Provocative, cynical but unquestionably engaging.

Andrea

Have no money to invest in what your business or organization needs the most? This post is part of a productivity series aimed at helping you optimize your budget management.

It’s true that there are still some jobs that can’t be done remotely using the web or telecommunication systems; however, many jobs can and are being done in that way thanks to these useful technologies available to most companies.

Accounting, project management, marketing, PR, programming, design, web and mobile development, etc., are just some of the jobs that – depending on the nature of a project – can be done remotely.

There are numerous benefits for both organizations and employees when working remotely, one of them is cost (physical and financial) reductions, including: Reduced stress-levels, higher job satisfaction, less pollution, less need for expensive office space and business utilities, etc.

The most important things to have “in place” in order to get remote working solutions running at best within your organization are:

• Accurate planning: The work must be carefully organized in order to become objective and goal-oriented for everyone.
• Internal policies: Create a policy to inform and educate each remote person or group about what is expected from them and how they will be held accountable.

Are you working remotely? Did your organization implement remote working successfully?
Feel free to drop a comment and share your experiences & tips or click here for a quick “comment-ready-tweet” @vascellari.

Andrea

The Marketing Over Coffee Awards honor those who have done exemplary work in Marketing over the past year. Often the winners sit at the intersection of Marketing and Technology, having identified a future trend and put it to work. The awards also seek to honor those who educate, have a commitment to their community, are professional, and do work of the highest quality.

I’d like to thank Christopher Penn and John Wall for the award I received this year related to the QR Digital Assistant Project conducted by my team and me over at itive.net.

If you are looking for some good marketing inspiration, here’s the list of winners from the 25th Annual Marketing Over Coffee Awards for 2012:

• Person of the Year – Steve Jobs
• Book of the Year – Seth Godin for We Are All Weird
• Best Campaign – SportsNetNy.org for Inspirational Stories
• Most Original – Dynamic Accounting.net for Short Stories
• Multi-Media Ronald Reagan Public Library and Museum
• New Technology – Andrea Vascellari for QR Digital Assistant

I also encourage you to have a look at Marketing Over Coffee (MOC). I’ve been a long time, faithful listener and Chris & John never cease to amaze me. I hope this project gave something back to the fantastic work they do and, indeed, to the great MOC community.

Andrea

Image Credit: Gapingvoid

We are recklessly working with complete disregard for our mental, physical and social health.

This “always connected” digital age is only part of the problem that is almost turning us into slaves of the system we are living in. In my opinion, there is something fundamental that we shouldn’t forget at a much deeper and human level.

It has become increasingly difficult to find the right balance between what we have to do in order to live and actually living our life. It seems to me that we are going crazy and we are fine with it because it seems to be “the norm”. This is not normal, it’s not how it should be.

If we spend our existence in an “always-on” mode we don’t live. We need to switch-off certain leds in our control room, otherwise, sooner or later, something will blow up.

I think this is what’s happening in our society right now. Productivity and growth come first.

What’s the opposite of growth?
I bet that for many of you it took a little too long to come up with an answer to this question.

Decay, reduction and recession themselves are things we distance ourselves from even if they are natural consequences of periods of growth – natural or artificial and inflated…

There’s no trend or phenomenon in nature that can constantly only grow. In my opinion, the acceptance of stagnation and decline as a self regulatory mechanism is important not just on a macro scale, but also on a micro level and in a more personal sphere.

Your take?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below, via quick “comment-ready-tweet” @vascellari.

Andrea

You know what the funny thing is? The more personal, intimate or “delicate” a post is, the more the relationship with the reader tends to become private. I have published posts that only received a few tweets, no public comments, but several private comments via email.

Offering a way for my audience to connect with me privately has been one of the most valuable things I’ve ever done as a blogger.

At the bottom of each blog post you’ll notice a short note that says, “Do you want to send me a private comment about this post via email? No problem, you just need to click here >>“

Where’s the value?
In private email comments people don’t just simply open up more on a personal level, they also feel less afraid of being judged by others for their thoughts, point of view or language skills – English is not everybody’s mother tongue, if you know what I mean.

