later, I had the opportunity to meet Donna face to face at the Digitini party at SxSW. For those who don't know her, Donna Fenn is an internationally recognized author and journalist who has been writing about entrepreneurship and small business trends for more... Read more →

Three Sure Ways to Create Signal with Content

You have a big idea to share, a message to send out to the world, or you have an amazing offer. You worry that your message or offer will get drowned by the multitude of conversations happening online -- you want signal. Signal is also your ability to convert traffic to a Web site -- beyond downloads, subscriptions, and enrollments. How do you use content to create signal? How do you align what you have with what people want? (1.) Tell a story -- make it compelling, make it sharable, specific, and have a point. Stop talking to generic people,... Read more →

Path to Resolution in the (digital) Age of the Customer

It's no secret that digital media is making commerce cheaper. A digital presence levels the playing field between organizations and individuals. Online, you can set up a site fairly quickly, include the options you'd like to have for commerce, and the tools that will give you the ability to measure how you're doing against your goals. It's too easy, in fact. Let's pick on email this time. When things go wrong Things will and do go wrong with digital media, just like with traditional media. An email campaign that was supposed to deliver in waves is somehow scrambled and now... Read more →

Solving Your Personal PR Crisis

You may not even know that, and it's still happening . You were taught that you needed to play by certain rules to find a job, or move up on the career ladder. And you now find yourself stuck in Middle Earth either in a job that is not getting you where you want to be, or in a search that is interminably long. You have a personal PR crisis. What does that look like? You're either spending a lot of time working in a way that is not aligned with who you are, or everything you do is driven... Read more →

How to Drive Action With Social Media Without Chest Thumping

"Blogs don't make money. Businesses do." [David Ridley] Substitute the word blog with Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, etc. Now that we got that out of the way, what's your business? Some version of this conversation has been in my head for a while. In the last couple of years I've gotten many questions about my participation in social media by people who thought I marketed myself successfully and wanted to figure out what it would do for them. As an important aside, this is a question I often get from women. Because let's face it, women tend to be less self-promotional... Read more →

The 10 Greatest Marketers of all Times

It started as a curiosity of mine. As a young discipline, comparatively-speaking, marketing continues to be in a constant state of flux. It is so especially as social media is considered a good way to engage customers and reach new prospects by more and more organizations. When we think of great ad people, we rapidly know many names -- people like David Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, Bill Bernbach, Raymond Rubicam, and Stanley Resor (JWT) When we think about marketing, who do we vote in? I could have taken the question to Twitter -- it's filled with marketers! To make things more... Read more →

One Game Changes Everything

With only a couple of days before the beginning of the World Cup, a new campaign from ESPN [hat tip Fubitz] has murals with the slogan "one game changes everything". Leaving out Brazil was a big faux-pas, apparently, as was the atrocious design -- this is what I could pick up from the comments in the post. I was fortunate enough to be in Italy during the best part of the last Wold Cup in 2006. In case you forgot, Italy won, playing Germany in the semi-finals, and France in the finals. My home town as every town and city... Read more →

18 Ways to Walk the Talk on Content

A couple of days ago I wrote a post about exposure and visibility and how quality content that is valuable takes time to create. Everyone agrees with that sentiment. However, when push comes to shove, with very few exceptions, people tend to spread content that is more popular -- even when popularity means less helpful, sometimes incomplete. The ability to think critically is a gift -- it's also the underpinning of an effective business strategy, where you work from your core competencies. I worry that much of that ability gets lost to the desire to fit in and become popular... Read more →