This summer revealed two unexpected functions of the mobile phone: the extension of heart beatings and the enfranchisement of the Code of Silence.

During about one month, I could feel my heart suspended to a text message, the bip!bip! echoing to living internal pulsatings. Life at the other end of the world was infusing life on this part of the Atlantic. The rythm of my heart, bong, bong, was following the bip, bip of my phone! Life is well done: I survived with very few bips! Since then, I am seriously thinking about buying an I-phone to my daughter, with this incredibly useful application, for her next stay in the States!

The enfranchisement of the Code of Silence came up this way: a group of children went on holidays with a parent of theirs. What was supposed to be cool holidays turned out into something heavy, stuffed with small hurting sentences. But the kids had grown up. They had an individual opinion and the will to have it respected. And they had a mobile phone! Game over.
That’s how, naturally, they decided to call their parents and ask them to go back home.
The mobile phone had freed their word. The mobile phone brought to the light some dark hidden aspects of human relations, allowing young people to access to a more integrated individuality. It looks like a shortcut to individual assesment, bridging generation’s gaps, accelerating a personal autonomous statement.

We all have in mind surprising, even subversive examples of the impact of the mobile phone: what are yours?

No, it’s my daughter’s school’s slipper! With a huge whole instead of the sole.
When I grabbed out this dirty thing in the dark bottom of her school bag, I first bursted out of laughter. It was in such a rueful state, I couldn’t imagine that she was putting them on several times a day! Without stumbling at any step.
I remember, though, that she asked me sometimes to buy new ones, that hers were in such a bad state. That we bought new ones the day we went to the doctor, she had a fiever, could hardly walk, but wanted new slippers!
Now, I realized why. And didn’t laugh any longer.

This yawning slipper opened the small window of the doubt.

Finding the right balance is not a linear process.
The pitted slipper arrived precisely when I was experimenting a similar situation as Valeria Maltoni, that made me wonder, like her: “Do You Ever Feel Like Giving Up”?

This kind of tiny incident is the opportunity to stop and think. To weigh in different elements and restaure a better balance.

Do you also have your “wholed slipper”? Did it lead you to important decisions?

During 3 years, I used to cycle on a racing bike on my terrasse! With clipped shoes, aerodynamical look, the only thing I conceded was not wearing a helmet, since risks of falling were zero! (But it’s still a step further than the wii, isnt’ it?)
Unlike the hamster, I had the chance of having a gorgeous view on the lake and an i-pod (often listening again to some lift’s speaches (yes, it’s true!)), 2 things that kept my brain from total tilting.
It was also practical, having my younger daughter playing around, while I was racing!

But, after having felt the wind on my face, the smell of the trees, of the ground, during holidays in Majorque, I just couldn’t fancy me on a terrasse anymore.
And that’s how, one day, courageously, I took my bike, put on my helmet and rushed into the countryside.
From then on, every time I go out for a ride, a multitude of thoughts and feelings cross over me, some little tiny, others deeper.

Here are some thoughts “out of the wheel”. One thing is sure: I smile more on the road!
* sunglasses help flyes from hurting your eyes, gloss make them stick on your lips. A chance I never attracted a bee!
* music in my ears, wind on my arms, smile on my face and a midge on my teeth! Don’t smile, don’t wear gloss, and midges pass their way. Or smile, stick.
* Starting thinking in 140 characters. Am I really learning a new language? Is it the sign of mind’s concentration, going to the essence of things, or rather the sign of superficiality? It made me think of a new word.
* being one with the bike with the road with the land make me love more and more this – new – country (Vaud), as if I could touch their inhabitants from their roots, their grass up to their global appearance.
* Did I really put that good old song of The Cure on my ipod?
* Oh! These cute little bad grass with heart shaped leaves! They grow everywhere. Like love. A thought for Sandi.
* The magic of a smile’s exchange with an unknown lady. No midge.
* Those newly born little lambs jumping awkwardly one on the other! So funny. A burst of laughter! No midge.
* And, almost arrived, seing those old people loaded with stuff they bought during their trip (the german pullman is there to witness..) make me smile again. No midge.

So, lipstick or not lipstick, midge or no midge, smile!

And you: what are your “thoughts out of the wheel”? The link with music? With yourself? Do you have the feeling to “go on” or to go round” or other?

One year ago, at Lift08 in Geneva, I opened this blog coached by Stephanie Booth, but not really knowing exactly where this would lead me to.

Some things were clear, though: first, I had to dive into that field, would it be only for professional purposes. Actually, how could I ever be able to counsel, roll out general marketing strategies without even having tested a slight, but important part, of social media? I knew part of the theory, time had come to go on to practice! Secondly, I also wanted to experiment that playground to express a personal point of view agregating personal and professional interests. A kind of convergence, that lead naturally to “Convergent Tracks”.

So now, one year later, about to starting Lift09 (my third consecutive year), I take this opportunity to make the point, see a bit of what happened during this past year and how it lead to a personal convergence.