Do you find more, less or a different value in private conversations?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below, via quick “comment-ready-tweet” @vascellari – or indeed, in a private comment.

Andrea

Photo Credit credit: loop_oh

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.

So I decided to reorder the email addresses of my entire contact list: People who are connected with me on Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, as well as subscribers & commenters of my blog, those who I have met offline at conferences, events, etc.

Why? Email is the one way of communicating that I can still define as private, direct and personal to keep in touch with the people I care about the most on topics we both care about the most.

I want to share what I care about with those who care.

To help me with this task, I’m using Mailchimp as a platform to make it easier for me to manage all of my contacts directly without relying on external social networks. This will enable me to communicate with people who have the same interests all at once.

Topics I’ll share and talk about with you via email are related to…

• Strategy (Marketing, PR, Communications, Social Media, etc.)
• Design & Development (Websites, Mobile, Apps, etc.)
• New Media (Online video, Audio Podcasts, etc.)

How? I’ll write you with…

• Private messages (normal communication, personal thoughts, holiday wishes, etc.)
• Updates from my blog (AndreaVascellari.com – sincerely me since 2002)
• Industry insights (powered by my company & team – itive.net )

How often I’ll write you:

Monthly to quarterly – and to wish you happy holidays!

No more daily – just periodic summaries. If you want to stay tuned in real time to my latest updates, then I invite you to subscribe to my RSS feed.

This is not an email list. It’s a special and personal agenda to maintain and manage my closest contacts.

Do you want to enter my digital living room?

Click here to get started.

If you are already a subscriber or a contact of mine you will find your info already saved in the system. By clicking on the link you will be able to update your profile or opt out if you prefer.

Andrea

Overview
Cisco’s Telepresence is one of the most advanced virtual meeting systems in the world.
In cooperation with the Finnish organizations of KOKO, SEK and SuupohjanSeutuverkko, which runs one of the fastest broadband networks in Europe, my team and I tested Cisco Telepresence as a primary means to present information across distances without breaking budgets.

Objectives

• Create an engaging experience to test the use of Cisco Telepresence in a higher education environment.
• Provide feedback to Cisco on the target audience’s experience using online video communication tools.

The Idea
We organized a live, interactive video conference connecting university students with thoughtful leaders of today’s digital Communications industry.

For this initiative, we selected a group of students from Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada – a country that shares similarities with Finland regarding debilitating winter climates and large, physical distances – difficult factors that could both be addressed and supported with remote virtual learning programs as an ideal solution.

Sitting on the other end of the video conference were itive’s CEO (me) and CCO – two individuals who have solid experience in the digital space.

During the online event, the students had access to itive’s executives for a live Q&A session about having a career in Communications and on how the industry is changing.

The students were then asked to complete a survey about their experiences using online video communication tools in order to provide valuable feedback to Cisco.

Outcomes

• Organized a specific training session for the student leader of the group on how to use the Cisco software.
• Conducted a pre-event survey to focus the video conference on the most relevant topics for the students.
• Managed a 1-hour live, online video conference session between the students and itive’s executives.
• Conducted a post-event survey filled out by students about their experience using online video communication tools.
• Followed up with students providing additional feedback and answers concerning topics that weren’t covered during the live event because of limited time.

Have no time to invest in what your business or organization needs the most? This post is part of a productivity series aimed at helping you optimize your time management.

Ask yourself this question: What is time to you?

When I ask this question to my clients, I always get a different and interesting answer. For some, time is just minutes, hours and days, while for others it’s something you sell or an “investment” for the future. In some cases, this question brings certain people to the realization that time is not actually something infinite and eternal, even if it’s often taken for granted.

How you perceive time and how much you understand its value will have a dramatic impact on how you will use it during your lifetime.

What is time to you? Share them in the comments below or click here for a quick “comment-ready-tweet” @vascellari.

Andrea

Have no money to invest in what your business or organization needs the most? This post is part of a productivity series aimed at helping you optimize your budget management.

