About Me

 
Chris Parente

Hello, and thanks for visiting chrisparente.com.

During my career I’ve been fortunate to experience first hand dramatic changes in communication technology. When I moved from Connecticut to the Washington, DC area in the mid 1990s, I was the marketing director at the Cellular Telecommunications Internet Association (CTIA) during the explosive industry growth that followed the 1996 Telecom Act.

A few years later, I served as vice president of corporate communications at Advertising.com, the company that invented pay-per-click advertising. As the Internet exploded in size and popularity, I gained a strong understanding of domain name and Internet infrastructure issues as a senior communications manager at VeriSign, the operator of the .com and .net extensions.

From 2005 until 2014 I worked on the agency side of the fence, as a managing director and equity partner at Strategic Communications Group. In the past seven years we’ve all seen another dramatic market change take place. The rise of social media and the contraction of traditional media have changed how B2B and B2G companies communicate with their target audiences. I counsel clients on the design and execution of content marketing strategies, promoted through social media channels. These programs are designed to support a company’s sales and revenue goals, and are integrated into the client’s marketing automation platform.

In February of 2014 I launched my own firm, StoryTech Consulting LLC. I help companies to tell their own story, and put that story directly in front of prospects while empirically tracking how the effort supports revenue growth. It’s easy to describe, not so easy to accomplish. It involves not just using new tools but also adopting a new outlook and culture, particularly on the part of the sales organization. StoryTech helps clients make the transition from interruption marketing to conversational marketing.

When counseling clients it’s imperative to practice what you preach. So I’ve written and published articles on these issues for over 15 years. In addition to my articles here, my work has appeared in MarketingProfs, E-Commerce News, CommPro.biz and Social Media Today. I’ve published a monthly column for WashingtonExec.com, and I’ve served on the marketing committee of the Association for Corporate Growth, National Chapter.

All work and no play would make me pretty dull, and often I can’t talk publicly about the results my clients achieve. So in addition to work and technology issues I also write about wine, and about keeping two out of warranty BMWs in top operating condition. These three topics usually give me plenty of interesting fodder.

Still want more? Visit my StoryTech Consulting site. Or drop me a line at chris (at) storytechconsulting.com.

  25 Responses to “About Me”

  1. just came across your blog, appreciated some of the privacy related posts and the history of NAI, cookie etc,,,

  2. Thanks Jules, hope you continue reading and commenting.

  3. Very good takes on wines and BMW’s. Good reading.

  4. As always, you make me smile! Richard and I cannot wait to see you and Gabe on the 21st! Hope you will be in town. Magster is staying in Boston for Cheerleading (!) and swimming!

  5. Hi Chris –

    In UK and MD based.

    Adrian


    Adrian Bridgwater
    Freelance Technology Journalist

    Check out my blog at: http://tinyurl.com/Bridgwater

  6. Hi I own a bmw x5 2001.MY car had a dc test and faults came up that it was dsc module and or left rear speed sensor.Unfortunatley bmw mechanics cant isolate the two.Ive read your post and see you have experience in this.What do you think?
    My speedo does not work all the time.Braking is rough for abit then my warning lights come on dsc and abs.I tryed to take off the rear sensor and noticed that it was very dirty in the hub area and inside the hub where the sensor goes in.As you know its hard to see in the hole where the sensor goes into,but what i do see is a shaft.I thought that it would be a gear in there.I dont know maybe there is and when the shaft is rotated I would see the teeth,Please explain.Oh yeah after this experiment was done and sensor was cleaned and put back in I went for a drive hoping this fixed my problem and noticed the speedo does not move at all.What do you think?
    Thanks and I hope you can help me answer these questions .

  7. Hi Chris, nice to meet you via your blog. Thanks for the good summation of the conversation on social media ROI.

    • Susan — sorry for belated reply. You bet, and hope to share more via the listserv. Enjoy the rest of August.

      Chris

  8. I am the GovLoop Blog Outreach coordinator and I just wanted to send you a quick note asking if you’d consider cross-posting your awesome blog postings on GovLoop. GovLoop is a government focused online community that was bourne out of the Department of Homeland Security and has grown to become a community of more than 20,000 people. American bloggers like Gwynne Kostin and Steve Radick are already cross-posting with a quick copy-paste, significantly increasing their readership and exposure and getting them in front of additional smart government innovators.