My mind broadened at Lift 08. It is hard to explain, I know I’m not the only one, but after having heard people like Genevieve Bell or Paul Dourish, I felt I could’nt just stay on the side of the road. I had to ride my engine and start off!
Freedom, breaking limits, thinking out of the box: a track was born! Internal.

Then, another intimate event happened: my uncle’s passaway. He was a visionair. A missionnair. His death acted on me like a trigger and, sadly, but happily at the same time (it’s in concordance with his spirit), brought me to my first post. The idea of converging tracks.
Convergence, yes. Ok. But where? To what?

At that time, I started to analyze plethora of blogs, news, and others. I already related that part here, the Mad Link, and From Conversation to Conversion. I started creating public profiles, a Twitter account, linking to like-minded people, linking all these links together, commenting and so on. Always genuily. Following my personal moral code.
The contacts springing out of this were nice, warmful and inspireful, helpful and open. The idea of converging tracks. Again. Slightly more on the public side.
But I also started to integrate the company I work for (and with and in) into my social/public flows. Another convergent track, yet.

Then, a personal “event” happend: the jump into the 40’s!
Short before: plenty of questions, doubts, hesitations.
Then, the birthday. Yes, I think the word “Birthday” has its full meaning, here.
If I could have had any unrevealed dreams, they all happened at that moment! (or close)
At that very moment, in the middle of all the people I so preciously loved, I felt totally INTEGRATED! My inner “me” was integrated.

My past, my origins, my aborted dreams, my friends, my family, my choices, my passions, all had become fully integrated!

The counsciousness of this opened for me an unlimited space of freedom.
Integrating this feeling to what I had learned and experimented during one year lead me to now: A FULL CONVERGENCE, from Lift 08 to Lift 09, from intimate to global convergence.

So, it is with wide open eyes that I am going to first day of Lift09.

What’s next?

Image: by my friend, Lats Kladny, CEO of www.inox.com (you know, the guys that make Uma Thurman say: “What are you made of?, for Tag Heuer” Or Eva Herzigova, for Chopard, Luxury Jewels..?
Follow me on Twitter @claudiafalt for realtime LIFT09 ideas, news, insights…

… you climb the Jura instead of the Alps – and enjoy!
… you buy brand new ski shoes, have a blister – and still do the bumps!
… you buy your favorite ELLE – what dress for Christmas? And you wear the same as last year’s!
… you buy an amazing camera, ask for the “blond button” – and take amazing pictures!
… you give free consulting, without even being asked – and you think “that’s the crisis!”
… you are 40 and you say: “The crisis? What crisis?” (The Midlife Downturn!)

… you step back up to the Jura, leave your sunglasses, forget that Blond Button and see the most beautiful landscape, out of the box, spreading in front of you, every snow crystal reflecting your eyes sparkling.
… You know. It’s not. The crisis.

Corporate blog – Step2: Writing down the Plan
(Step 1: The Mad Link, or how to step back to the big picture)
Following Beth Harte’s practical approach, at the point “Goal: To generate conversation around Product X (Solo), I accidentally misspelled and wrote “conversion” instead of “conversation”.
And, actually, isn’t the CONVERSION the ultimate goal of CONVERSATION? If considered in its most global acceptance?
It is the paradox of Social Media and, particulalry, the ROI issue: on one hand, it is not socially acceptable to have conversion’s objectives, taking the risk to be rejected. On the other hand, what’s the sense of putting so much effort and time in social media if not, in the end, having happier, more loyal and more customers?

Even if conversion is the addition of a mix of tools/strategies, good, sincere use of social media surely is part of the mix, as for other tools.
So, what do you think? Am I totally wrong in inviting the conversion into the conversation?

[Picture Credit: Swamibu]

Ok. It’s decided, we need a corporate blog (a company in the mobile telecommunication softwares industry, sosoftware, with very few employees but very big potential).
Since the beginnigng of the company (2007), I wanted to create a blog, for the story was fascinating, full of rebounds and created by 2 visionary and colorful men. There was a story to tell.
But I had no experience with blogging and though a first blog version went online, it never took off. My own energies were all funneled by more general and essential things like brand’s creation, website, and all marketing stuff.
Now, one and a half year later, after having done my first steps with this blog, I’m ready.
But plenty of questions arise:
what technology to use? what kind of template? how to set up objectives? how to integrate the blog into the marketing plan? how many ressources are needed? what will a blog bring to the company? is it really useful? and many, many other questions that I even didn’t IMAGINE before.

Before I clicked. The first LINK.