If you want to save on a budget, you should have a very detailed budget first.

This may seem obvious, but surprisingly many companies don’t have a complete budget written down. Oftentimes, they just have certain budgets, but many of their expenses are typically left floating free without being thoughtfully tied to an actual plan. These sums of money are what I define as “No Strings Attached Budgets”.

How to avoid “No Strings Attached Budgets”

1. Planning
Once you’ve managed to balance your earnings with your spending and savings goals, write down a budget so you’ll know for every month, quarter and/or year how much you can spend on any given category/department/etc. This will significantly help you, especially with expenses that tend to fluctuate, or those that are particularly difficult to restrict.

2. Don’t guess.
Do not try to guess how much you’ll need to spend in a certain area when making your budgets – let’s say in social media expenses, for example. If you haven’t implemented a good plan for certain activities, it might be because you aren’t sure about where to begin. If you have no idea how to budget for a specific activity, then ask someone who is qualified to help you, such as an external professional consultant or agency.

What are the main challenges you face when creating a budget? Share them in the comments below or click here for a quick “comment-ready-tweet” @vascellari.

Andrea

Image Credit: Johnny Vulkan

Logistia Technology Center (Finland)

Description

The Logistia Technology Center is the #1 Science Park in Finland.

Companies based at the Logistia Technology Center don’t always have personel 24/7 at their offices. Some of them have headquarters outside the Technology Center and use the office at Logistia only to receive prospects, leads and customers during certain hours or days per week. Generally, the large majority of the offices are unattended during lunch breaks, holidays or closing days.

Objectives

The aim of this project was to:

• Enable visitors to get in touch with companies when their representatives are not there to receive them.
• Help the companies generate and nurture leads by offering an engaging experience to visitors.

The Context

The initial analysis that we conducted in the beginning of 2011 during the planning phase of this project highlighted two very interesting factors:

• Finland has a mobile penetration rate of more than 150%, which is really high compared to the rest of Western Europe. We decided to go mobile.
• QR Codes are among the new emerging technologies that are starting to be utilized to link people to context-sensitive digital content. The pilot tests that we ran at itive confirmed QR Codes as the tactical tech to be adopted for this project.

The Idea

We created a “Digital Assistant” that can be activated by the Logistia Technology Center’s visitors by scanning a QR code when company representatives are out of the office at the time a visitor comes by to see them. Focus: help companies “fill the gap” and keep generating & nurturing target audiences while away from the office.

How does it work?

When scanned, the QR Digital Assistant displays a mobile “touch-and-connect” interface that enables prospects, leads and customers to contact the company representatives with a simple touch from their mobile devices via phone, Skype call, email or Twitter.

In addition to that, depending on the needs of each company, the QR Digital Assistant provides information about hours of operation, special promotions/offers or other informational material about the company that can be downloaded with a simple touch in PDF format directly to the visitor’s mobile device thanks to the free Wifi offered by the Logistia Technology Center.

Results

In the respect of the confidentiality expressed by some of the companies that adopted the QR Digital Assistant, the following stats represent the average of the data collected and analyzed during the first 9 months of the project. We are currently monitoring traffic and usage of the QR Digital Assistants and we’ll keep updating this page with new stats as soon as they’re available.

• 52% adoption rate among the companies with offices located at the Logistia Technology Center.
• The connection rate was a stunning 98% – this means that out of the 52% of the companies that chose to use the QR Digital Assistant, 98% got “scanned-through” and successfully connected with their target prospects, leads or existing customers.
• On the other hand, the frequency rate with which the codes were scanned is less impressive and varied between 1 to 7 times per month.
• The companies that received the highest scan-through frequency were those that operate in IT/Web Services, Logistics and Regional Development offices. The ones that received the lowest frequency were Consulting Firms.

Interesting findings!

As we analyzed the data, we noticed that some of the incoming traffic wasn’t just coming from Finland, but from other countries as well. What we discovered was that some of the visitors who scanned the QR codes sent them via email to foreign contacts or team members who eventually utilized the codes from abroad.

