I like the conversations that I have on the go, but I have to admit that for some reason conversations feel better when I’m at home talking with a small and more intimate group of friends. It’s that intimacy that I think got lost with online communication today. Continue reading “What I care about for those who care”
Tag: evolution
This is Something Personal
Do you know what’s missing here? Me, the real me.
Sounds crazy I know, but it’s true.
I spent the last few years sharing tons of valuable stuff that can help you to succeed online. I did it because I believed in it, because I wanted to help people and because the time was right. Now all the late comers joined the party and it seems to me that there’s nothing else to read online. “How to do this, what to to do to get the best out of that, or 1,000 tips to kick ass on this other thing…”
What’s missing is the personal perspective on things.
So, I think it’s time for me to change gears and share my experience from a different perspective.
Because when you need to find out ‘what’ or ‘how’ in order to do this or that, what do you do? You search on Google and you find all the answers.
From now on, you won’t find the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ here, I’ll leave that to Google. On my blog, you’ll find the ‘why’.
And you’ll find an absolutely unique ‘why’ because it’s going to always be from my experience, which is something that no one else will be able to tell you. That’s the new value that I’ll offer and share with you.
At times you might actually end up disagreeing with me, but hey…isn’t learning from each other the best part of a sincere discussion? It will be great to do this on a new and different level.
Every now and then, I might share an interesting post on what and how you should keep your eyes on things, but I’ll focus more on this new direction.
Love it? Hate it? Questions?
This is my digital living room and you are welcome here. Grab a drink and let’s talk.
Andrea
P.S. If you like the new vibe, here’s my RSS feed and this is my newsletter. Let’s stay tuned.
What’s Yahoo?
Google? Search.
Facebook? Social.
AOL? Media.
Twitter? Conversation.
Amazon? Commerce.
…
Yahoo? …Hmmmm?
Every single web company makes me think of at least one clear keyword that defines them, but Yahoo? For me it used to be “news”. Sure, there were other things related to it – email, search, etc – but that’s what it meant to me back in the day. What is Yahoo? Yahoo. Hmm. It doesn’t ring a bell. Or actually I should say it rings too many bells resulting in a chaotic sound instead of the one clear one Yahoo used to have. I thought about it again today when I read this post on Mashable. In fact, I was thinking about Yahoo’s future one year ago after I watched this video on Techcrunch (above). Now, I’m left wondering what I’ll be thinking about Yahoo next year and where Yahoo will be next year…
Your take?
Andrea
Foster Innovation, Don’t Fake it
photo credit: bass_nroll
Speed of Innovation? It’s fast, fast, fast and in case you didn’t get it, it’s faster than ever before.
New fields are emerging and with no surprise we have a huge number of new jobs emerging.
The crazy growth of some of these fields forces anyone who wants to stay on top to invest not just a couple of hours a week but to focus full time on it.
Organizations that pretend to achieve objectives in these new emerging fields only by stretching internal resources, aka overcharging existing staff with even more work, are not going to go anywhere. The only thing they will achieve is stressing people out and lowering the overall level of performance.
You must invest in new internal or external resources.
Organizations must foster innovation, and not suppress it under fake illusions just to convince themselves that they are moving in the ‘right’ direction.
Andrea
Do You Need an Infographic?
Do you need an infographic? You might want to talk to these guys.
These are some nice graphical summaries that Daniel, Carla and Bauke created during my talk last week at the Switch Conference in Porto (Portugal). Their contact info is below, enjoy!
Andrea
Daniel, Carla, Bauke and me in Porto
Digital Evolution at Switch 2011
This weekend I’ll be speaking at the 2011 edition of the Switch Conference in Porto (Portugal).
“Switch is a two-day event that gathers people with different background experiences to discuss technology, science, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation in a network-friendly environment.”
My presentation will focus on ‘Digital Evolution’. I will talk about why the need to constantly evolve in the digital space has become something that isn’t just important but necessary for anyone who wants to succeed. I’ll explain why we have to re-think of websites as ‘digital brains’ instead of a simple ‘online presence’ and I’ll give 5 practical tips on how to prevent and eventually overcome 5 of the most frequent causes of digital extinction that brands, organizations and at times also individuals are facing today.
