Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

Birthdays

In addition to asking you to think about literacy, I wanted to share a few thoughts about birthdays. They are: the line you cross between idea and execution the milestones in the project of life and thus opportunities to pause, reflect, and celebrate gifts -- if you're having one, you're alive special appointments with the lives of others something we all have in common occasions to recognize world leaders, historical figures, scientists, poets, along with ordinary people one more reason to be social, share, and give reminders that time, although abstract, is precious other... I'm sure you have many more.... Read more →

Is Social Media Helping with Literacy?

There are a lot of ideas coming to life right now thanks to social media and networks. A year or so ago, I asked -- Has Web 2.0 has made you happier? Are your online relationships as productive or satisfying as your real ones? And if the answer here is "yes," do you have many real relationships? Has Web 2.0 empowered your customer service people -- or just thinned out traditional marketing and personnel budgets? Are email, Twitter, and IM services helping you to communicate better -- or just flooding you with noise? Have all the social bookmarking services brought... Read more →

How a Good Social Media Execution is your Best PR

Old Spice, new media. You'd have to live in your own personal social media bubble to not have heard about or seen the Old Spice campaign executed by Wieden+Kennedy this past week. It was definitely the case of videos going viral. When it's all said and done, to be a marketing success, it will have had to achieve a specific, measurable goal beyond impressions. Rob Gonda has pulled together some of the statistics on the YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter accounts that made up the campaign. As Scott Monty describes in his post linked above (emphasis mine), the marketers targeted a... Read more →

Connecting with Real Influence

Conversation agent quotes on influence View more presentations from Valeria Maltoni. What is influence? Are communities changing the dynamics that engage influence, or are they simply injecting transparency into them? How do you connect with real results for your business? Can influence be bought or sold? These are all age old questions and, for many, the answers have been a moving target. There are other, subtle, and possibly even more powerful forces that influence outcomes. You may not have thought about them in those terms, you should. You know about parents, loved ones, and those you find yourself with in... Read more →

Like it or not, you Want Influence

Would you try a product on the recommendation of someone you don't like? Like has a bit of a double-meaning these days. Ever since Facebook implemented the "like" button everyone has kicked into high gear to get you to like them. However, you can agree with a specific thing someone says and like it, while totally disagreeing with their world view. Same thing could happen with a business project vs. the business itself. Although likability can be borrowed, it is transferred only based on a more permanent philosophical alignment or agreement. You move in when you can live with that... Read more →

Get the Job: Conversation with Harry Joiner, Marketing Headhunter

[Faking mathematical agility in a job interview - 3:41] When Harry and I met, I had just started blogging. I knew him as the marketing headhunter from the career column in the Wall Street Journal's the Career Journal online. He was the first one to put me on his blogroll. That was a vote of confidence for sure, and the ability to see beyond a few posts to the person. Because I'm still here, as prolific as ever. Recruiting high level candidates for ecommerce, like he does, requires a certain agility to do a special kind of math of the... Read more →

How to Use Delicious for Content Ideas

Do you have a Delicious account? What on earth is Delicious? Delicious is an apt name for a social bookmarking service that allows users to tag, save, manage and share web pages from a centralized source. It puts emphasis on the power of the community, and it can help you discover new content, save it for reference later, and share it with your colleagues. It comes in handy for two main purposes: 1.) Bookmarking and tagging content you find useful 2.) Browsing content others have found useful and tagged You can write notes about why you liked that content when... Read more →

Customer Service on Twitter, Should You do it?

The bar for customer service is admittedly still not very high across the board. In many, if not most cases, it's because of business issues that keep an organization from focusing on the product or service -- hence the need for extra support. Many organizations are still looking at customer service as a cost center, when they could be taking a different view, especially with social media. The best way to communicate about something being better is by letting people see satisfied customers. We started this conversation a couple of years back, when we said that customer service is the... Read more →

Twitter Lists Reveal Interest of Followers

Why didn't Twitter think of that? When Twitter lists first came out, I described them as a new mainstream media-type content channel. And maybe media companies have missed the boat on what interests readers vs. PR practitioners. If you look at the lists from CNN, for example, you will see that the most followed list is that of anchors and reporters. I don't know about you, I just don't tend to follow people I'm not interested in building a relationship with, and it seems to me that common sense would dictate regular citizens follow stories, and not the people who... Read more →

Five Social Media Headlines We Didn't See this Week

5. Everybody Totally Digs the New Digg! 4. LeBron James Eschews ESPN "Decision" Broadcast as Too Flashy, Tips Miami Choice on Twitter 3. Google Announces Details of new "Google Me!" Social Media Network to Great Fanfare 2. Lindsay Lohan Reveals Surprising Depth and Thoughtfulness in Late Night Tweet Blitz 1. Fast Company's Online Influence Rises on Heels of Groundbreaking "Influence Project" Initiative Read more →