Gelattina

Q: Doesn’t every conversation somehow include Twitter these days?
A: Yes, it does.

And most of those conversation revolve around twitter as a personal communication tool, but of course companies and enterprises can also benefit from the use of Twitter.

I was reading Twitter For Business: The 7 Things That Will Surprise You Most About Twitter by Jeremy Victor and the article has very good and valid insights about Twitter for business, so i thought i would share them with you.

I will only show you the 7 things the author mentions, but you can read the whole article for details about every thing he enlists:

1. People are just nicer on Twitter.
2. If you weren’t a numbers person, you are about to be.
3. It’s quite emotional.
4. It’s as much about discovery as it is communication.
5. Twitter fatigue is real.
6. 140
7. Twitter breaks down walls.

For a full description of all the things on the list, please read this article

So I was driving to work this morning, listening the new John Mayer & Taylor Swift song and thinking about the long weekend ahead.

In Mexico, we’re celebrating the 99th. anniversary of our Revolution on the 20th of November (though the they’re giving us the 16th. as a holiday instead for practical purposes).  I’m really looking forward to spending a few relaxing days, just chilling and enjoying the really nice weather we’re having in the city, maybe go to a country house or a ranch. Anything’s fine by me as long as I get to sleep more!

Anyways, returning to the John Mayer-ized commuting to work, a thing I’ve never thought of before drifted into my mind in those moments.

We live in world where technology is increasingly more important and more integrated  into our lives. Everywhere I look, I see all kinds of people talking through cellphones, texting, surfing the net. We’re pretty much all interconnected in a way aren’t we? Nowadays, I can even “sorta” contact my favorite artists or personalities and have a slim chance of them noticing thanks to Twitter. The world nowadays has turned into a small village, all thanks to technology.

So…why aren’t there any technology related holidays yet? I know it sounds stupid, but so did most the things listed above a few years ago! Do you think in the future, we’ll be getting a long weekend thanks to some amazing tech development? I honestly don’t think it’s very far-fetched.

Well this was just a thought we can hold on to hoping for some extra lazy days…you know we all need ‘em. Let’s hope our legislators get creative and make a day for tech! Sometimes even I am impressed by my deep, complex musings !

Over/Out

One of the more unique offerings we have here @ Gelattina are our Social Media strategies. We started offering this service because we identified a strong growth opportunity in the sector. Having among our ranks avid users and experts on the diverse social media platforms who also have keen marketing sensibilities, developing this product seems obvious.

Software Guru, a leading Mexican technology magazine, was holding it’s annual SG Conference & Expo, and being good friends with us and respected colleagues, they asked us to develop a SM Strategy for the upcoming event. After careful research we came up with a multi-tiered plan, which covered most major platforms and assured the best exposure of the event.

We developed and interesting before, during, and after campaign for SG, which was comprised by the following:

1. Before: First we created a Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter account for the event. Each site had a different use, and each was useful on it’s own way. Facebook was loaded to the brims with pictures and videos from past events, helpful information, and has links to various sites of interest. Youtube served mainly to host videos from past events and a teaser video of SG’09 and finally Twitter was used to promote the event and the content update on the various sites. Various pre-event contests were held on Facebook and Twitter, mainly raffling magazine subscriptions among the user base. After measuring the response to each of the sites, we decided to shift the strategy a bit and create an SG’09 dedicated blog and focus on Twitter to spread the word. Youtube retained the same function and Facebook became an aggregator of sorts for the rest of the campaign.

The week before the opening of the event, we performed a more complex content via our newly created blog. The prize were three tickets to attend SG’09 and there were three ways to win: by a random raffle via email, by attaining maximum RT of event related comments of Twitter, and finally by authoring an article for our blog. We had awesome response on the first two forms, probably because the later required much more work.

2.- During: For three days we provided intensive coverage of the daily happenings of the event. We did this writing comprehensive articles of select conferences daily on the blog, tweeting about the SG’09 and inviting the event goers to use the #SG09 hash-tag and  performed live-blogging with the Cover-It-Live tool of the major conferences. Additionally we recorded and transmitted live-video  feed, uploaded pics to the event’s Flickr account, and did random contests during the event. While we did fewer tasks than in the setup, this phase was a lot more work for use, because of the break-neck pace we needed to have to keep up with the event, which most of the time had simultaneous occurrences around the halls. It was also the most rewarding, as we had great response from people inside and out of the event. The coverage was very well received by the appropriate people, which is extremely satisfying.

3.-After: After the event was done, we did added more content to the blog. Articles, video, links and documents used during the actual presentation were uploaded for everyone to access and use. All these changes were reflected on the Facebook account and we also used Twitter to invite everyone to read the remaining articles and download the files we made available. Also we have some pending video we’re transferring into digital format for us to upload to the Youtube channel.