This was most likely the case of teams/delegations that were visiting the Logistia Technology Center, but are actually based outside of Finland. This was an unexpected result and a metric that we didn’t think of including in the initial measurement plan. We were happy to find this in our analysis. Thanks to this metric we will be able to keep understanding which “countries” are visiting the Technology Center, and consequentially help Logistia’s companies to better engage foreign target audiences, as well.

Closing note: As I mentioned at the beginning of this post itive.net is currently under re-design. If you are interested in more case studies like this one I would suggest signing up for our newsletter at itive.net. You’ll be the first to know when the site is back up along with interesting tips & insights from our team. Andrea

Photo: QR Digital Assistants installed at the Logistia Technology Center

Long story short, the infographic that I shared on Flickr received over 500,000 views, has an average trend of +1,000 views a day and this week even broke the wall of 11,000 views in 24 hours. So I thought that if my network loved it on Flickr, you, my faithful subscribers and companions of digital adventures might find it interesting as well.

This is why I decided to also share it here introducing Patrick to you and giving him the credit he deserves for his terrific work. Those of you who have been reading this blog over the years know that I keep a close eye on talented artists that step smartly into this digital world.

If you or your company need some stylish infographics, now you have another name to add to your list!

Andrea

Big thank you to @vascellari for a great presentation on current, new and emerging technology. A+++. Visit itive.net.

— Ad Club of Toledo (@adclubtoledo) November 16, 2011

The Advertising Club of Toledo recently invited me as the guest speaker for their monthly luncheon program held at the Toledo Club in – you guessed it – Toledo, Ohio.

My presentation focused on strategic online advertising and marketing, but in order to make sure I addressed the interests and questions of people who would be attending the luncheon, I created a survey that people could fill out and submit beforehand so I could tailor a few points to their input.
It was very exciting to see how many people filled out the surveys and just how active AdClub members are. Needless to say, it made my experience that much more enjoyable knowing how interested the audience was in the industry!

My talk is broken down into 4 main points:

• You – refers specifically to those who filled out the online survey, interesting numbers even if you’re not an AdClub member
• Context – why branding is the core element of marketing & advertising
• Branding in the Digital Age – defining the role of branding in the “attention era”
• Social Media Implementation – how to strategically use social media at different stages

You can view the slides from my talk below or click through to my SlideShare page where you’ll find this presentation + more:

Again, I’d like to thank the AdClub of Toledo for having me as their guest speaker and a very special thanks to Joe, Nick and their team at UP Design Group for sponsoring my presentation. As always, I invite you to send me your feedback by either commenting here on my blog or by visiting my profile on LinkedIn and leaving a recommendation there. You can also feel free to follow me on Twitter and I encourage you to subscribe to the itive newsletter for more tips and upcoming industry related updates.

Andrea

As I finish to prepare my presentation, I would like to know what AdClub members are most interested in learning about, their professional background, and their level of experience in the “digital space”, so that I can tailor a few points of my presentation to their interests and experiences.

For example, would AdClub members like to know more about how to use social media within their advertising/marketing strategies? About the importance of creating relevant content as part of a digital strategy? Or perhaps about any campaigns with a positive ROI where new tactics made the difference?

Those are just a couple of examples to get the juices flowing, but please go ahead and fill out the following form and I will incorporate your interests into my final presentation.

You can also feel free to email me at andrea@itive.net or @/DM me on Twitter - @vascellari

And just a friendly remember that registration for the luncheon must be made by Monday, November 14th.

Thanks for your input and I look forward to meeting and speaking with you on November 16th!
I’d like to thank Joe & Nick from UlrichPinciotti Design Group for sponsoring my presentation.

Andrea

• you can check out our latest video
• and sign up for our newsletter

so you’ll be in the loop when the site is back up and running 100% . Of course, I always appreciate your feedback so if you’d like, go ahead and let me know what you think of the new style!

Andrea

Our economic system is collapsing. This “recession” is just a joke. A recession? A recession from what? From this purposeless system we created?

This is just the tip of the iceberg and things are about to get worse.

