The News

I have been silent for some time now since my last blog post here and on my AugmentPro blog. This is due to the fact that one month to this day on February 1, 2010 I started my new role as the Strategic Manager of Social Media & Emerging Technology for Samsung Mobile USA.

Getting this role has been an amazing journey both personally and professionally. I was fortunate to start and grow a web development company that laid the foundation for my digital marketing experience and then apply that knowledge to various agencies such as BOSSdev and MRM Worldwide. While at BOSSdev, I was able to dive deeper into Social Media strategy and speak at multiple events and conferences on how to leverage social media for brands and businesses. Along the way, I had the great opportunity to work with great clients,  fantastic agencies and more than that meet and work with amazing people within the digital marketing industry.

Looking back I am humbled by this new opportunity as I see every career milestone a major stepping stone for this amazing role with Samsung Mobile.

The Conversation

I started my conversation with Samsung Mobile back in early December 2009,  and after several interviews and meeting face to face with the Samsung Mobile digital marketing team in mid January 2010 I was offered this new role of the Strategic Marketing Manager of Social Media. This means setting the over arching Social Media strategy for the Samsung Mobile brand, new poduct launches and managing/growing all existing social channels for Samsung Mobile (Facebook Fan Page, Twitter, Youtube, and others).

It is an amazing opportunity for a leading major global brand in the mobile industry.

One of the most difficult decisions I had to make was to move away from Metro-Detroit to the Dallas, Texas area together with my Queen and Princess leaving behind my extended family and wonderful personal and professional friends I have made in almost 30 years of living in the Metro-Detroit area.

Everyone will be missed.

The Future

After almost 4 weeks ‘on the job’, I have absorbed myself with all things Samsung Mobile. Of course, I was given an option to choose a Samsung mobile device indifferent of a carrier and I chose the Samsung Moment as it is the most “uncloaked” Android device along with a super crisp AMOLED screen and fast processor (800Mhz).

I am extremely excited for what is in the works at Samsung Mobile in the next few weeks, the rest of 2010 and beyond.

Of course the challenge is to make Samsung Mobile a “Social Savvy” brand in the US market as it currently has a limited voice online but a nice social footprint.

The road has been set, Now it’s time to pave the way.

I know this is not a movie review blog but I just discovered the leaked trailer for the 2010 movie adaptation of my childhood super dream, “The A-Team“. Where can I get my advanced ticket?

“I love it when a plan comes together” – Hannibal Smith

Now that 2009 is coming to an end, there is a never ending stream of news stories and blog posts about New Year Resolutions, reminiscing thoughts and of course looking back on not only the year 2009 but the decade. The 2000’s.

This decade was the first actual decade of my ‘adult life’. The 1990’s was a blur due to High School and College. The 2000’s was a decade where I ‘grew up’ and if I could sum up the entire decade I would use the word, experience.

I will do my best to summarize this experience not only for myself  but hopefully if this blog exists in 2019, I will look back in amazement.

As a disclaimer, this post is intended for my own thought recollection and personal archive of events. If you do not wish to read please just bounce away now. If you are curious, read on and I would be delighted to hear your feedback on your end of decade review.

2000

 I was married to the love of my life in the spring of 1999. So we had already been married for 9 months and had recently moved back to the Metro-Detroit area to start my new position at General Motors as a Digital Sculptor.

I remember embracing my Love around the computer to watch the seconds tick away at 1999 and  the computer clock hit – 12:00.00 – January 1, 2000.

Nothing happened. No Y2K. No demise of computer systems. Things were the same. What a relief.

That was the year we bought our first home in Troy, Michigan. The joy of true ‘family’ began as in August 2000 we realized we were going to have a baby in 9 months.

2001

This was an blur of a year as I lost alot of weight and in March 2000 I discovered I had Diabetes. I was never obese, never had a history of diabetes in family, no typical signs of being a person that would have Diabetes.

Emma Ashley Ghiurau was born on June 6, 2001. The most amazing day in my life second to getting married.