I hope to see you there!
Andrea
UPDATE: These are the slides of my presentation. Enjoy!
Embracing Imperfection
Nothing and nobody are perfect.
You can aim at perfection, but what you have to keep in mind is that in the end you, your ideas, your creations will be born, live, change shape, form, and die in an imperfect world. There’s nothing you or anyone else can do about it.
Like many people, I spent most of my life aiming for the top, trying to reduce the number of mistakes, risks, or problems I would have to deal with. I devoted hours, days, and, in the end, years of my life to achieve goals according to certain standards.
Then, one day I came to a point where I realized that those thresholds are just simply irrelevant and actually counter productive. Sure, you could argue against this statement, but in my opinion those “certain standards” of achieving one’s goals actually reduce overall progress and flatten the wonderful nature of things which is dominated by an uncontrollable imperfection, which ultimately takes everything back to a flawless equilibrium.
Look at where you started from and think of the path you still have ahead. The fact that you are not there yet doesn’t mean you haven’t succeeded. If you slow down for a second, you’ll realize that success lies in each and every single step you take to move forward, in every time you fall, in every time you stand up again and keep moving forward.
I believe that success is itself a paradox because it restricts potential to the sole achievement of certain goals which, especially in today’s dynamic, ever-changing fast-paced environment, are nothing more than mere moments in time that neither belong to what has passed nor to what will be.
“But we need to measure something to know we are on the right path, correct?” Sure. Nothing wrong with that, but just don’t get stuck in measuring and end up forgetting the big picture. Temporary or mid-term achievements and even unsuccessful moments are all small pieces of the big vision.
You must look at the flow. We are all part of a unique, imperfect flow in which what’s official, determined and fixed it’s already dead and gone, old, far and surpassed. Nothing is perfect and nothing ever will be perfect. Perfection exists in being able to read through the imperfections and smartly move in synergy with the rhythm that moves the natural course of life. As a brand, an organization, and as an individual, think of how much you are in synergy with this flow. Stop for a second and switch off from the craziness that is imposed by the controlled standards we are often forced to embrace. You’ll be surprised at how much you are missing and by how much more you could achieve.
Andrea
Embracing Imperfection
Nothing and nobody are perfect.
You can aim at perfection, but what you have to keep in mind is that in the end you, your ideas, your creations will be born, live, change shape, form, and die in an imperfect world. There’s nothing you or anyone else can do about it.
Like many people, I spent most of my life aiming for the top, trying to reduce the number of mistakes, risks, or problems I would have to deal with. I devoted hours, days, and, in the end, years of my life to achieve goals according to certain standards.
Then, one day I came to a point where I realized that those thresholds are just simply irrelevant and actually counter productive. Sure, you could argue against this statement, but in my opinion those “certain standards” of achieving one’s goals actually reduce overall progress and flatten the wonderful nature of things which is dominated by an uncontrollable imperfection, which ultimately takes everything back to a flawless equilibrium.
Look at where you started from and think of the path you still have ahead. The fact that you are not there yet doesn’t mean you haven’t succeeded. If you slow down for a second, you’ll realize that success lies in each and every single step you take to move forward, in every time you fall, in every time you stand up again and keep moving forward.
I believe that success is itself a paradox because it restricts potential to the sole achievement of certain goals which, especially in today’s dynamic, ever-changing fast-paced environment, are nothing more than mere moments in time that neither belong to what has passed nor to what will be.
“But we need to measure something to know we are on the right path, correct?” Sure. Nothing wrong with that, but just don’t get stuck in measuring and end up forgetting the big picture. Temporary or mid-term achievements and even unsuccessful moments are all small pieces of the big vision.
