Andrea Vascellari, Author at AndreaVascellari.com

Need help with your B2B Marketing? B2B Marketing Europe is the answer

Need help with your B2B markting? I’m sure that by attending this event organized by KGS Global [client] all your questions will find an answer. [post released via itive.net]

If you are a VP or Director of Marketing, Marketing Manager, Channel Marketing Executive or if you are a President/CEO/Managing Director interested in find out more on the new frontier of B2B Marketing, this is the event you are looking for: European B2B Marketing Conference, 1st 2nd Dec. in Berlin (Germany).

A unique networking opportunity and an amazing speakers lineup that includes also our friend Chris Brogan. In addition to that during the second day of conference you’ll have the chance of attending a workshop to learn how you can use Facebook, Twitter and other social media tools in your B2B marketing strategies hosted by Nicole Simon (Social Media Strategist – Itive). You’ll learn:

What B2B can learn from successful B2C companies
How to build a relevant, exciting and interactive Facebook page for your company (and why that includes Twitter)
Facilitate interaction between your company and ‘fans’ / ‘friends’ / ‘followers’
Maximize your content online through social media tools
How to be remarkable online
And of course you’ll be able to share your experiences with other attendees!

Follow the official hashtag #b2beu for more information!

Together with Mashable, Read Write Web, media.net and GyroHSR Itive.net is official partner of the event. We are supporting Irina Kremin and her KGS Global team to get the best out of the event. Hope to see you there!

[Communications Report] for October 19th 2010 – AndreaVascellari.com

Do you want to get these report-updates in real time? Subscribe to the live-report RSS feed! This feed includes only report related items. It’s not a substitute but a complement to my main RSS feed which still remains the official one that brings you all my blog posts.

Complimentary eMarketer Report: Seven Guidelines for Achieving ROI from Social Media – Authored by Geoff Ramsey, eMarketer CEO, this report looks at the current state of online social media measurement and ROI metrics, and how these critical indicators of success will evolve in 2010 and beyond. It explains why measurement is so rare—and shows how leaders in the field are gaining a competitive advantage.
Digital Embassies: A Blueprint For Community Engagement – “Call this a blueprint if you will for how you and your organization can think about building and managing multiple embassies in a hyper-connected world” It’s definitely worth reading.
Social media measurement: defining the metrics to quantify ROI – We might not see an increase in market share for a business due to an overwhelming social media presence, but on a long term, social media provides an opportunity or a platform where you can stand and deliver clear but concise messages about the brand.
The Facebook News Feed: How it Works,10 Biggest Secrets – How does the social media giant decide who and what to put in your feed.
50 Cool Twitter Tools for Tweet Tracking – I’m sure you’ll find some new/useful tools on this list…well at least I did! -via @LisanneVos
Twimbow – Colored Thoughts – I tested it our for a while, it’s an interesting experiment of tweets & colors. Give it a try! [Beta]
Why Are Social Behaviors Plateauing? | Forrester Blogs – for the first time, we’re seeing a change in the growth trend. The latest 2010 Global Social Technographics report demonstrates that many social behaviors have reached a plateau. Why, and what does this mean to marketers?
The Latest Global Social Media Trends May Surprise You | Forrester Blogs – The story behind the data is pretty clear. The initial wave of consumers using social technologies in the US has halted. Companies will now need to devise strategies to extend social applications past the early adopters. This means that you need to understand how your consumers use social media. Do you know the Social Technographics Profiles of your customers? Is your company preparing for this next phase of social media strategy?
Media Influencers Survey Findings – The Media Influencers Survey presents key findings on the Singapore media and communications industry trends. #interesting
Storify.com – Create stories using social media – Turn what people post on social media into compelling stories. You collect the best photos, video, tweets and more to publish them as simple, beautiful stories that can be embedded anywhere.
SoTech infographic V1.0 | SoTech Now – How social technologies are impacting business.

Get a copy of #aoc3 and Support Charity Water – Blog Action Day 2010

Age Of Conversation 3

Did you know that just $20 can give one person clean water for 20 years? An average water project costs $5,000 and can serve 250 people with clean, safe water. This means that purchasing a copy of the ‘Age of Conversation 3’, the book that I co-authored with an amazing group of marketing pros, really can make a difference to someone’s life!

Today is Blog Action Day for Water and it’s also a call to action to make this book get onto the Top Sellers’ List at Amazon! Get a copy (or more) today:

It’s available in:

All proceeds go to charity water. Make a difference…

Andrea

Facebook Warning For Koobface Virus – How to Restore your Facebook Account

UPDATE: Follow the steps below. I described in detail what I went through to restore my Facebook account.

