A Trip Down the Social Media Rabbit Hole — Interview with Lorenzo D’Amelio (BTREES)
Ten years ago I met Lorenzo for what we can now call “a social media road trip” (it was 2010). Things evolved. Ten years after (and a recent website redesign) we looked like a good opportunity to catch up and talk business, social media agencies, data, and smart working during health emergencies.
(Lorenzo was kind enough to go through two rounds of Qs and provide the photos.)
“Ok, let’s start with the What’s your core Start-Up Activity? kind of question…”
Thanks first of all for this interview, not just for me but for the opportunity to speak about innovation and startups: it’s not an easy situation in Italy [contacts and exchange began two weeks ago] and I think it’s very important to insist on looking to the future and to new solutions in order to develop a better country and world reacting from Coronavirus and from a possible economic crisis.
At the moment my professional role is Digital Strategist & Business Advisor (www.lorenzodamelio.it). I have more than 13 years of experience in Communication, especially in Web Strategy and Social Media: I am Co-Founder and Partner of the New Media Agency BTREES (www.btrees.social) that is specialized in Social Media services for Small and Medium Size Enterprises. At the same time, I am very passionate by startups and I work as Advisor in order to share knowledge with new companies and young entrepreneurs about Business Model Design, Business Plan, Fundraising, Go To Market Strategy, etc. After an intense work experience dedicated to corporations, this is a personal way to give back my skills to the new entrepreneurs.
“Time to move to… How did you get there education and job-path wise?”
Everything started studying Science of Communication: since I was at the university I began to work, firstly as Web Journalist, then as Social Media Consultant (I started in 2010 when Facebook wasn’t the 1° Social Network in Italy).
As soon as I began to work in the field of communication, I decided to do a lot of web courses: I think I was doing at least 12 courses per year at that time. It was (and still is) fun for me! I actually strongly believe in lifelong learning. After that in 2013, I’ve decided to start and to co-found the agency with a special focus on Social Media Marketing. We have now 20 people between employees and collaborators: it has been a unique adventure and experience.
“How cool! This prompts two new Qs. First, do you think your degree from Humanities has helped you in your tech journey? (You know, it’s too easy to shy away from tech and startups because I don’t have a CS degree…)”
Usually, in the innovation field, people think you need to have knowledge of computer technology. I graduated within Humanities and I think it has added a lot to me about vision and philosophy. I think it is vital to insist on vision and values to develop companies. It connects a brand with the business.
“The second question is more focused on your agency. Can you perform a quick time-lapse of how to go from an idea in 2013 to an established agency with 20 people in 2020?”
It is very difficult to condense years in a few sentences. I think we have been through 3 main stages of development. The first step was taken by the founders: me, Christian Zegna, and Davide Paganotti. We started with the idea (and we sweated really a lot to build it, day by day, month by month), after which — as a second milestone — we received the important support of SELLALAB, the accelerator of Sella Banca.
The third most important step was the meeting with Carlo Robiglio, President of the Ebano Group, who decided to join and start the New Media Agency BTREES with us. Last but by no means least: every step has been made through an incredible effort by the whole team, my colleagues are uncommon people and then excellent professionals. Yes, we are entrepreneurs, but we also have many intrapreneurs. Alike it works for a social network, the team was created from these exclusive relationships.
“What are the hard-skills you developed to fit your role(s) (I guess it’s not only a matter of being nice and talk to the other)” [virtual laugh]
The hard skills are really useful, especially when you have a specific focus in the field of communication. My specialization on Social Media has been built through unique courses: for example Social Network Analysis with Prof. Lada Adamic [I think I remember that good old Coursera days!], currently Social Science Director at Facebook.
At the same time, I began to study other fields as Design Thinking for Business Innovation with Prof. Jeanne Liedtka that shared how the Fortune 500 are applying this methodology to grow. But the main skills that you learn when you need to work on this field, especially speaking about online and offline networking, are the soft skills. Patient, resilience, consistency, motivation and so on: these have been the most important skills in order to be Project Manager, coordinate and to collaborate with people on one hand and to run the business on the other hand. Emotional Intelligence is becoming more and more important in every job.
“How to you manage to have words like ‘strategy’ and ‘communication’ to still be relevant and meaningful. We read about [enter fake-news campaign] or [aggressive political moves] and it seems these words can be really bad. Also, how can you make your expertise relevant compared to, well, less (hard)-skilled or serious professional but with better marketing strategies”
I will start with this thought: when word-of-mouth was only offline there wasn’t much danger about “fake news”. Now the problem is that Social Media are the main way to communicate for the youth (and not only), worldwide, but they have not received any meaningful education about how to use Social Media. It’s quite crazy! As any tool, take a hammer, for example, Social Media can build or can destroy. The difference stays in the hands (and in the minds, first of all) that are using these tools. Sometimes, especially in politics unfortunately, there’s a specific strategy to spread fake news in order to take advantage of that. When you develop a Communication Strategy, in the end, it means that you want to control the direction and the path in order to achieve one or more goals. It is the reason since it’s the 1° step I suggest to any companies: you have to start with a Communication Strategy.