    FYI, pulling from RSS feeds currently isn’t possible with our technology but is on our roadmap as we evolve. We totally understand that it is kind of a pain to copy/paste but we hope you take the minute to post and hopefully access some great discussions with our large community of federal folks. Keep writing phenomenal postings and we really hope to see them on our site soon. Our community would love your insightful and thought provoking writing!

    Keep being awesome and let me know if you have any questions!

    Jenn Gustetic
    @jenngustetic
    http://www.govloop.com

  9. You forgot… “Women” in your subject line. Why?

  10. Chris, nice summary, helpful and appreciated. Best regards, Ed

  11. Hi Chris,
    I am trying to do some research…I did a “Cocktails with Courtney” event in DC on June 14, 2000. Can you refresh my sorry memory and let me know if Hotline was a webzine or newsletter? Thanks for helping me out–it’s for my book (finally) on my life during the boom.
    ~ Courtney

    • Hi Courtney — hmm, how to characterize HOTLINE. It was ahead of its time! By 2000 it was owned by National Journal and was a true online subscription publication. In the 90’s it was an electronic publication when that was a new concept, that some subscribers downloaded off our bulletin board, others received via fax. Gradually more and more people accessed it online as the Web exploded in the late 90’s.

      Probably TMI for you, but hope helpful. Thanks for the comment/question!

  12. I very much enjoyed your comment about La Provence. When Martina lived in Prague, she used to go to this restaurant as it was one of the few places one could get a decent food in Prague in the l990’s. There are more choices now in Prague but one has to get to know the place if you don’t want to be a victim of rude waiters, of poor service, of mediocre food and overpriced meals, The same is true about cabs, internet and phone services (as I am finding right now) and just about any other service witha notable exception of Thai massage. Nevertheless, we shall overcome….

  13. good blog on company PR! Will be back to peruse more!

  14. You may very well have the most interesting online demographic breakdowns I’ve seen. I know how some of these are generated and rely on quantcast and alexa minimally at most (except when to my advantage of course j/k) but the groupings you’ve accomplished… well done. The only thing that could make it more interesting is having children over represented.

  15. Hi Chris,
    I just joined the Capital Communicators Group and found your blog. I’m looking forward to following it! Thanks for the insight.

  16. Chris,
    I read your post regarding your 99 M3. I have a 98 M3 conv., calypso red. 101K and an absolute joy to drive. Ken in Annapolis

  17. Hi Chris,

    Great blog, just stumbled onto it. I’m putting together an E39-centric site (e39fan.com) and was wondering… Could I use some pics of your M5 on the site?

    Pete in Charlotte

  18. Hi Chris,

    I like you M3 14 birthday article. It is great. But you have low mileage.

    I have 330XI. It is about 120K miles and 11-year-old. It is good.

    I am in Chicago, you know the weather is cold in winter. But it is running great.

    Thanks

    Joe

  19. Chris,

    I found your article, How NOT to Promote Your Company on LinkedIn, on SocialMediaToday. I thought it was well written and professional, and so I’d like to invite you to our growing community.

    ShareBloc is building a community of like-minded professionals to share, curate and discuss the best business content starting with the top sales and marketing professionals. You can comment on posts you like, vote and post links. For example, why don’t you try posting a link to your blog.

    We already have participation from people such as Craig Rosenberg (Funnelholic) and many others. We also have investment from 500Startups and other angel investors.

    To check it out you can go directly to:

    http://www.sharebloc.com/invite/SocialMediaToday

    or you can email me at andrew@sharebloc.com or if you prefer, you can reach me by phone – 713.397.5553 is my cell.

    Best,
    Andrew
    Co-Founder and VP of User Experience”

  20. Hello!
    http://www.bimmerfest.com/wiki/index.php/BMW_E36
    still lists your defunct webpage (http://cparente.wordpress.com/2010/0…-strikes-back/) dealing with
    Brake Light Circuit problems.
    This happens on my E36 M3 (’99), heavily upgraded. Do you still have the info? Thanks.

  21. Hello Chris…loved your E36 battery change post…I am changing my 1999 E36 M3 battery…all is great, but vent hose got fully disconnected when I removed the battery…any help of where I re-attach the vent exit part of the tube? The side connected to the battery is obvious, but the other end I have no idea where it goes…can’t see a grommet connection or anything in battery area! Thanks in advance…Jeff

  22. Hey Chris,

    Tried to get the M5 maintenance schedule you referenced but the email is no longer in service. Do you think you could forward it along??

    Thanks!!

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