Facebook suddenly signed me out from my account and as soon as I tried to login again it showed me this:

Dear Facebook,

No files on my computer contain viruses (I even run a firewall!). In addition to that I didn’t accidentally download an infected file, no friends passed any file and I didn’t click on any malicious link.

So what’s the point of such message? And on which basis can you state that my Mac may contain a virus? Do you have access to my computer? Do you monitor me? Seriously this makes no sense…

Do I have to run anti-virus software to remove these harmful programs and keep my information secure? …I mean…How about having you keeping Facebook clean from such threats and protect my data in first place?

I haven’t downloaded any weird file or malicious content so this leads me to think that Facebook is taking preventing measures against potential risks whether we did or didn’t do something that could compromise the security of the system. But I could be wrong, mah…I don’t know what to think…you?!?

This is the URL I see when I try to login to Facebook. I didn’t login yet or clicked on the continue button

Any idea?

and this is an email that I just received, but I didn’t click on the link yet (never know) especially because I haven’t received any message from a friend inviting me to watch a video…this is weird… Anyone else got the same message?

Dear Andrea Vascellari,

We have detected that your Facebook account is infected with a form of malware, or virus, called Koobface. You downloaded the virus after receiving a message from a friend, which invited you to view a video.

To restore your account, please log in to Facebook and follow the instructions you see there. You can also learn more in our Help Centre at:

http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=koobface

Thanks,

Facebook Security Team

Anyone else is having the same problem?

Andrea

UPDATE: Ok so I clicked on the ‘continue’ button that you see in my frist screenshot above. Here’s the entire process I had to go through to restore my Facebook account:

First thing this is weird because I’m on a Mac and the virus affects PC only. Anyway, these are the screenshots, step by step:

1) click on the continue button after you scanned your computer (you have to certify that too by clicking on the check-box)

2) This window (below) will show up. Choose a method among the listed ones.

2.1) I never set an answer for such a question, neither facebook ever asked me to do it , so I had to choose the second verification method (identify photos of friends. See next point 2.2)

2.2) This is the method I used. Click on start.

3) Be very carful when selecting the name of your friends because facebook doesn’t show you just photos from your albums, it will show you random photos of your friends from the entire ‘facebook universe’ and sometimes it will show you really tricky ones like this one that I’m sharing below (I started to laugh here…How could I possibly see who’s in that crowd?! There are at least 9-10 persons in that area selected by facebook. Ok This is probably due to the fact that someone else tagged the photo that way..but still…). Other thing you have to pay attention to is the fact that you can skip maximum 2 photos if you can’t understand who the person is (another reason to make sure you actually know the people you are connected with…Connecting with people just to have a bigger number in your network doesn’t help much in situations like this).

4) Once you are done identifying your friends click on the ‘confirm’ button.

5) Again this is just crazy…especially because I never saw such window opening up, I didn’t downloaded any file and I never faced all the rest that facebook is mentioning. Anyway…click on the ‘Go to virus scan’ button (nothing really happened to me here, it just redirected me to the next page/window, see next point below).

6) Create a new password

7) No this is not an advertisement of McAfee anti-virus (but I seriously thought about it…hem hem…). Click on the ‘Go home’ button and you will be redirected back to your profile, everything in it should be restored and back to normal.

8) What a crazy ride huh?!

Andrea

itive.net Foursquare Mayor gets a free coffee

via itive.net

If you followed Itive for a while you probably already know that we always try to find new ways to extend the online interaction that we usually have with our community to offline world. This is why from now on we decided to also give a reward to the people that engage the most with us on foursquare by offering a free cup of coffee to who ousts the current mayor of our headquarters.

Why a cup of coffee? Coffee is always a good way to connect, network and find common interests. Let’s get to know each other better, we’d love to meet you!

At the moment we are testing this just at our European headquarters, but if it gets good traction we are planning to extend it also to our HQ in New York. Stay tuned!

LeWeb – It’s All About Platforms

Allow me to say that LeWeb is one of ‘juiciest’ events we have in Europe. This year’s edition of LeWeb is going to be all about platforms. The event will take place in Paris Dec. 8th and 9th 2010 and Loic & Geraldine will tell you more about it as soon as you click play on the video below.

Am I going to be there? Yes, I’ve been invited as an official blogger.

What will I do as an official blogger? I’ll take things to the next level. I won’t release a countless number of posts like I did in previous years. I’ll work on only one, high quality video. A masterpiece that will bring you all the top Marketing and PR content from LeWeb.