“What are you working on right now (job-wise) and what are you learning right now (everything counts, from professional related stuff — e.g. React — to personal ones — cooking, meditation, improvisation)?”
As I said some minutes ago, this is a strange time for Italy (but also for Europe and the world, I think) with the Coronavirus (Covid-19) that has been spreading all around the planet. I am working a lot by Smart Working (it’s the only way, obviously, staying in quarantine! :)) I did try to work in this way but doing that during the entire week is quite different. At the same time, staying a lot at home, I have the possibility to improve my Italian cooking skills, but I hope to be soon free and to get outside to restart my jogging routine.
“What are the 3 projects you are most proud about and what’s the role played by data and tech in them”
One of the last projects I have worked on is “Dynameet” (https://dynameet.restaurant/), a brew/pub brand: I’ve been the Digital Strategist & Project Manager in order to do the rebranding and develop the Digital & Social Media Strategy.
Recently, we’ve started a collaboration with an important influencer (Edoardo Mecca, more than 800.000 fan between Facebook, Instagram and YouTube): the company has started itself — with our communication support — a chatbot on Facebook in order to receive and manage orders by users through Social Media.
A more recent campaign, that is running right now, is #distantimavicini (the translation is “distant but close”) dedicated to supporting Italian Hospitals connected to the AISLA Onlus organization. This has been developed in a few days (usually you need months!) and, through this crowdfunding campaign, we’ve reached more than 100.000 euro in just 5 days from the launch: https://distantimavicini.starteed.eu/
I’d like also to speak about international collaborations. For example with Off Media: it has become one of the main digital magazine about music in Hungary and I’m happy to have supported the team with education on Digital Marketing in the past years.
At the same time, there have also been successful startups that I’ve supported, one that I’d like to mention is Wher (https://w-her.com/), an app that offers a map for the women made by the women that show the safest path to walk along the cities. I’ve been their Advisor and they’ve been able to do a fundraising round of 450.000 euro. Now they have more than 50.000 users on the app.
“Is there something you want us to try out or look at? Why?”
Now I am focusing on startups that have a Social Impact. When I speak about Social Impact I mean those new companies that are focusing their business to solve one or more of the 17 sustainable development goals defined by the United Nations. I think it’s urgent, for life on the planet and the human race, to find new solutions, especially about climate change. I am sure that digital disruption and the green economy will grow more and more in the future.
“What was the hardest thing to learn to feel comfortable where you are now? Do you have any looking-back kind of advice or things you would have know?”
You know, I am a very curious person. I am passionate about innovation indeed it has been difficult for me to be patient and not to put my effort in more activities at the same time. I have learned that is important to delegate: it doesn’t mean to forget something, it means to give responsibility and to support others with your own skills.
I am now trying to do that with startups as a Business Advisor. I’ve done a lot of mistakes in the past, but there is a claim that I like to share: “fail fast, learn faster”. Every mistake I did, it has been a unique way to learn something new. My advice is to not be afraid to ask for suggestions to other entrepreneurs and to look for mentors. They can be a wonderful enzyme to learn fast a lot of things through someone you can trust.
“ You already mention the current emergency situation. I saw you updated your website and offered some of your professional time for free to reach out and help out. How is this situation affecting your field and work?”
In my specific field, Web Communication, we are seeing a little slowdown (we are connected to almost every field in the current economy) but in these days I begin to see a big growth on Smart Working and E-Commerce: the Digital Transformation is going to be even more important in the next months and years. That’s the reason since I’ve decided to offer a free digital assessment for the companies, startups, and freelance that needs to re-organize their business.
“Is there some question you don’t get in interviews you wished someone asks you? If so, formulate and answer it.” [Yep, Marzullo moment]
I could add that I love basket. I think it’s important to know a bit of the personal life of the professionals. It’s a suggestion also for the others to speak about that. I teach that in my courses about Social Personal Branding.
For me it’s well connected to my philosophy: I like to work with a team. I am not good at everything, of course, and I need other professionals specialized in different fields in order to deliver the best for my customers. At the same time, it’s important that a client has a clear vision and it’s able to collaborate with me and my colleagues. This is the best way to elevate the opportunity of success during the effort and activities that we do as a team.
