Will Work for Fun, and Fun Only

If I work to live, then what do I do for work…?

So, you want to better understand what I do for a living and where I work.  We’ll here goes.

In early April of 2009, I started working for Go Forward Media (GFM) off of Columbia Gateway Drive in Columbia, MD.  I worked at USinternetworking, an AT&T company, out of Annapolis just prior, as their business applications and hosting divison’s sole Senior Web Manager.  I now am Senior Project Manager, but many of the same skills and responsibilities apply.  GFM is a conglomerate of employees from another B2B media company in the early 2000’s.  And, about half of our in-house staff of 9 are either current or former firefighters (paid or volunteer).

So, naturally, a lot of the work we do (but not all) is related to the public safety sector.  We also have worked with the event and venue industry, media covering media, library media, political clients, associations, restaurant chains, medical media, and so on.  Mostly, but not all, B2B.  Some consumer audiences.

Primarily, our firm offers strategy and operations consulting for publishers, but often various projects come out of the strategy part of that.  And, that’s where I come in.  I manage anything from large, content heavy web site projects built on a Drupal CMS, or product databases, smaller web sites on a WordPress CMS, social media networks on Ning, email, banner ads, and anything that creates (mostly) online inventory for publisher revenue.

We’ve also done side projects, in-house.  The largest to date include MONOPOLY: Firefighters Edition, MONOPOLY: Law Enforcement Edition, MONOPOLY: Emergency Medical Services Edition presented by JEMS, under the umbrella of Emergency Services Play.  And, our most recent venture, Hero Rush – the obstacle race and experience for the general public, but with firefighter-themed obstacles.  Hero Rush makes its nationwide debut in 2012 with over a dozen 5k races.

But, back to what I do.  About 95% off all client projects funnel through me.  That means, I work with a team of vendors and in-house folks to execute projects from start to finish.  Some projects take a couple of hours.  Some take months.  All depends on the scale, scope, budget, and objectives.  I coordinated the vendor and partner relationships for the production of all three MONOPOLY games mentioned above.  I assist, often rolling up my sleeves (it is a small company after all), in all aspects of a web site launch, email blast building, PPC, etc.  I am versed in SEO, SEM/PPC, web content, HTML/some CSS, WordPress setup, Google Analytics, UI/site layout/navigation, social media, project management, marketing, and event planning.  I am extremely organized, being able to take on a lot of different projects at once.  The one fundamental that remains consistent in everything I do is “what is best for the end user?”  That is always my driving goal.  Because the key to marketing is to determine the need, and then fill it.  So, give the end user exactly what they need and more than they expect.

With a background in marketing, I also play a primary role with updating client social media pages (including Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Google+), and just as important, utilizing all branding options on those networks.  That also means, I keep up-to-date on a daily (and sometimes hourly basis) on what’s new in social media … so I can apply the best practices to clients pages in the least amount of time.  It’s all about ROI and getting the message to an engaged target audience.

I find the best sources for social media information are mashable.com, socialmediaexaminer.com, and allfacebook.com.  Sometimes gizmodo.com too.

So, hopefully that helps you to understand a little better.  If you are looking for some web site and social media page examples, to better understand, please contact me.  Maybe we are the right partner fit for your company’s outsourced IT and online marketing team needs.