Admit it, ignore it. We are all well aware of how much we pushed the boundaries and how much this going to cost us.
You can argue about a whole lot of things, but there’s just one and only truth. Balance.

You can try to change, move and push every single law that governs the natural world we are living in as much as you want, but guess what…it will all go back to a perfect point of balance.

We pushed. We pushed too much and even worse we “created” on top of these absurd and unsustainable abstract systems that we think “can” live in fictional bubbles. One of the many examples? This senseless monetary system.

Where are we going people? This, all this, is just ri-di-cu-lous.
Am I against money? Well… a currency system can be a good thing if it’s managed the right way, if you know what I mean.

You might think that I’m crazy, but actually I believe that I’ve never been more concrete in my entire life and the more time goes by the more I feel like we all just missed the damn point.

It’s not about the money, it’s about us. Us.

Anyway, if this rings any bells or moves something inside of you, drop a comment and I’ll be happy to talk more about this in future posts…this indeed if you are not trapped in a pointless “social-freaking-media” bubble that stops you or makes you lazy enough to not comment on this. Nothing against social media…I like it, but way too many people are missing the point on that, too.

I will just reply to comments here on my blog.

Andrea

Brava Kristi and bravo Simon. So far so good.

Krishna De is an outstanding communicator and a long time digital-friend. She suggested that I could be considered as an influencer in Finland. First of all, I’d like to thank Krishna for mentioning me as an influencer. I tend to work with my “head down”, putting all the passion and commitment I have into everything I do in this industry. Ultimately, my greatest reward is to see a satisfied smile on the face of whoever I’m working with because what we did together meant something to them and made a difference. So, when someone points me out for any reason related to what I do, I feel honored.

Secondly, though, after reading the following comment I felt that I should probably clarify my position a bit and give out a little bit more information about what I do since I have been – and still am – very involved in the Finnish social media and technology space…

If you can’t see/load the picture above:

Jaana Nyström - +Krishna De New York in Finland now?  +Andrea Vascellari has nothing to do with Finland, I think? Must be an error this…

Not wanting to promote myself but I’m the “Google+ envoy in Finland”, according to the local Google Industry Manager… At least I’m diligent!

For those of you who have been connected with me for a while now, you are probably aware that my company and I work on international projects, but for the sake of this thread on G+, here’s my reply which just focuses on some of the ways I’ve been “influential” in Finland.

Hi Everyone,

Hi Jaana,

Jaana I’ve been living and working in Finland since 2005 and I’ve been researching and studying the Finnish information society cluster since 2002.

In Finland, I’m currently running several projects for national and local governments, regional development, B2B, B2C, pharma and education. If you have a look at the people/connections we commonly share here on Google+ you’ll notice that I’m well-networked with the Finnish social media sphere

I’m often a contributor to various international podcasts sharing my point of view from the Finnish perspective (but not only, since I have Italian-Canadian roots) specifically in the fields of PR, marketing and communications. In addition to that, since public speaking is part of what I do, I’ve been invited to speak at some of the largest conferences in Finland i.e. Mindtrek, ITK, etc. If you quickly browse through my Linkedin profile you’ll notice that I’ve been invited as an official blogger to many industry conferences, such as the LeWeb, Web 2.0 Expo, etc. and I’ve also represented Finland at two editions of the Bloggers World Forum respectively in Bucharest and Vienna. So these are most likely some of the reasons why you’ll find a fairly large group of people worldwide referring to me when they think of Finland – it’s the same for me when I think of Ireland and 2 names immediately come to mind Krishna De (@krishnade) and Bernie Goldbach (@topgold).

On the other hand, leading an international digital strategy agency requires me to travel quite often, but my home is currently in Finland. My team and I work across 4 continents and we recently opened a new office in New York (NYC) so the information you see on my Twitter profile refers to that. I hope this explains and clarifies everything.

Andrea @vascellari

- Good to meet you, Jaana. Andrea

“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t so you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.” -Unknown

A nice shot I took this summer in Venice (Italy)

Good question. A lot of people have been asking, so I thought to share an open, global answer to give all of you an update.

