Thought Leader Thursday – Ryan Frazier

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group | June 25th, 2009

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge with us today Ryan. You’ve spear-headed Clear Channel’s digital billboard program, revolutionizing outdoor media by giving advertisers a way to reach their prospects with a much more targeted and timely message. Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you landed this unique position?  
 
I began my career with Clear Channel Outdoor in 2005 as an account executive selling traditional outdoor media. When Tampa Bay became only the fourth Clear Channel market to build a digital billboard network, they needed someone with a mix of sales, marketing and programming experience to lead the way. I couldn’t help jumping at the opportunity to be a part of such an innovative, exciting new medium, which I believe to be the future of outdoor advertising.
 
Outdoor…

Thought Leader Thursday – Melissa Rich

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group | June 18th, 2009

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge with us today Melissa. You’ve been running a successful telemarketing company, Rich Enterprises, for over ten years now, helping to generate leads for your clients while they focus on running their business. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got started in this industry?

I have always been in sales and in a variety of industries. I worked as a telemarketing representative for two years and was able to learn the telemarketing side of business. I eventually decided to establish my own company so that I could run the business differently. I wanted to begin with a strong team approach where every marketer’s opinion is valued and the marketer can really take charge of the account and use their personality to enhance the campaign.

When we first…

Thought Leader Thursday – Kim Krause Berg

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group | June 11th, 2009

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge with us today Kim. You’ve been done a lot of things online, but I think you’re most recognized as a usability expert. How did you develop your expertise, and of all the paths you could have chosen, what made you choose this one?

I’m never sure which industry I fall into, frankly.  I started out with web design in 1995 and quickly realized I had a passion and talent for SEO, which was encouraged by the company I was working for at that time.  Cre8pc.com launched back then as an SEO teaching site and was popular enough that many people continue to contact me for SEO services, despite my having switched to usability and software QA testing in 2000.

As a user interface engineer, while I loved the design work, I was never…

Thought Leader Thursday – Chris Coyier

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group | June 4th, 2009

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge with us today Chris. For those outside the design community who may not know, you are pretty much at the top of the food chain when it comes to CSS. Let’s start off with the standard “how did you get started” question?

Thanks for the compliment. Although I’m not sure there is a food chain, we’re all in this thing together!  I think I “got started” in about middle school. Since then, through all of the twists and turns of life, I have been a computer nerd. That has manifested itself in a number of different ways, from hardcore gamer to programmer to designer. When I do anything, I try to dig really deeply into it and get seriously involved. I always knew I loved web design, but college didn’t quite…

Thought Leader Thursday – Neil Matthews

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group | May 21st, 2009

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge with us today Neil. You’ve been working with PHP & MySQL for quite a long time and recently started working heavily with WordPress. Your blog, WP Dude, has really been taking off. What brought you to the IT industry, and what motivated you to eventually shift to your chosen niche of specializing in Wordpress?

I have been working in corporate IT for years now, I went straight into IT from college. The last five or six have years have been in Internet facing systems. I went freelance, again in corporate IT, but the culture of big business IT left me cold. I was into blogging and developed a couple of sites (since flipped or left to die) about a couple of topics, and it occurred to me that I…