Why? The reason is simple: you have no time to check tons of videos/posts. So I’ll do all the hard work to summarize the best communications content ‘in pills’ and bring it to you in one great package.

I already tested this new format at the NEXT conference in Berlin and received great feedback from you all so I hope you’ll find this new upcoming video from LeWeb valuable, as well.

Andrea

[Communications Report] for October 1st 2010 – AndreaVascellari.com

Do you want to get these report-updates in real time? Subscribe to the live-report RSS feed! This feed includes only report related items. It’s not a substitute but a complement to my main RSS feed which still remains the official one that brings you all my blog posts.

Your LinkedIn Profile on Facebook – How-to guide.
How General Motors used social media to avert a crisis – Social media is speeding everything up, creating challenges and opportunities for marketers. This is especially true (sometimes painfully so) when a public relations issue comes up. Though social media can make an issue spread faster, smart marketers also see the opportunity to use that speed to quickly correct the issue.
What digital skills should a PR PRO have? « A view from Silicon Valley – The main point of debate for most agencies is whether they should embed digital skills across the agency or simply create a group of digital gurus. This is a real challenge and hard to get right…
Facebook, Twitter okay on the job, B.C. government tells employees – British Columbia is creating new guidelines for how public servants use social media such as Twitter and Facebook, and is encouraging their use in everything from forest-fire updates to citizen input on policy decisions.
£2.5bn a year wasted on marketing emails dismissed as spam – 64% of respondents said that if the emails were more relevant to them they would be more likely to read them. The research found 73% of consumers believe businesses send marketing emails regardless of their relevance to the recipient. – via Cynthia Wee @Its_A_Cyn
Blending Paid, Owned and Earned Media for Branding – eMarketer – Some of today’s greatest success stories in branding blend ingredients from the three kinds of marketing media: paid, owned and earned. Paid media is advertising inserted next to another’s content; owned media is brand-created content; and earned media is getting someone else to provide content about a brand.
10 Examples of Amazing Viral Marketing Videos – These 10 videos provide great examples of what it takes to make a video that can capture the attention of millions and market your product in the process.
Twitter.com Keyboard Shortcuts – Handy.
Social Media Working Better for Retention Than Acquisition – Social media marketing has been around for several years, and as marketers begin to converge on best practices and use the channel in more uniform ways, it is emerging that their top goals are brand awareness and cultivating customer loyalty. Conversely, customer acquisition through social media is less important.
No analytics for Google Instant – It would have been easy for Google Analytics to reveal how much traffic Google Instant is driving, but Google seems to be keeping this information under wraps.

How games can help us doing better in real life

Imagine the best case scenario outcome and then empower people to make that outcome reality. This is actually what I do everyday with my team at itive and it’s also the why I thought to share this video with you.

Jane McGonigal shares great insights on collaboration and cooperation dynamics that we can learn from the gaming world and use in real life to do a better job.

Now I gotta go, few friends are waiting for me to play World of Warcraft but hey…enjoy the video! 😉

Andrea

I love when she talks about urgent optimism, social fabric, blissful productivity and epic meaning…

[Communications Report] for September 17th 2010 – AndreaVascellari.com

Do you want to get these report-updates in real time? Subscribe to the live-report RSS feed! This feed includes only report related items. It’s not a substitute but a complement to my main RSS feed which still remains the official one that brings you all my blog posts.