Besides the fact that I recently got married in the beautiful country of Italy I just came back to Finland where my executive team and I started to work on the new master plan for our company‘s next evolution stage. Our industry, technology, people… so much is changing and I believe it’s time for us to change gears in order to stay on top of the game and keep supporting our clients at best.

I’m very excited about the projects we are working on and I’m absolutely thrilled to put our new plan into action.

I’ll probably share more info about this here on my blog along the way, so stay tuned!

Talk to you soon,

Andrea

@Leah: I felt the same way the first time I met you… <3

The only truth is that many people are not 100% in love with what they do.

So my suggestion is: Quit right now and do something you love more than anything else, otherwise your lack of commitment will just keep causing never ending problems for the people who work with you. Period.

Do you have any thoughts to share? As usual, you are more than welcome.

Andrea

I’m sure you noticed how handy it is to manage friends on Facebook listing them under specific groups/lists. The problem is that the process to group the friends is pretty painful. Circlehack solves this problem turning this into a flawless experience with a simple click & drag interface – see screenshot above.

Hat tip to Leah D’Emilio for the great suggestion.

Andrea

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.

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

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

‘Pathetic’ is the only word that, in my opinion, can describe the latest series of attempts of certain individuals to get backlinks.

They write you an email in which there’s no link to their personal sites/blogs or sites of organizations they work for, etc. (first red flag) At times they even write you claiming that they previously wrote you even if they never did (second red flag)…(yes, there are other red flags, but I think you get the picture).

The message they send you is basically a condensed mix of useless compliments with the only aim of praising you to get in return a post with a link to their/the content that they are trying to build authority for.

Over time I received several of these requests, but today I’m sharing this one from Mxxx Txxxxxxxx. He didn’t just do a great job in bothering me, polluting my email inbox and wasting my time, but apparently something also went wrong with the research he did on me (that I’m sure he did before contacting me, right Mxxx?) …because I don’t have a daughter (at least not yet)!

You’ll find the message below.

This is hilarious and sad at the same time. I’m sharing this to remind you to take distance from people like this who want to offer you similar services or shady guest posts. And yes, please make sure to do some good research before you try to get in touch with me. If you don’t know where to start, here’s an entire post that includes valuable tips on how to reach out to someone.

Andrea

On Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 4:38 PM, Mxxx Txxxxxxxx wrote:

Dear Andrea,

This is Mxxx Txxxxxxxx, writer and website usability consultant – hope this e-mail finds you (and your daughter) well! I would like to begin by saying that I appreciate how unusual most of your posts are; your blog actually does seem to be different, and not another one of those websites that constantly speak about “7 Tools For Facebook.” If you know what I mean.
I’m getting in touch because I wanted to submit to you an article that I have recently written and which, in my opinion, will fit your readers very well. The piece was written entirely based on my own professional experience, and I would love to see it posted on your blog (at no costs to you.) I only ask that you allow me to include one in-content link from within the article, pointing to a very relevant website that I’m currently working on.

Title: How SEO Has Changed The Online World For The Worse
People are constantly speaking about the positive sides of SEO and how important it is for “MY” business, but not many people choose to address the negative influence it has had on the internet as a whole.

Length: close to 650 words .

Form: HTML file with necessary HTML tags.

Copyrights: 100% original and not published anywhere else.
I hope you like the idea Andrea? If so, please let me know and I will forward the article for your review. If you would like me to write on a different subject then that’s just as fine.
What do you think?
Talk to you soon,