2002

GM began massize cutbacks on employees and began slashing compensation for those that remained. I was blessed to remain but had a 7% paycut. With a new house, new car, new baby, financially we had to move out of the house and made the difficult decision to live with my parents until things began to look better.

I was admitted to the hospital with complications from Diabetes as I was till trying to get it under control. While at the hospital the tests showed that I needed to have my gall bladder removed. Surgery pursued.

I purchased the domain ROYOUTH.COM. After having a dream to build an ethnic Romanian Online Community. I was appointed to lead our church’s initiative to host a Romanian Youth Conference for May 2003. Using the internet to market, promote, and connect youth was a perfect opportunity to launch ROYOUTH.COM

Due to our financial situation, I started a small web design business called “JumpEye Creative Media” to build small websites and specialize in building ‘WAP mobile websites’ for more established companies.

I began a “Youth Worship Team” at our church Bethesda Romanian Church.

2003

 This was the year of ROYOUTH.COM. It began to grow with over 1,000 members for this online community by the beginning of 2003.

I was admitted once again to the hospital and stayed a few days due to complications from Diabetes. The doctors said my pancreas was dead. I needed to be fulltime on insulin.

The Romanian Youth Conference in May 2003 was hosted by our church. Over 2,000 in attendance and much of the logistics, structure, and approach are still being used as a foundation of Romanian Youth Conference through today (2009). I led a great team that made everything possible.

A day after the Youth Conference I was admitted once again to the hospital for a few days due to complications from Diabetes.

ROYOUTH by the end of the year grew to close to 10,000 members.

I partnered with a friend from Romania to grow a development team in Romania for JumpEye Creative Media as I was beginning to secure more web projects.

2004

In retrospect 2004 was similar to 2003. My life was consumed by full time work at General Motors, working on ROYOUTH on and off througout the day, working with the Youth Ministry/ Worship Team at our church and networking with other Romanian leaders throughout the USA, and working on growing the JumpEye Creative Media business.

Needless to say, I don’t remember much of this year as I got 2-4 hours of sleep per night. If I had some ‘free time’ to sleep.

2005

This was the year of continued work at GM but more focus on JumpEye as the business was growing and less time was being dedicated to ROYOUTH as the community was running smoothly (handing off most day to day tasks to a team of 10-15 moderators). At the same time the traffic was not the same as in the past as other main stream Social Networking sites were beginning to emerge such as MySpace.com.

This allowed me to focus more on JumpEye to a point where by the end of 2005, I resigned from GM and chose to follow my dream of running a company full time.

This was also the year I had the opportunity to  go back to my native country of Romania for the first time since arriving as an immigrant here in 1981.

While in Romania I got a chance to see the JumpEye operations along with seeing a Diabetic Specialist Doctor, who introduced me to insulin pens. Upon returning to the USA, I asked my doctor to prescribe my the insulin pens and since then I have been able to control my diabetes and live a normal lifestyle.

This was also the year where we had an opportunity to buy another home in Macomb Township, Michigan.

It was also the year when I was ordained as a Deacon at our church to serve the Worship Ministry and the entire church body.

2006

This year was the year of JumpEye as I worked hard to grow the company further. I had another opportunity to go to Romania. JumpEye launched multiple niche websites and internal web products.

By the end of 2006 however, from a financial and economic standpoint I had to move on and exit the company to pursue other options.

This was the year Emma also started Kindergarden. Oh how time flies.

By the end of the year we moved out of our home in preparation to move out of Michigan.

2007

At the start of 2007 we were in transition to move to the San Antonio, Texas area. I have always been drawn to the ‘west’.

Due to my extensive experience in interactive web and strategy, BOSSdev called me to join them in helping them grow their interactive strategy, process and business.

We remained in Michigan and moved to Sterling Heights, Michigan.

I got an opportunity to travel to Ukraine to visit the BOSSdev development team.