So that’s basically how the whole thing played out. It was extremely rewarding and fun to do, and we’re happy to be pioneers of the this type of coverage in our country. We’re sure as time passes by this type of activities will be more and more popular and as today, we’ll be pushing the envelope of what can be done when we mix marketing, creativity and technology.

Don’t forget check-out our coverage on Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Flickr, and of course the dedicated blog.

Over/Out!

The world of online applications has been recently shaken to it’s core by the now famous Twitter security scare. Covered by tech-sites, news-sites, and even Perez Hilton, news of the hacking of Twitter has spread like wildfire in the web and has many concerned about how frail online protection really is.

It’s not that Twitter is particularly unsafe. It’s that Twitter is just a part of a much larger “community” of online applications that we use daily, and as many say, “a chain is just as weak as it’s weakest link”…and that weak link may be us.

A little background on how the hack happened:

A young, talented hacker, known as “Hacker Croll” wanting to test the mettle of Twitter’s security got a hold of some email addresses of some Twitter employees. After trying to hack one of their Gmail accounts, and failing, he has told that a new password would be sent to the user’s alternate email. He was then able to deduce the guy’s Hotmail email by some clues Gmail left. The Hotmail account was nonexistent, so he set it up again and got the password resent to it. After that with pure logic and cunning he as able to get access to Twitter, various e-mail accounts, Paypal, Amazon, you name it.

That’s because we humans can’t seem to remember passwords. Once he got a hold of a couple of them (because we leave them in obvious places) he has access to a wealth of dangerous information, both personal and professional, which could have cost Twitter it’s business and it’s millions of users their privacy.

As expected, people are out-raged. Sure, it’s the company’s fault too, as the holes in the various apps security measures are apparent, but we have to be careful too. Since the dawn of time, people have been fascinated by theft, by entering forbidden places, desecrating ancient tombs, or just reading your crush’s diary.

The online age is no different, and we should be as careful in the virtual world as we are on the real world. Sure, it’s a bother, but if you care for your privacy, you could take some extra steps to ensure your peace of mind (and avoid those pesky identity thefts). 

Los Ángeles, California fue sede para el Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) la semana pasada – sin duda el evento de videojuegos más grande del mundo – y entre la variedad de anuncios que se hicieron, dos de los más grandes competidores, Sony y Microsoft anunciaron una integración más profunda de redes sociales a sus servicios.

Ambos el Xbox 360 y PS3, ya ofrecen la posibilidad de tener un perfil “gamer” y de tener listas de amigos, con quien puedes comparar logros en tus juegos, invitar amigos a una sesión o hasta también simplemente chatear. Pero en el futuro cercano ambos competidores están desarrollando nuevas formas (divergentes entre ellos) de traer las redes sociales al mundo de los juegos.

Durante su conferencia del E3 2009, Microsoft anunció una alianza con Facebook y Twitter que se integraría a su servicio LIVE, dónde se vinculará el perfil “gamer” del usuario en el de las ya conocidas redes sociales. La novedad es que las versiones Xbox de las redes tendrán funciones exclusivas a la consola dándole un valor agregado que entrar por un navegador.

Por otro lado tenemos a Sony, que está intentando crear su propia red social interactiva llamada “Home”, en dónde cualquier usuario del PS3 puede crear un avatar virtual a su semejanza y navegar por un mundo virtual en 3D para conocer, conversar y compartir con otros usuarios del servicio. Muchos desarrolladores de juegos han apoyado a “Home” creando espacios basados en juegos y hasta han vendido ropa inspirada en ellos también. Que Sony ya tenga su propia red social no significa que no integrarán otras en un futuro; los altos ejecutivos de Facebook por ejemplo, se muestran entusiasmados de traer la aplicación a más consolas.

Es evidente que ambas compañías piensan que es importante integrar las redes sociales en sus servicios, y aunque tienen diferente acercamiento al tema, el fin es el mismo: Permitir a los usuarios unirse y mantenerse en contacto en el mundo virtual.

Personalmente pienso que estos hechos consolidan aún más el valor de las redes sociales en la era moderna, y es interesante ver como cada compañía refleja sus tendencias de negocios en sus decisiones en cuánto al tema (Microsoft muchas veces prefiere alianzas mientras Sony prefiere hacerlo propio). Dicho esto, no pienso que nadie decida comprar una consola u otra por que tiene una versión especial de Facebook ni nada, pero es un buen extra del cual nadie se puede quejar y que muchos usarán, dándonos más valor por nuestro dinero.

Quisieramos aprovechar la nota para informarles a nuestros amigos gamers que estamos preparando un torneo de Wii en las oficinas, ¡mantengase atentos para los detalles!

Los Angeles, California was host to the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) last week – arguably the biggest gaming related event on the world – and among the myriad of gaming announcements, we could find that most of the big players (specifically Sony & Microsoft) were pushing some sort of SN functions as part of their services.