Seven ways social nets like Facebook and LinkedIn are ‘truly evil’ – Something to keep in mind…
How to Unleash Your Human Potential | Fast Company – Allow your workers to experiment, and make their goal to please the customer–not the boss.
The Science of Retweets on Twitter – One of the most actively discussed aspects of Twitter is the art and science of retweets. Retweets, in my opinion, are one of the most sincere forms of recognition and validation, empowering users to pay it forward through the recognition of noteworthy content
American Express launches interactive campaign with Mark Ronson – The interactive campaign will be hosted at www.channel4.com/mylivestory, and will encourage consumers to celebrate their most memorable live music moments by submitting photos or videos of their favourite gig online.
Crowdmap – Collect news, aggregate and visualize on a map. Crowdmap is designed and built by the people behind Ushahidi, a platform that was originally built to crowdsource crisis information. As the platform has evolved, so have its uses. Crowdmap allows you to set up your own deployment of Ushahidi without having to install it on your own web server.
Developer Release – This is now a community project and development is open to anyone with the technical expertise who shares the vision of a social network that puts users in control.
Don’t Think of It As Piracy, Think of It As Marketing – Most video-game developers — along with most musicians, writers, movie producers and virtually every other kind of content creator — see digital piracy as an enemy to be fought with every weapon at their disposal. Not Markus Persson. While the Swedish developer of the indie game Minecraft says he isn’t happy about people copying his game illegally, he sees it as a necessary part of doing business in a digital world
Facebook Creates Multiple Account Dashboard for Advertisers – As Facebook becomes more of a force in the online advertising space, it has to also step up to the plate with analytics and reporting.
“The Social Network” Interactive Trailer Is All Up in Your Facebook – Anticipation is rising for the October 1 debut of The Social Network, the film that explores the history of Facebook and how it was founded. With just two weeks left before its debut in theaters, the film is launching its interactive trailer, chock-full of Facebook-y goodness.
Google’s troubles recruiting and retaining | Econsultancy – Recruiting and retaining ‘the best and brightest’ is the goal of most companies, and that explains why, for most companies, doing so is a tough job.
The Colors of the Web’s Superbrands [INFOGRAPHIC] – What colors do the web’s most powerful brands use to distinguish themselves from others? The folks from COLOURlovers decided to find out…
Levi’s launches online fitting service for women – Brand Republic News – The new digital offering is based on the figures of 60,000 women worldwide, and is meant to be a step towards ending the frustrations in the “search for a perfect fit”, according to Levi’s.
Top 3 Reasons Traditional Marketing Will Fail – Traditional marketing methods and overall approach will undoubtedly fail in today’s communications climate.
Twittelp.com | Help in the blink of a tweet. – Twittelp is a mobile application that provides to its users a quick way to ask help on the twittersphere. Every of your follower will be able to see that you need them, moreover you can define up to 5 follower (suggest your best friends or familiar) that will be mentioned inside the help request. (Thanks to Giuliano Iacobelli)
BBC News – What your social network profile picture really says – Nina started a Facebook page for her experiment, gathering over 3,500 members, who shared their reasons for choosing their profile pictures…
The Desert of Community Building | Geoff Livingston’s Blog – It’s important not to deceive one’s self about the significant effort and time one will invest to build a community, and then continue to invest in order to sustain it. The Fifth Estate requires continued interactions…The time and human resource commitments are real and significant. Have the patience to see it through, from start to finish, and the deserts that lie between moments of great interaction. Knowing this from the start helps.
5 Compelling Reasons to Readjust Your Information Diet, and How to Do It – “One of the effects of living with electric information is that we live habitually in a state of information overload. There’s always more than you can cope with.” Marshall McLuhan
The Implications of Consumers Spending More Time with Facebook Than Google | Forrester Blogs – The difference between the two companies is that Facebook has a unified offering that people find compelling, while Google has a collection of sites that people find very useful–Google search, Gmail, YouTube, Google News and the other Google destinations are largely separate consumer experiences. This is a problem, and the solution may be Google Me, the rumored and expected social offering from Google.
Q2 2010 State of Social Meda Sponsorships – Good stats.
Seven Important Social Media Trends For The Next Year – Social media changes from month to month. Trends come and go quicker than the seasons change. Having said that…it should be an exiting year ahead in social media and these should be seven of the main trends…
YouTube Starts Testing New Live Streaming Platform – YouTube has announced it will start a two-day trial of their new streaming platform, which enables broadcasters to stream live video directly into YouTube channels.
How Newspapers Should Embrace Social Media – Some of the opportunities for socialised news or newspapers.
30 Awesome B2B Social Media Resources – Marketers are currently in a state of transition. As social media and online marketing are integrated with traditional marketing channels, marketing teams need to learn more about the nuts and bolts of B2B social media. This list is designed to help marketers fill in the gap as well as provide resources for those in all phases of the B2B social media adoption process.
TubeMogul: People Watch Facebook Videos Longer, And Click On More Ads – On average, people who click on a video from Facebook are more engaged. They tend to watch longer than viewers who arrive from other sources— 1:45 minutes per view versus !:32 for Google (Twitter users are almost the same with 1:44 minutes per view). Roughly 40 percent of Facebook video ads, give or take, are watched all the way through across different video ad types. On the Web in general, video ad completion rates hover around 25 percent.

The Value of Going Live

Leah D’Emilio, Producer/Director of Rocketboom.com, shares some interesting thoughts on the value of going live. Rocketboom was one of the YouTube partners that streamed live earlier this week during YouTube’s two-day pilot program. Worth spending a minute to check it out!

Andrea