You must look at the flow. We are all part of a unique, imperfect flow in which what’s official, determined and fixed it’s already dead and gone, old, far and surpassed. Nothing is perfect and nothing ever will be perfect. Perfection exists in being able to read through the imperfections and smartly move in synergy with the rhythm that moves the natural course of life. As a brand, an organization, and as an individual, think of how much you are in synergy with this flow. Stop for a second and switch off from the craziness that is imposed by the controlled standards we are often forced to embrace. You’ll be surprised at how much you are missing and by how much more you could achieve.
Andrea
Communications Report for March 30th 2011 – 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.
- Data: How the Advanced Corporations Spend on Social Business – A glimpse into the future.
- Top 25 Best Practices for Drafting Policies and Guidelines – The rules of social media engagement.
- Pepsi Innovates with Social Media Metrics – Shiv Singh, Head of Digital PepsiCo Beverages America, talked to eMarketer writer/analyst Kimberly Maul about how PepsiCo measures social media and the role Facebook plays in its social media outreach.
- The PR Influencer Index: Let Your Peers Rate You – Here is the Exercise for you to share with your peers…
- My Blackberry is not working – Fun!
- Twitter isn’t very social: study – A whopping 50% of all content consumed on Twitter is generated by only 20,000 users.
- Mobile internet stats round up – 84% use mobile search to look for information on local retailers, such as opening hours, address and contact details. 82% look for online retailers, 73% find a specific product or manufacturer website.
- Google Page Speed Now Available as Chrome Plugin – Google has finally released an experimental Chrome extension for its popular Page Speed service. Page Speed, which is already available for Firefox, analyzes Web pages and gives developers suggestions for improving performance.
- Mobile commerce: ten reasons to choose the web over apps – This doesn’t mean that apps don’t have their place, but retailers should look to mobile commerce sites before they create an app.
- Mobile commerce: 25 essential tips – Mobile commerce is continuing to grow, and there are now plenty of compelling reasons why retailers should sell via mobile.
- e-book sales exploded by 116% this January, totaling $69.9 million in the U.S. – Paperbacks were down 30.9% from the reporting companies, falling to $39.0 million, $30 million below the sales of e-books. Hardcover sales fell 11.3% in January.
- How to Activate Facebook Insights for Your Website – Handy!
- New Rules for the New Internet Bubble – We’re now in the second Internet bubble.
- US Social Network Usage: 2011 Demographic and Behavioral Trends – In 2011, 63.7% of US internet users will use social networks on a regular basis, amounting to nearly 148 million people. Although the pace of growth will be less dramatic in the next few years than it was in 2009 and 2010, usage will remain strong and shows no sign of declining.
- Advertising – B2B Brands Undervalue Online Display Marketing – Only 13% of B2B interactive marketers say they have increased online display budgets in 2011 relative to 2010 levels, in large part due to perceptions of ineffectiveness, according to a new report from Forrester.
Social Costume
Episode: VMC #343 – Social Costume
Subscribe to the show on YouTube!Check out what I found in Venice yesterday during the Carnival…yes, a Facebook costume!
When I saw it a thought crossed my mind: A few years ago, I was sending out invites to my friends to join and connect with me on Facebook. Initially, many of them didn’t even reply or check it out and today…well, we all know how things have changed. Facebook became one of the dominant platforms for social networking.
The ‘social’ aspect of the web reached its mature stage and placed a new brick in the building of our future life. The line that used to separate the digital world from our everyday life keeps blurring and it will keep fading away the more the Internet becomes a part of the lives of people in the most far and remote corners of our planet.
Now we got to a point at which people discovered that social interaction can take place online just as it does offline. How are things going to move forward from now on?
At least at this stage, Facebook’s role in how people socialize and communicate is fundamental. Facebook is not redefining social, it’s simply taking it to a new extent. However, it still has the reins of social data and social interaction. I’m wondering if and how things will change once people start feeling the need to be in control of the data they are sharing and using in their social ecosystem. Will Facebook change its nature from ‘social box’ to ‘social catalyst’? Will emerging projects like Diaspora become new fertile lands where people will be able to take care of their own data and social life?
Today’s social costume is a ‘Facebook wall’, what will it be in the future?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
Andrea