Both the Xbox 360 & PlayStation 3 already offer the possibility to have a “gamer profile” and friends, with whom you can compare gaming achievements, invite to a session or just chat. Yet, the companies are pushing further (and in different directions) their Social Network enabled consoles.

During their E3 2009 presser, Microsoft announced a new partnership with Facebook and Twitter for their Xbox LIVE service, which links the user’s gamer-tag with their profile on each respective service and offers unique functions only available on the Xbox 360, giving it an added value in comparison to accessing through a browser.

Sony, on the other hand is attempting to create it’s own Social Network called “Home” in which any PS3 can create an avatar to their likeness, and transverse a full 3D world, to meet, chat and share with other users. Many game developers have been creating exclusive “Home” spaces related to their games, and have even sold items related to their games for the users. Don’t count out future integration of established services like Facebook and Twitter, though; company execs for the sites have expressed interest in invading other gaming consoles.

As is evident, both companies think it’s important to integrate Social Networks into their service, and even though it’s a different strategy and approach, the goal is the same: let gamers unite and keep in touch in the virtual realm.

I personally think this just further legitimizes the value of Social Networks in the modern era and it’s interesting to see how each company reflects their business tendencies in their SN decisions (Microsoft does a lot more joint ventures than Sony, who usually try to make their own). That being said, I don’t think having a console ready version of Facebook or Twitter will make someone buy one console over the other, but it’s a nice perk to have, and all services are for free, so we can’t really complain about getting more bang for our buck.

As a side note, we want all our gamer friends to look forward to our official Wii Tournament! We’ll keep you posted on the details, wait for it!

El viernes pasado jugamos una ronda de PintaMonos Virtual gracias a la magia de Twitter y Ustream.
Empezamos el juego con un reglamento básico y unos premios interesantes.

El juego estuvo entretenido, muchos Twitters nos ayudaron a pasar la voz y durante una hora mantuvimos 78 usuarios únicos!

Aunque el juego era a 5 puntos, el tiempo no lo permitio. De hecho hubo un cuádruple empate entre @Eiliux, @aide_soto, @jorgeantonio17 y @CharlyGonzalez

El ganador de la primera edición de PintaMonos fue @CharlyGonzalez a quien proximamente le estaremos mandando su camisa!

Estamos aprendiendo a usar mejor la comunicación interactiva así que esperamos que los próximos PintaMonos estén mejor preparados y más entretenidos!

La próxima edición será el viernes 19 de Junio a las 6 pm tiempo de Monterrey!
Si tienes sugerencias para mejorar la dinámica de juego, puedes dejarlas como comentario y las leeremos con mucha atención!

Por cierto, grabamos un par de turnos por si quieres jugar tu también!

Algunos de ustedes ya saben que llevamos unas semanas experimentando con Usteam. Ahora queremos hacer esas transmisiones un poco más interactivas.

Asi que los invitamos a jugar Pintamonos!

Para jugar Pintamonos, tienes que seguir @gelattina en twitter.com/gelattina
Haz click aqui para ver el juego en tiempo real

Las reglas son sencillas, queremos dar algunos premios y sobre todo, divertirnos!

Reglamento ver 1.0:

• Un miembro del equipo de gelattina estará a cargo de pintar la pista
• Las categorías serán seleccionadas por nosotros mismos
• les diremos la categoria y una vez que empecemos a dibujar todos podran ir dando sus respuestas
• El timeline de Twitter será nuestro juez para determinar quien gana el punto
• Quien acumule 5 respuestas acertadas, será ganador de una camisa y una pelota patrocinada por Google
• En caso de suceder algun caso no contemplado en las reglas, el equipo de gelattina decidirá a cono Dios nos de a entender

Ahora si, a divertirnos!

Last week i received an invitation to give a lecture to a group of students of the Accounting Faculty at State University.

The request came from a girl at the Entrepreneurial class, where every student constitutes a potential new enterprise, so learning from people that have established a company is useful for them.

For about an hour i shared my own experience of creating gelattina from scratch.
I talked about the way we started, how gelattina is organized, what made us grow, a few successful moves and also a few mistakes.

I discussed the importance of taking help from incubators, the fear-age graph and also to be willing to collaborate and share knowledge instead of trying to do everything alone and secret.

My final piece of advice was to the students was to take advantage of the unique position they are in right now. Most students are usually supported by their parents, so there’s lots of time to pursue an entrepreneurial itch!

We ended with a few Q&A, i took a few pics during the conversation:

Here at gelattina we are used to work with social web tools.

We use them to share documents, pictures, interesting links, follow up on projects and of course to promote our company.

So if you use some of these tools, add us as a contact and if you are not, give them a try!

Here are our profiles in some of the social web tools we’re using:

• gelattina @ Facebook
• gelattina @ Flickr
• gelattina @ YouTube
• gelattina @ Vimeo
• gelattina @ Twitter

Follow us, contact us, post a comment and let’s get social!