On a post that sounded something like “50 things to know before you start your corporate blog”.
It was really interesting and full of practical advice and links. I clicked those links.
There was always another link that gave me the feeling I would know more if I cliked and read it.
But at the same time, I felt I still hadn’t got the point, so I kept on clicking and following links.
Many many experts out there giving lessons and giving the feeling there is a right way to do things.
Fear not to have the full picture. Clik.
More aspects about corporate blogging. Examples. Click.
Time to be on Twitter? Fine, let’s start Twitter. Write. Comment. Buy the Age of Conversation. Read.
Profiles. Blogs. Click. Click. CLICK!
One says:”make a plan”. Another says: “stop thinking, just do!” Right. But, wait. Here’s an article about “Business usage of Twitter”…

So, here is my takeaway lesson: START.
Now.
I am convinced about the interest of social media for our company.
I have aggregated a nice list of information sources, allowing me to manage it and stop being overwhelmed by the endless flow of news.
I know people I can ask for advice.
I have the information I needed to make up the marketing plan including social media.
I love being connected to like-minded people and I’m looking forward to getting to know more and more of them. To sharing ideas with them.
I want to enter the discussion with people interested by our products and know more about them, their needs, to see what will emerge out of those conversations.
It will be a long process.

I take back control over the MAD link and click when I decide to.
I do.

Time to write the plan.

And you? How was your first experience with blogging? Or before blogging? Did you jump and learn to swim once in the water or did you take time before to be sure to float?
Do you have some advice that help from being sucked up by the MAD link?

Here are some of the sources that most helped, inspired me in the middle of the jungle:
Blog-Well, by Lid, @MadLid, my e-ngel
If I started today, Chris Brogan
Why start a blog and 25 tips to make it work, Valeria Maltoni
Death by Risk Aversion
“Without failing, I would not know many of the limits that I was able to break through”, in a post titled 25 ways to fail and come out on top
Sustainable Marketing Blog
MarketingProfs Daily Fix , I think it was the first click (but not the last one!) Don’t remember what post, though. This one helped.
Before you start blogging, ask yourself these 10 questions, HubSpot
8 reasons that speak for having a corporate blog, ComMetrics
And a last one: The Social Media Hat Rack, by @AmberCadabra
STOP. Or you’ll get mad!

[Photo Credit: Deannedaffy]

Leman Lake. Copyright Fispace

I’ve been reading really a LOT of blogs these last days, looking for how’s and why’s to create a blog, with a particular interest for corporate blogging (more about it in next posts).
Plenty of them were rich of insights, but, I got stuck only to a few of them, without trying to analyze it.
And it is when I read this post, by Valeria Maltoni, that I found one of these “convergent tracks”: culture leading to emotion leading to connections.
Culture convokes beauty.
Beauty convokes love, emotion.
Emotion opens to others, it becomes a connector, maybe THE connector. It makes you react, engage, give. A good emotion will make you feel more generous. More loyal, too!
So, one of the challenges, with blogging, could result into how to wrap an idea, a message in order to associate the message with a pleasant feeling. Obviously without losing of sight the rational side.
So, emotion wouldn’t be the Holy Grail, just the connecting point between the content and the reaction.
From what I percieved, I could say that emotional connectors are: sincerity, art, culture, beauty. In blogs, that can be translated by:
art of writing, images, music, humour and …. what else?

I do not resist to share additional BEAUTIFUL pictures of the place I live. So much emotion in front of such beauty.

Hope for More Democracy

I read the full transcript of Barak Obama’s first presidential speech , watched on CNN, shed a few tears and was struck by some very powerful sentences:
“I will listen to you, especially when we disagree”.
“I hear your voices.”
“I need your help”.
“I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation”….

Doesn’t this sound like social media bottom line credo?
Democracy is by essence the participation of individuals into the political playground:
Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system. It is derived from the Greek δημοκρατία ([dimokratia] (help·info)), “popular government” which was coined from δήμος (dēmos), “people” and κράτος (kratos), “rule, strength“. [...]

So back to the present: by engaging each American to the development’s process, by encouraging the dialog with everybody, isn’t Obama just playing the rules of social media? Or is his victory already the result of having played those rules, knowing that he, better than any politician before, understood the mechanism of social media and gave truly the word to anyone?

This would mean that social media, web 2.0, is just the reflection of a larger reality, or, maybe, it is its projected image? The tool that enhances democracy.
I am sure that this subect has been dealt many times and much deeper by bloggers.

It also strikes me how much love Barack Obama inspires, a true emotion fills me when I hear him and, that too, must be a clue in his success, it makes people act, engage, and surely, respond when he says “Yes, we can”.

YES, WE CAN!
Yes, I can: get committed to my dreams.
And you? What kind of link between Obama’s victory, social media and democracy do you see?

I found in a Bruno Giussani’s post a link to wordle, a program that translates a text into tags.
I love it!
It is not only poetic, beautiful, with rich features (many fonts, colors random layout, etc..), but it gives in a glimpse an idea of the core content of a text.
In a marketing point of view, it can be useful to give in a couple of words the essence of values, of key benefits, key features, of a product or even a company.
It really gives a plus to the TAG function.

Well, in the meantime, here is one more personal: