Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

Revealing the Spark Behind a Product for Social Engagement Productivity, Content Insights, and Relationships Visibility

This is my new inbox. It's where I can see all my interactions across social networks: Twitter, Google+, Disqus, and more. In there I have visibility into my relationships, the ability to gain content insights, and be productive when engaging online. How do you develop a social product that helps people do all that? The answer is: you give people a way to see and manage their interactions and relationships across the Web. Be social to do social William Mougayar is CEO, Eqentia, the enterprise-grade Web publishing tool. He is also one of the most socially engaged CEOs I have... Read more →

Does Your Content Have an Expiration Date?

In 2011, I have written 345 posts at this site, authored three full length articles, written and designed twelve issues of my premium newsletter, a 115-page eBook, and responded to several interviews for other sites. I also delivered 5 keynote presentations, participated in a half dozen speaker panels, and another half dozen podcasts. As part of my advisory board duties, I helped a group of International MBA students with marketing strategy and presentation polish, developed a landing page for IABC membership information and content for the site, and suggested topics and made connections for the local DMA association events. All... Read more →

Your Guide to Buying Web Domains

The total number of domain names registered worldwide crossed the 215 million mark in Q2 2011 [source: Verisign]. The .com/.net renewal rate for the second quarter of 2011 was 73.1 percent, down from 73.8 percent for the first quarter. To give you some sense of comparison, the number of registered domain names was a little over 200 million in December 2010 [source: Verisign]. +++ I had a pretty intense weekend working on moving one of my domains to a new provider. I was moving it to take advantage of the approaching renewal. To make a long story short, it wasn't... Read more →

45 Resources to Help You Command Attention and Fight for Your Ideas

Conversation Agent 2011 Yearbook Quotes from Valeria Maltoni View more presentations from Valeria Maltoni 2011 is drawing to a close and the holidays present a perfect opportunity to relax, enjoy time with family and friends, and take stock of how far you've come this year. If you're like me, you're also taking time to evaluate what you did well and what you could improve so you can carry lessons learned into starting 2012 strong. The best laid plans As you know, to me strategy is motivation to engage a plan of action to achieve goals. Sometimes though, even the best... Read more →

Get Off the Bus, or be Thrown Under it

The problem with using metaphors to make sense of how the world works is that at some point they “tip” and become the accepted explanation of why the world works the way it does. We stop questioning the underlying premise. Saying one thing to mean another has intended and unintended consequences. In business parlance, we continue to focus so much on “getting on the bus” that we forget to pay attention to who's driving, the bus's speed and its direction, for example. A bus also has limited capacity, hence the companion expression of “throwing under the bus.” This is the... Read more →

Blending Personal and Business on Facebook

Among the social networks in use today, Facebook continues to be the most challenging when it comes to drawing a line between personal and business applications. The network itself is pushing users to become even more personal with the new timeline. Will the new look prompt many to reconsider what and how they share? The network's own growth and business viability are contingent upon the contribution of brands. Will brands increase their spend in the next year? What percentage of your resources investment should go to a walled third-party digital platform? Blending personal and business on Facebook This tension is... Read more →

There's Nothing to Stop You

[Kara Swisher, TEDex Bay Area 20:26] I've written about a lot of different topics over the years. Much of the work I have done inside organizations has been to witness and record the extraordinary people and ideas that often go unrecognized. No, it's not about the kind of award-winning awards, or the posterity kind of recognition. It's really more about helping them connect with their own inner flame and talent. If I had to choose one thing that makes the English language so powerful, I'd say it's its ability to march words into action. I can think deeply in several... Read more →

Partnering with Brands

I remember the first time I received an email from a company that stated they wanted to partner with me. Back then, I was the marketing contact on the client side, and running point on brand strategy and integrated communications, direct response being a strong component, alongside a robust research and what people refer to as "thought leadership" programs. There are all kinds of ways a business can trade its assets in the form of upstream and downstream opportunities. For example, flow aggregators, flow distributors as in resellers, and so on. In fact, in some mature industries, cutting deals with... Read more →

The Future is a Balancing Act

Every year, the Institute for the Future, examines a core set of conversations and the signals that inform them. The broad theme for 2011 is balancing acts. According to the report, imbalances will drive the next decade, while five basic balances will be at our disposal, in our toolkit, to assist with the rebalancing act(s). Money, land, and time—the basic resources of our daily lives—will demand new ways of organizing ourselves to create new kinds of wealth. Innovations in language and law, in our communities and even our deaths, will lend new meanings to our shared realities. Climate change will... Read more →

How do You Use Content to Stand Out?

There are many questions associated with content production, much of which is a constant source of consternation and a resource monger for businesses small and large. By far the biggest open question organizations have is: How do I stand out online? Standing out is easier when you know who you are looking to attract. Because then you can tailor your content to their specific needs. Three areas of inquiry How do you get your industry to pay attention to you? How can you get published in certain journals? How do you establish yourself as a subject matter expert? How do... Read more →