Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

Connecting the Stream with Action: Media Embraces Real Time

SXSW: By the numbers from CNN on Vimeo. This is the second installment in our conversation about the themes or trends at SxSW 2011. To build on the framework created by technology and humanism, because of the fragmentation and speed of digital, the opportunity for media is to connect people to real time. Thanks to the ubiquity of media with digital, the newsreel becomes both the thread of what is happening and a reminder of what happened -- much of which we may have missed, given our speed and processing ability as humans. Therefore, media connects the stream with action... Read more →

Connecting the Stream with Action: Technology and Humanism Meet

If I had to sum up SxSW 2011, I would use one word -- transformative. Both at individual and community level. For the first time in my experience, stream and live interactions mirrored and built off each other in two important ways: many more (re)connections that would have not been possible to arrange or foresee happened the fragmentation and speed of digital was replicated in the creative chaos of a live event I came back with a renewed sense of purpose and wanted to share with you the main themes or trends I see in social for 2011. This is... Read more →

Buy one, Give One Free: TOMS Shoes

TOMS is not a person like the rest of us, it's the abridged version of tomorrow's idea. Blake Mycoskie's idea that every child should have a pair of shoes. In his keynote at SxSW, Blake shared with us his simple goal inspired on a trip to Argentina and born out of a story. In 2006, when traveling in Argentina, Blake befriended children and found they had no shoes to protect their feet. Wanting to help, he created TOMS Shoes, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in... Read more →

Litmus Email Analytics Help you See Engagement

I had the opportunity to speak with Justine Jordan of Litmus at SxSW. This is a tool that lets you preview campaigns across 34 email clients and devices. I wish I had had this tool when I was running customer email newsletters and had not thought of testing with our internal email client, Lotus Notes. The tool was developed initially to help designers with Web pages in the UK. Then, given demand, they expanded the offering to email tests, and given their roots, also landing pages in different browsers. How it handles spam filters Litmus covers all major spam filters... Read more →

Connecting with Content at Events

People go to events for two main reasons: 1) to connect with business through networking, and 2) to learn something new they can use to work more efficiently and get better results. You can take advantage of both situations to generate content ideas. Use the speakers I had a very engaged group at my session yesterday. Many had started the conversation with me before coming to the session -- through this blog and on Twitter, as well as in person. Those in attendance had the opportunity to help define the content of the talk by asking questions and sharing their... Read more →

Changing the Question

As I talk with people about influence -- especially at SxSW -- I get the sense that much of it feels like a black box to many. Voodoo, or something complicated that needs to be solved by an algorithm. As if we were unable, or worse, unwilling, to understand what matters to our customers and clients. To me, the powerful value proposition of social media is the opportunity for a business to transform buyers into customers. I worked in 5 industries on the client side, and I have seen first hand the power in the transformation from transactional-based buyers to... Read more →

The Stream Comes First

Then you talked about it, connected with people, and discussed it. News of the tragic earthquake and tsunami that affected so many lives in Japan reached me while I was traveling to SxSW. I saw the reports coming in through Twitter. I was able to see that my cousin, who lives in Japan, was safe from posts on his Facebook wall. No need to call, clog international phone lines, or get frustrated from not getting through. Just open the app and check it out. Two minutes in all. Doc Searls wrote a very poignant post about earthquake turns TV networks... Read more →

Reports of Women Being Like Men are Greatly Exaggerated

I've been considered too globally-minded for the local market, too Italian at times for the US, too woman for operating in a man's world, whatever that means, and too Liberal Arts-schooled for being immersed in technology. Not that any of that has slowed me down... it just means it takes longer for people to see me. While technology is helping us notice how everything is connected, there is still so much to figure out. Especially in the nuances of execution, where innovation sits, unexplored. Consider, for example, what Marie Curie did after Henry Bequerel discovered that uranium salts emitted rays... Read more →

Would you Like to Be Enchanting?

This will be my third year at SxSW. It sounds like it will be even bigger than past years, so I wanted to remind you about my session about influence, be my guest. Here are 21 things you can do at a conference with many good additional tips in the comments. I've been working on understanding the social triggers and nuances for a long time and I do look forward to your feedback and reactions. I think I can safely say it's my life's work. It converges nicely with designing organizations and networks and my love and interest for connecting.... Read more →

mBLAST Helps you Connect with (online) Influencers

You do the influencing, the technology helps you identify and connect with the individuals who matter to your customers -- current and future. As Gary Lee, CEO mBLAST, said in a recent conversation with me, the firm's services are easy to use, affordable, and can make you a better marketer. Good bye Lone Ranger, hello Connector. The place where a marketer's time is best invested is with her customers. Making you a better marketer involves your permission. The company offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) suite of tools to support operating in an increasingly complex digital environment. One where 2 billion voices... Read more →