Companies
Companies
In the five years since selling an online lending company I built and owned for over 25 years, I've created three companies, became an Adjunct Professor at NYU, a Senior Research Fellow with a prestigious think tank, was on the Board of Directors and sat in the Technology Chair for the premier CMO organization in the U.S. and co-authored a book published by McGraw-Hill. I've had a great five years and am looking forward to many more in the ever changing online environment. Read more...
After having sold an online lending platform in 2003, and conducting research and analysis regarding the potential use of blogs for marketing purposes, in late 2005 I created Blogging Systems LLC; and had quite a blast for the next several years. Paul Chaney and I were primarily responsible for introducing the concept of community blogging to the real estate industry as an effective marketing tool. The real estate industry had and has a reputation for lagging when it comes to technology and the industry really had no idea was these "blog things" were. A representative anecdote is that at the 2005 National Association of REALTORS convention which Paul attended, he was constantly asked, "what's a blog," while one year later at the 2006 convention, the main question was no longer what's a blog but, "how do I use blogs effectively."
During this time I established myself as the recognized leader in the industry on effective blog marketing. I spoke at every major conference, co-authored, with Paul, Realty Blogging, the book used as the road map for effective blog marketing by tens of thousands of industry participants and created and sold over 250,000 agent and company blog platforms.
Unfortunately, our timing couldn't have been much worse. The bubble real estate market was coming to an end, and a painful end at that. Marketing budgets in the industry shrank and there was less willingness to try new things. That, and considering community blogging for marketing was ahead of its time for the real estate industry, I decided it was time to change the focus of the company; so I turned my attention to the recruiting and sourcing/HR industry.
In 2007 I changed the name of my company to Respond Media (blogs were "so outdated" only a year or two after they were on the cover of Business Week). Respond Media offered a SaaS which enables corporate customers to build relationships with and recruit top tier talent. Specifically, CCN partners with major Fortune 500 brands to build focused, niche career online communities where like-minded professionals can communicate, collaborate, share information, learn how to advance their careers and enjoy a sense of community. CCN’s corporate sponsors can then access and mine these communities to create a funnel of relationships with passive talent for their future staffing and recruiting needs. CCN pilot clients included Fortune 500 companies Wachovia, Toyota, Microsoft and CitiMortgage. While serving the HR industry I gained subject matter expertise in Human Resource talent recruiting and sourcing.
We had developed a highly scalable, drupal based open source methodology for creating and hosting online career destination sites for corporate customers. Each community contains tools and functionalities designed to attract and maintain the interest of the professionals targeted by our customers. Our sites include a business intelligence tool that enables our customers to focus their recruiting efforts on those prospects that will likely create the most value for their organization. Making this identification is possible by our calculation of each member’s Everage – their evolving average of participation over time.
I do consulting work under the name of Nacht Online Media Consulting, which provides solutions to the challenge of an environment that is fragmenting the delivery of media, marketing and communication. Nacht OMC provides clients with a way to extend their online and offline presence by enhancing the methods by which clients can increase response rates in order to:
1) generate a greater sense of community by visitors, users, consumers and members
2) increase revenue with advertising and sponsorships
3) effectively execute sales and marketing activities for single and cross-platform sites
While the information and consulting provided to clients is of great value, I do this primarily as a means of ongoing testing of current strategies with the idea of keeping on top of current and forthcoming tools; to be sure that my own ongoing education is experiential. This work is done in great part for my research and writing, and teaching, on the topic of social/new media for my writing and teaching gigs.
Society for New Communications Research
I am also a Senior Research Fellow and Chairman of the Education Committee of the Society for New Communications Research. The Society for New Communications Research is a global nonprofit 501(c)(3) research and education foundation and think tank focused on the advanced study of the latest developments in new media and communications, and their effect on traditional media and business models, communications, culture and society.
SNCR is dedicated to creating a bridge between the academic and theoretical pursuit of these topics and the pragmatic implementation of new media and communications tools and methodologies. The Society’s Fellows include a leading group of futurists, scholars, business leaders, professional communicators, members of the media and technologists from around the globe – all collaborating together on research initiatives, educational offerings, and the establishment of standards and best practices. One of the research projects I worked on with SNCR was published in “New Media, New Influencers and Implications for the Public Relations Profession,” Journal of New Communications Research, Vol. II, Issue 2, 2008
Marketing Executives Networking Group
From 2007 to 2008 I served on the Board of Directors and was the Technology Chair for the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG). MENG is the top tier national network of top-level marketing executives. The organization is devoted to enhancing its members' professional skills, relationships, and knowledge and prides itself on a culture of genuine camaraderie.While with MENG I created the MENG Social Media University, an ongoing social media training program for all MENG members. Senior marketing executives join MENG for the following reasons:
* Enhancing their professional skills and industry knowledge
* Gain access to an exclusive executive-level networking group of marketers
* Gain access to a knowledge bank of data about companies, products, and people
* A career center for hiring managers, human resource executives, and clients seeking top-notch consultants
* A source of discounts on other products, services, and organizations
* A venue for finding marketing resources
* Discussion groups to exchange expertise and information on the latest trends in marketing
Every one of these activities has given me the chance to enhance my learning regarding online new/social media. Most have given me the chance to create strategies and develop implementation tactics and to see and evaluate the results. Equally important, I have met great friends and associates that I am grateful to have had the chance to work with and come to know as friends.