This was the year of settling in and contemplating the ‘experiences’ that I had over the years. It was all beginning to make sense.

2008

This was another year of blessing as I was growing at BOSSdev and continued to help where needed. I had an opportunity to travel to various industry events, conferences, and Digital Agencies, client locations in NYC, San Fransisco, Chicago, Houston, etc.

This was the year of professional networking as I began to use Social Media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other sites for business strategy.

In the fall of 2008 I was asked by BOSSdev to create the Social Media Strategy for the company for the upcoming year which led to multiple speaking engagements, panel discussions, and presentations for crowds as large as 1,000 people.

This was also the year in which I was an integral part in the annual North American/Romanian Pentecostal Church’s Convention that was being hosted by our church. This annual event is held in different locations throughout the USA/Canada and draws over 5,000 people. It was an enormous task.

We also traveled to Disney World in Florida, Arizona to see parents, and I went on a cruise for first time in my life with my Ladies to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

2009

This was the year of my 10 year wedding anniversary to my amazing love and best friend.

Drawing to the close of the decade, 2009 was a year in which we continued to travel to Arizona for my brother’s wedding and Sacramento, California to visit more family.

Most of all, I went with my Ladies to Romania during the month of July. It was an amazing experience to visit our birth country together and also a chance for Emma to experience the culture, heritage and language of the country her parents were born in.

Unfortunately, due to the economy BOSSdev required to do some downsizing and I had to part ways with BOSSdev and I began to seek the next chapter from the immense experience I had accumulated over the decade.

Despite the emergence of large Social Networks like MySpace and at the end of the decade Facebook.com, ROYOUTH has remained with a total member base of 30,000. This makes ROYOUTH the largest ethnic Romanian online community outside of Romania.

I have also launched and write for several personal blogs such as this one, SocialMediaCore.com and AugmentPro.com. As seen from this past decade, I love emerging technologies and applying them to strategic marketing and business.

Conclusion

Now at the end of 2009 I am in a new chapter of my life personally and professionally. If the next decade is as challenging or rewarding as this past decade, I am ready for it. All I know is that the experience I accumulated during this decade is one that will provide a solid foundation for what is to come in the next decade and beyond.

Last week was a whirl wind of a week to say the least. By Friday December 18, 2009 I started my first day at MRM Worldwide. MRM Worldwide is one of the top five digital and direct agencies in the world, with a global network of 62 offices in 40 countries and a staff of over 2500 employees. I will be located in the Birmingham, Michigan office which is an extension of the NYC location.

In early November 2009, MRM Worldwide aquired General Motors as a client when GM decided to move its digital duties to MRM Worldwide from Digitas. So now I will begin as a Digital Project Manager to help be a part of this massive GM digital undertaking.

I welcome this challenge as it is ironic how my experience working at GM Design Center for over 5 years early in my career, now has helped me land a role at a top digital design agency.

I want to take a moment to announce that I am profoundly moved by the fact that today a moment of internet history is coming to an end.

Today, Monday October 26, 2009 marks the end of Geocities.

My first introduction to the world of creating ‘web pages’ and being able to publish my designs and works online on a ‘home page’ was due to the fact that a service like Geocities existed.

Geocities skyrocketed as the premier place to build homepages for free along with other players at the time which were always in second place to Geocities. Then in 1999 Yahoo bought Geocities for absorbant dot-com bubble price of $3.6 million dollars so they can gobble up the service in their suite of ‘other services’. Like many ill advised acquisitions by Yahoo as internet history shows us, Geocities is by far the biggest loss.

So in memory of Geocities as when I was first introduced to them, I want to share a screenshot of their homepage from October 22, 1996 and a screenshot of the ‘final home page’ that was known as Geocities.

Geocities circa October 1996

Geocities – “Final Home Page” October 26, 2009

There are alot of twitter parody videos out there but this one is hilarious. Enjoy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As I am sitting here at my local Starbucks, I just purchased a $1.85 Tazo Calm Grande Tea and plopped myself down in a comfortable table with a nice view people coming and going while working away.

