Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

Applying Risk Communication Principles to Social Media Crisis

It may start with a tweet, or with a blog post somewhere and a few irate comments. You're monitoring the conversation that remains low key, until a pundit grabs hold of the information, sees it as an opportunity to show expertise -- whether in theory or not -- and all of a sudden your organization's Facebook page wall comes under attack. The posts quickly gain momentum and possibly degenerate when fans become mob. Your community manager, who is probably part of the digital media team, or an agency: 1) is unprepared to deal with the volume and tone of the... Read more →

Do You Suppose They Have an App for Strategy?

[click on image to enlarge] Part of the reason why I love what I do is the opportunity to help clients see the difference between calling all things strategy and doing the work to uncover the levers we can pull to help connect a company in social media and a business to its lifeblood—engaged employees, loyal customers, advocates and evangelists, etc. The cartoon was part of a collaborative project with Eloqua, now part of Oracle. They allowed me to illustrate the difference and to inaugurate the first guest submission. Do you suppose they have an app for strategy? Laughter is... Read more →

The Case for Social Media in B2B

Do you have a user group forum, conference, or a customer- and best-prospect-event? In my 20-year experience working in businesses that sell to other businesses (B2B) these are some of the best ways to build relationships with your customer and prospect base -- in the same room, doing something together. They are also the very reason why B2B companies have a distinct advantage online. There is in fact a certain air of exclusivity in B2B industries, where people get to meet and work with other people in a very specialized environment. You're in the know; and now more than ever,... Read more →

Get Big Results by Thinking and Acting Small: microMARKETING

The media tides have turned. And many marketers still make the mistake of seeing the raising numbers of those getting on Facebook, Twitter, and on blogs and lifestreams as one big market for their big idea. Nothing could be further from the truth. In this new media reality -- what Greg Verdino calls the era of microcontent and microcultures in his new book microMARKETING (Amazon affiliate link) -- the biggest marketing opportunities lie not in the one big thing, but in lots and lots of small things. 7 shifts from mass to micro Once upon a time, mass marketers relied... Read more →

7 Common Business Pitfalls that Impact Social Media Strategy

Tactical fatigue getting you down? How about lack of results from your efforts? While it's become quite common to think about adding social media to existing marketing programs, there is an all common trend among those organizations that decide to join the conversation: we're on Facebook and Twitter, we've got blogs, a Flickr account, and have started a YouTube channel, now what? How about we hit the pause button and look at some areas of impact on your strategy? Maybe you set out with an objective and quantifiable goals for your marketing plan and aligned social media to those, then... Read more →

Top Customer Service Accounts on Twitter

Thanks to a few online success stories brought about by dedicated customer service individuals, companies are starting to see the wisdom of putting the human back into customer service. That means offering customer service in person. Is in person real time today? Along with the additional promotional opportunity opened up with social media, many are walking the walk and actually listening to customers. If you're actually doing the work online, you will know that number of followers is not really a proper measure without considering what the company does with it, and algorithms are a poor substitute for human vetting... Read more →

What You do When They Don't Write About Your Story

I've been thinking about this issue of pitching bloggers and media outlets and getting no story. This continues to be frustrating both for the PR pro and the person being pitched. Developing relationships takes time, and those of you who have worked in companies know that often there is precious little of it to plan as you'd like. As a blogger, I never sit there and wonder when I'm going to get the next press release to find stories ideas. And admittedly I tend to be picky, looking to write not just original content -- I still link out a... Read more →