Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »

Why do I love Topify

Published March 9, 2009 Uncategorized Closed
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

There has been lots of buzz online surrounding the beta launch of topify, an innovative service from my friends Arik and Ouriel, providing an email access to your twitter notifications. You can ask for an invite to the beta version by starting to follow @topify.

What does Topify do?
I set my twitter preferences to email me whenever I get a DM (direct message). The problem is (was actually) that I cannot ‘Reply’ to those messages – I need to go to my twitter application (mobile, web, desktop) and ‘Reply’ from it. Topify solves that problem. Another feature Topify offers is the ability to follow the people following you – directly from your inbox. You can see the short bio of the person, his/her last update, # of followers/following and other metrics. Want to follow – just ‘Reply’ to the message.
Ezra was kind enough to volunteer for this demo – thanks man! The email thread I captured below has 3 messages: DM I got from Ezra, my reply to him and Topify’s confirmation of that reply. It’s very simple and easy.

You can see the DM Ezra sent me ‘can i volenteer?’ on the top of the image.
Clicking ‘Reply’ via Gmail sends a message to ‘xxx_d_twitterusername@topify.com’ – where xxx stands for a unique topify user, ‘d_twitterusername’ is quite obvious.
Last message in that thread is the confirmation from topify that my message was sent to Ezra.

Now all I need someone to develop is a character counter for Gmail – since twitter allows up to 140 chars, and I’m using Gmail to reply, I lost count of the words, and my message got cut by topify. Arik/Ouriel – planning something like this?

What am I gonna do next?

Published March 8, 2009 Uncategorized 3 Comments
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

First off I want to thank all the people that sent me messages (facebook, twitter and here) following my Moving on post from last week. Reading your positive feedback was pure pleasure, coming from customers, business partners, analysts and friends with whom I worked over the past 8 years. Thank you!

Some of you asked me where am I going, what am I doing next. So, here’s my answer:
As of today, I am still looking for my next challenge. The economic climate isn’t sunny at the moment, but the market is still very much active, and opportunities are always opening up.
If you have a friend, who knows a friend, who heard of an open position – here’s what I’m bringing to the table:

  • 8 years experience at IBM
  • Current (last) role: Software sales leader, for mobile, messaging, knowledge management, web-portals and social media solutions – annual sales of $1M.
  • Worked across all industries in Israel, focusing on enterprise (finance, insurance, government) but also SMB/SME.
  • Previous roles: Intranet Editor and Webmaster, Internal Comms Mgr. and IBM BP Center Marketing Mgr.
  • Familiar with marketing tactics and strategies, social media tools, market analysis and monitoring, budget allocations, interactive and advertising experience.
  • Direct and channel sales, pipeline management, generating demand, sales cycles, CRM/Siebel expertise, post-sale support.
  • Excellent knowledge of the IT market, both locally and globally, fast learner and technology savvy.
  • Almost 31, single (with a special lady), BA in Finance and MBA in Marketing, and a graduate of IBM Global Sales School.
  • Willing to relocate if needed.

I’ll be most useful to your company in two major fields:
Marketing – as a marketing manager, digital/internet marketing manager and/or marcom mgr.
Sales (IT) – software sales, sales leader/manager, account manager.

I’m well-connected, socially that is, so feel free to ask around for recommendations. If you need a formal CV, email me: dvirreznik at gmail.com or send me a DM on twitter. See you around 🙂

Photo from istockphoto, licensed.

Moving on

Published March 5, 2009 Uncategorized 15 Comments
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, April 22nd 2009, will (most likely) be my last day at IBM.
After 8 years (and 22 days to be precise) at Big Blue, I will embark into a new journey.

When I started out at IBM, at 22 (spot a recurring # here?!), straight out of the army, I already knew a lot about the company (my dad was a 30 year IBM veteran), but little about how my career at IBM will look like, or what would I like to do when I’ll grow up. At 31, with 8 years experience at the largest IT company in the world, I believe I have an answer.
IBM truly is a great place to work in, regardless of what you hear/read on the outside. Over the past 8 years, I’ve worked with some 1,500 people (1/3 of them are at my IM buddy list) under 6 local managers (and 6 European/US managers), held 4 different jobs at 2 departments, worked out of 2 HQ buildings, got my B.A in Finance and MBA in Marketing, graduated (with Distinction) IBM Global Sales School and built an impressive network of friends and colleagues, inside and outside the company.

