Content at center of a successful editorial project
An introduction of a leading content marketing community in the Italian scene
Rinascita Digitale is an Italian community, recently born, focus on content marketing.
Let’s meet Stefano and Michele Saladino from the content marketing community of Rinascita Digitale!
Interview with Stefano and Michele Saladino, founders of Rinascita Digitale.
An initiative strongly desired by its audience with the motto “Develop your Human Capital”. It ranges among various topics and successful playlists, such as the one of the new formats “Good Morning Doers” or those dedicated to startups like “Start your Startup” and “Silicon Valley Virtual Tour”.
Hello Stefano and Michele, we know that “Rinascita Digitale” was born as a project with a deadline, but then it was so desired by your audience that you couldn’t close it. Let’s go a little back to that moment. Can you tell us behind the scenes? How did you live that period when you understood that “Rinascita Digitale” couldn’t stop and how did it evolve?
Stefano:We lived it with a strange energy. Contrary to the period we were living, there was an insane excitement! We woke up at 7:30/8:00 am and we were already active and stayed active until the evening at unreasonable hours. Between lives and backend work, we worked nearly 16 hours a day. We almost bypassed lockdown. We couldn’t stop because our audience kept asking us to go on. We were energised, but also energising for the audience that was in a complex situation and used our platform as a tool of education and daily company. Having a cultural, cognitive, and educational background in a new everyday routine was a completely unexpected discovery. The flow of ongoing planning was the key. Contrary to any expectation, there was an audience that wanted to make a mental effort.
A project is always made by people, so we would like to know something more on the team behind “Rinascita Digitale”.
Stefano: It’s an evolving team. During the first phase it was a very tight team composed by only three people: Michele, Francesco, and me. Three people very optimised in the processes, which is fundamental to manage from 9 to 16 daily hours live. It’s a tight, well organised and circular team. Over time, we got organised in a very varied way. The team became bigger with volunteers, external collaborations, people that helped us to produce contents and threw us into the communication processes. When I say team, I mean all the people that contributedwith educational contents because they acted like communicators. Each one of them became a communication niche that allowed the audience self-generation. Each one of them was both bearer and ambassador of the initiative and the philosophy on which it is based, which is the sharing of the distributed skills.
Michele:We were both 2 or 1.200, meaning that Stefano, Francesco, and I managed the project that then got divided, but at the same time 1.200 were the people that contributed to the project and it went on thanks to them.
Your initiative was born and still goes on thanks to the spirit of collaboration of a community. Can you tell us how to collaborate with you as trainers or speakers? What are people supposed to do to become your partner, to propose an event or a fixed date?
Stefano: There are two simple ways:
- The first way is through the website. There are forms to apply.
- The second way is more direct and easier: write directly to me or to Michele even on the social media channels. In some periods we were overbooked and couldn’t answer to everyone, but what distinguished ourselves was the way we listened to everyone and, when it was possible, we gave a voice to all of the people in line with the project and the spirit of contents supply: zero advertising, zero plugs, zero fluff!
What is “Good Morning Doers”?
Stefano:“Good Morning Doers” started in November. Back then, we had done more than 800/900 hours of webinar, live streaming, and educational contents with the purpose to give practical education for a better comprehension of some sectors and jobs and to give indications on how to do certain things etc.
With “Good Morning Doers” we decided to focus on two goals:
- the first goal was to do a daily strip for the community, for people that never stop, that want to do something. It’s a daily strip to start the day, a fixed date independent from the content.
- the second goal was to give our contribute and a wider and more strategic point of view. We have arrived at the third season one, which started on April 12th, and has an additional change in terms of cut, topics, and contents.
The whole “Rinascita Digitale” is a construction site, an ongoing work in progress. However, if in real life the change processes last from six months to one year, in “Rinascita Digitale” they last from fifteen days to two months. There is a constant acceleration because there is a constant acceleration in the external market too.
What is “Silicon Valley Virtual Tour”?
Michele:“Silicon Valley Virtual Tour” is a particular project in collaboration with an association that every year proposes to bring college-age young people to Silicon Valley, into some of the biggest companies, such as Google, YouTube, Apple, Facebook etc, making them meet entrepreneurs and Italian successful people that moved to Silicon Valley with their ideas and ambitions to change the world and to change the Silicon Valley.
We joined this association and started a tour of the Silicon Valley – not just virtually – bringing into our platform of “Rinascita Digitale” their guests, people, and formats. We started this tour that is now at the 18th appointment. We went into the biggest companies of Silicon Valley and beyond. We went into Google, Facebook, Apple, Tesla, and we virtually went into the companies that are changing the future, bringing with us young people that will be the future to give them inspiration and make them understand how much dedication it takes to get there.
Among the many playlists that you produced on the startup topic and that are available on-demand on your platform, we followed with great interest “Start your Startup” in which, in just 4 appointments, you discussed topics like “How to build a successful team” with Daniele Radici, “How to validate an idea in the market” with Riccardo Mazzolo, “How to write a Business Plan” with Massimo Ciaglia, “How to raise the required capital” with Enrico Pandian. Now we would like to ask you how much the success of a startup depends on the team and which advice would you give to our readers, aspiring startup founders.
Michele:I think that a startup is deeply influenced by the team that composes it, not only for their skills, but for their values and soft skills that everyone has. The team becomes a fundamental element in a startup. People make the difference. An optimised team, which is capable to work well and to keep its values over time, summed with the skills of each person in the team, makes the idea successful. It’s necessary to pay attention to the people you want to include!
Stefano: The team isn’t enough; you need to look at the market too! A team should have the capacity to do the validation process in a quick way and move to the market. It should take the risk in relation to the feedback received. Sharing ideas makes new opportunities, collaborations, contamination.
The speed element is fundamental, and you only have that when the team is cohesive towards the same values and goals.
The content marketing platform offers ongoing education and we saw that you have many playlists, could you tell us which ones are the most popular for our aspiring startup founders?
Stefano:Except for the one that we already mentioned, each one can find in that ocean of contents a composition, depending on their needs and considering the exploration of unknown fields. We are into a mapped dimension, but it’s necessary to open minds and explore contents. You must get inspired, break the mould, and open your mind to unknown topics that can help to change the approach process to a startup, a service and a market.
Michele: To highlight this concept we started a course called “Secret Lessons”, which were one-hour lessons whose content was not revealed. Speakers of any kind were invited, and we talked about various contents – which you wouldn’t have chosen by yourself – that could help to find inspiration and build knowledge. The rule was: I don’t choose what to watch, that way I am open-minded, and I get inspired by something that I would never expect.
If you are interested in Rinascita Digitale, please read more on: Content marketing community leading digital and Content as focus of a young entrepreneur’s career
If you are interested in Content Marketing, please read more on: Content Marketing: attract, engage, and retain your target. Content Marketing platforms: the best 10 tools for us and Content Marketing, Storytelling and Copywriting