A thought occurred to me. How many small businesses and entrepreneurs actually have Starbucks as their office outpost?

I did a quick google search, but wasn’t able to find any solid numbers. The reality is from back in the day when I started a company, I remember signing my first big contract right there at a table at Starbucks. It helped launch my company for the next couple of years.

If you step into any Starbucks today you can always see a person with their bluetooth headset and coffee in hand talking to their client and coworker. If it is not that one person, it is a two or more at a table and you just know based on how the papers and folders are spread on the table that they are doing some presentation or trying to sell something to someone!

All of this for a small investment in a purchase of a warm beverage.

Since most Starbucks have some form of Wi-Fi and the ability to connect to the web, now my time spent here could elongate into hours. A strategy by Starbucks to keep me here to purchase more product? Maybe.

All I know is that it is a perfect place to come for an office away from the office and still get alot of things done. (Panera Bread included). Viva the Starbucks Outpost!

Where is your office outpost?

I love what the company CommonCraft does with their videos. Their montra is “Our Product is Explanation” and they do it well! Based on their website, they have three-minute videos that help educators and influencers  introduce complex subjects.

Though they charge for their video’s I love watching their Youtube Channel for snap shots on various topics. One topic of Interest to me is obviously Social Media. Here is a great video about Social Media in Plain English. Enjoy and Comment.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I must confess that last night I was driving by a local DSW Shoe store and a sudden urge hit me. I wanted to get a pair of Converse Chuck Taylor “All Star” shoes.

Why not?

Not that I am trying to be the cool / chic / musician wannabe / fill in the _____ person. I always wanted to buy a pair. So I ran in to see what they had and of course they had their typical black ones, low top, high top, crazy top versions.

I looked for my size and on the bottom of one of the styles was my size. I opened it up and it was a different color than the pale blue ones that were stacked on top. There all alone was a pair of pale green Taylor’s haplessly waiting to be discovered.

I looked around to make sure someone didn’t notice this amazing discovery and gem and I slipped them on. I was amazed at the comfort of these lonely soles.

I instantly ran to the cashier with them and 2 minutes before the store closed, I walked out the door with my All Stars.

Now I have the “sole” to spear head my drive to conquer the digital world.

As of today I am officially available for a new career opportunity. This past week the company I have been with for over 2 years now, we officially parted ways due to restructuring.

I will truely miss the relationships and friendships I created while at BOSSdev and the fantastic projects and success stories we had while being a part of such a dynamic company.  I wish them all much success going forward.

On my side, I am excited to become a case study myself for leveraging social media to land the next dream job. I have started a strategy to utilize Social Media to network and to attract the right opportunities. I will list a few steps that I am using in order to hopefully be of use to others and at the same time come back with a follow up post as to how this strategy worked!

1. After getting let go, I took the initiative to contact all of my immediate colleagues to thank them and to offer my personal contact information.
2. I contacted my close recruiters that I created a relationship with over time through email, tweetups, and networking events.
3. Began to harvest some immediate leads from close contacts and followup with emails, phone calls, Direct Messages, etc.
4. Took the weekend to relax, refresh, and re-energize myself.
5. On Monday I tweeted, placed on my Facebook status and LinkedIn profile my availablity.
6. I setup my RSS reader to list immedate openings in various target markets and job keywords that I am interested in. Some of these sites are: http://simplyhired.com , http://indeed.com , http://socialmediajobs.com
7. Now will work with some recruiters in certain demographic markets and continue to tap into my network of colleagues and past relationships I have had an opportunity to work with.

I am willing to look here in my backyard of the Metro-Detroit area as the digital and interactive community is really growing however, my doors are wide open to other locations nationwide.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics I am 1 of over 39 million unemployed as of August 2009. So I know it won’t be easy to find the next dream job. Using Social Networking I am anxious to see how much faster I can remove myself from that statistic.