Summarizing my time at IBM will take place at a different time, and post, but I’m happy to have had the opportunity to work with an amazing bunch of people, learning from the best and being part of a company that has an impressive past (which spans almost 100 years) and literally sets the future (PC, e-business, services and outsourcing, innovation, research, patents, SaaS and our planet) of the IT market.

Being responsible for Lotus Software Sales in Israel was the most challenging job I ever held, but at the same time the most interesting and fun. Fun – because I got to sell stuff I love, digg and totally believe in; challenging – because of the local market landscape and the competition. I believe we left a huge impact on the local market, strengthening the Lotus brand and helped our customers succeed – which is the most important thing. Working daily with our customers, solving business issues with Lotus solutions, was definitely the highlight of my work.

Through this post I would like to thank all the people – friends and colleagues, inside and outside the company – with whom I’ve worked over the years. THANK YOU! It was a pleasure knowing you and I do hope we’ll stay in touch.

I’m not a custom to linking songs in my posts, but there’s one song that comes to mind, to wrap up this goodbye post, and that is ‘My Way’, by Mr. Frank Sinatra.
Shalom, and see you around.

Prof. Sheizaf Rafaeli – The Twitter Phenomena

Published February 27, 2009 Uncategorized Closed
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Prof. Sheizaf Rafaeli is a known tech figure in the Israeli landscape, a columnist in several newspapers and Director of INFOSOC – Center for the Study of Information Society at the University of Haifa. In yesterday’s Calcalist, he wrote a column titled ‘The Twitter Phenomena‘, trying to understand why the micro-blogging social media service hasn’t won us (Israelies) over. Sheizaf also refers to the different add-ons (eco-system if you’d like) twitter has helped cultivate, such as twitpic, tweetdeck, tweetfollow, twitterfeed and others.

The phone was born to allow faster communication; Wikipedia offers free access to (open-source) knowledge; commenting (talk-backs) gave people the opportunity to vent. Twitter created a new form of communication, and an eco-system of add-on services.

Sheizaf’s column came in an excellent timing, with IBM Software Forum and Luis Suarez’s post. At IBM Software Forum Niv Calderon talked about monetizing social media, focusing on twitter – with public and corporate examples, such as Ford Motors, Comcast, JetBlue and Chris Brogan – showing how you can reach 1.5m impressions (people) with a single tweet. There’s definitely money in it. Niv recorded his lecture on video, which I’m sure he’ll post soon.
Mid-week I noticed Luis’s post, ‘Using twitter in the enterprise, by Ed Yourdon‘. Luis also focused on twitter as a corporate tool, linking to other posts talking about the business value of twitter, and of course, Ed Yourdon‘s presentation.

I view twitter as a sales and marketing tool. If you happen to follow me around, I’ve been known to tweet about the stuff I sell, people I meet, posts I read, events I speak at. Being interconnected to other social networks (like facebook), updated easily from a variely of end-user devices, focused and captured audience – it’s easy to understand why this micro-blogging tool has reached 6m users. Lotus Software has strengthened its brand name in Israel, and gained some ground against the local competition because of twitter.

As for twitter in Israel, Sheizaf predicts twitter will, eventually, catch on, and Israel will quicky adopt the micro-blogging tool, much like we did with facebook not too long ago…

Links:
Sheizaf Rafaeli – The Twitter Phenomena (Hebrew)
Luis Suarez – Using twitter in the enterprise, by Ed Yourdon
IBM Software Forum
Niv Calderon
Pew Study – Twitter users are mobile, urban and engaged online

IBM Software Forum – Summary

Published February 26, 2009 Uncategorized Closed
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Updated March 11.

The event this afternoon just ended, I’ll upload some pics next week, once I get them from our marketing pips. We had over 500 customers and business partners attending, in the six sessions, covering everything IBM Software has to offer. My presentation from today’s event is below, and also available on slideshare, but I wasn’t the main attraction of the evening.

Amir Belferman’s lecture (Amidar Housing) was excellent and provided everything the audience needed to know, including cost analysis of the various options they considered. Amir’s presentation is available online, at my slideshare space or at ibm.com event page.

Niv Calderon caused some riots in the crowd, showing where the money is in social media, and why local businesses need to start taking it (more) seriously. You can watch Niv’s lecture online here.

IBM Software Forum – Lotus Overview

View more presentations from Dvir Reznik. (tags: ibm lotus)

« Previous Page — Next Page »



Mobile & Media Consultant. I help startup companies launch products to the consumer market. Reach out: dvir.reznik [at] gmail.com
Website
About

Archives

Disclaimer

This is my personal blog. The postings here do not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my past employers or of my clients. It is solely my opinion.