This document contains quotes from various experts on topics related to social media, online conversations, and building relationships. It discusses how conversations cannot be controlled, the importance of social influence over search engine optimization, making connections between people, creating engagement around products and services, and other insights. The quotes are attributed to sources like Marian Salzman, Mitch Joel, Craig Newmark, and others.

1. Work in Progress
compiled by Valeria Maltoni
Conversation Agent
www.conversationagent.com
@ConversationAge
Michele Catania
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cataniamichele/2855661699/

2. “... conversations can’t be stage managed or micro-managed. It’s all about the
trialogue—and that’s DIALOGUE in today’s context where it is TRIAL by peers
24/7/365.”
— Marian Salzman, Porter Novelli
Michele Catania
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cataniamichele/2779205186/

3. “The next Google is going to look nothing like Google. It is going to be less about
optimizing your website content so that it ranks high in a search engine and much
more about displaying rank based on what others have said and done (and what
real people have done with this information).” — Mitch Joel, Six Pixels of Separation
Michele Catania
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cataniamichele/3021255603/

4. “The internet is about people connecting to people, whether for business, politics, or
socializing, That's something we've all been doing since long before the internet existed.
The real accomplishment is to make those connections so versatile and different that they
create a social network that not only reflects your life but expands it.”
— Craig Newmark
Michele Catania
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cataniamichele/2820528621/

5. “If there's nothing inherently engaging about your product or service, you need to create
something around your product or service that is.”
— Kathy Sierra, Creating Passionate Users
Michele Catania
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cataniamichele/2847543391/

6. “...fundamentally, it is understanding how people change behaviour, not why – for it is not
the behaviour that we want to track, but the shifts in sentiment around points of action
that are useful indicators to brands. And it is only by working with those levers and feeding
that back into our product and service development that we can begin to link consumer
behaviour to the brands that people love.” — Gavin Heaton, Servant of Chaos
Klearchos Kapoutsis
http://www.flickr.com/photos/klearchos/754731911/

7. “If you want to influence the conversation, you’ve actually got to get into the
conversation. Respectfully. Meaningfully. Just because that’s a social media cliché
doesn’t mean you get to ignore it and hope it goes away.”
— Sonia Simone, Copyblogger
Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/3749692907/

8. “It's not what the product does that matters to us so much, it's how we socialize around
it that matters. This is why the iPhone is so successful. Sure, we like having all those
cool apps, but being able to talk about and recommend cool apps to our friends ... that's
what we are genetically hardwired to like even more.”
— Hugh MacLeod, Gapingvoid
Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/2044961014/

9. “It's hard sometimes to remember that being successful is only ever partially the result
of the successful person or company's actions: mostly it's a team game - a result of all
those participating in the bigger picture.”
— Mark Earls, Herd
Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/154650555/

10. “Committing to something isn’t just about hard work, but also smarts, guts, and
willpower. It’s about throwing yourself into the game body, mind, soul and all. Even if
it’s for two hours a day, or five minutes every hour, that’s what it takes to do something
exceptionally well.” — Olivier Blanchard, The Brand Builder
Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/1350136208/

11. “As marketers, we’re moving from launching finite campaigns (that start and end) to holding
market conversations that keep on going (and going). In the past we worked to connect our
brands with our target markets. But now we work to connect our markets to one another...
and hoping that through these connections they'll discuss, recommend and purchase our
brands.” — Christina Kerley, Epiphany
Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/604211661/

12. “Freedom is about being vulnerable to one another, realizing that our ability
to connect is more important than feeling secure, in control and alone.”
— Eve Ensler
Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/3142426800/

13. “The truth is that if you want to achieve your most significant goals, and you want to
change the world for the better in the process, you really don’t need to jump through all
the hoops that people hold up for you.”
— Chris Guillebeau, The Art of Non Conformity
Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/111020291/

14. “The web also provides a unique and wonderful opportunity to understand our customers
(visitors to our websites), to learn from their actual behavior and transform how we do
business, to achieve the near impossible: improve satisfaction and revenues.”
— Avinash Kaushik
Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/122609970/

15. “Great brands and projects are built on real value and a real advantage, but great marketers
use this as a supporting column, not the entire foundation. Instead, they build a story on
top of their head start. They focus on relationships and worldviews and interactions, and
use the boost from their initial head start to build competitive insulation.” — Seth Godin
Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/477246673/

16. “In the beginning, all business was social. If someone sold you a bad chicken, you would
badmouth the business and others would shun it until the merchant cleaned up his act...
With social media, a massive platform of participation, the social infrastructure scaled
to the point where the social made a difference once again.”
— Francois Gossieaux, Emergence Marketing
Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/243004621/

17. “These tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring – it
isn’t when the shining new tools show up that their uses start permeating society,
it’s when everybody is able to take them for granted.”
— Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody
Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/185336753/

18. “Being human means we put trust in others to judge us based on the balance of our
merits, warts and all. Being human as a business means we’re inviting people to judge us
based on what’s up front AND what’s backstage, and let’s face it. Sometimes, our backstage
is messy. If we let them see it, once again we have to trust that they’ll do something
positive with that information instead of trying to find a way to bring us down.”
— Amber Naslund, Altitude Branding
Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/281640001/

19. “... measurements create their own context. For example, I’d argue that it’s
precisely because we measure horsepower that horsepower is valued.”
— Adrian Ho, Zeus Jones
Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/99178671/

20. “... we move forward by focusing on processes instead of outcomes, by creating
rather than extracting, by expanding rather than allocating. By valuing the full
costs and benefits of our decisions, by focusing on value instead of profit. ”
— Taylor Davidson
Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/118310747/