Mxxx

1. When you are trying to pitch someone, please have a look if they have a page in which they provide information related to advertisement on their site. (Rates, policy, requirements, etc.).
2. Check if the blog/site has the audience that you are really looking for (pitching a blogger without even paying attention to his/her audience is not a good move).
3. Provide proper contact information about you, your company, the client you are representing (not just your website…).
4. What are the benefits? (Simple… Make it clear).
5. Keep it short and on topic. (Skip irrelevant details. People are spending their time reading your message).
6. Don’t beg for backlinks.
7. Don’t use pathetic tricks like “Just wanted to follow up on my last e-mail…” if you actually never wrote ‘that last e-mail’…
8. If you are trying to reach people in the social media space it would be a good idea to at least have a social media presence. (Having a channel where people can join the conversation with you is a plus and an advantage for both. And I mean something more than a simple contact form on your site).
9. Research before pitching. (Search on the blog/site for any post that might contain information about advertising/guest posting etc.).
10. Personalize your message and be genuine (Nobody likes to receive an automated, cliche, cold message that you are probably sending out to hundreds of bloggers/influencers).
11. Be polite (I don’t think I have to add anything to this… right?).
12. Show that you know the person you are trying to reach. (Show that you’ve dug a bit deeper than finding the email address on their contact page).

Do you have additional tips that other people might find useful? Feel free to share them in the comments or tweet them @vascellari. Andrea

Second – Keep in mind it all takes time.

Yes…the most important thing is to remember that nothing happens overnight.

How does this work?

People search on Google solutions for their problem and they find your content. If it helps them in satisfying their needs, people will then happily share your content by either blogging about it or recommending it to friends in their social networks. This will increase your authority and the authority of your content so you will show up higher in the search results that Google will offer to those who are searching for solutions. But this will only happen in the long run. To prove it I conducted a test here on my blog.

One year ago I wrote a very informative post on how to use Google Calendar as a project management tool. Here’s what happened:

After the first spike related to the launch of the post, the traffic decreased to then constantly increased in the long run. These are some numbers that will help you to get a better idea:

Conclusion: Google will trust you as more people trust you and to reward you it will give you, and obviously your content, a higher authority. So follow these tips and be patient. It will payoff in the long run.

Andrea

The Experience of a Business Owner

When a business owner is going to use the web for the first time he or she should keep a few important things in mind. First and foremost, a business owner should no longer think of the web or “digital world” as something disconnected from the real one.

Today, the web is constantly evolving. And a consumer and a business owner can do business exactly as they would if they were downtown “IRL” (in real life).

First, the most important thing to understand is where you are as a business and where you would like to go. Therefore, at this initial starting point there is a need to create a digital strategy that will allow you to reach your goals.

Second, you should analyze the tactics that will be utilized to achieve your objectives and reach the finish line. After that, you could reach out for support from somebody who has experience in this arena. It could be a web agency like us at itive.net, it could be an external consultant, an online communicator who in a certain sense could help you move through these “first steps” of the digital world.

Before you start to do any of this, though, be silent and use these, one of the most important organs we have, your ears. You have to listen carefully in order to learn about what is happening in your niche market. You have to be attentive listeners and figure out the dynamics that are in your market, as well as to identify the needs of your consumers. Once you understand the current situation within your market, you should contribute to the conversation and become an active member who interacts with the digital communication dynamics that are already taking place in your field.

In summary, the 4 tips for creating digital strategy are:

• Listen to what is happening within your niche market
• Analyze the market dynamics
• Evaluate the needs of your consumers
• Contribute to the conversation and to the digital dynamics

If you’re interested in creating your digital strategy with us, feel free to contact us or go ahead and click here to fill out a “get started” form and we’ll help you get there!

1. Create good quality content (detailed, informative, slim, no jargon, etc.)
2. The content must be relevant for your target audience.
3. Optimize the content syntax.
4. Tag the content properly.
5. Promote the content in the right digital venues (social networks where your target audience lives, etc…).
6. Tailor the content promotion for the digital venue in which you are sharing it (links for twitter, photos/videos on Facebook, etc…).
7. Share it at the right time (during the day, on specific weekdays, before/after a product launch etc…).
8. Nothing will happen overnight. To get Google’s “soul” to trust you as a relevant source on information you need to be patient. Results will come in the long run.

There are also more advanced SEO tactics that my team and I utilize – they change according to the nature & objectives of the projects we are working on. So go ahead and have fun testing out the tips I shared, then if you need some help or if you have more specific needs feel free to get in touch with us. We’ll be happy to help

Andrea