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Let Me Introduce Myself

Overview

My name is Tommy Young and this is my little slice of digital landscape. I am 40 years young and live outside St. Louis, Missouri, but have lived in a number of places. I was born in southern Illinois, but then lived in Louisiana, Texas, Kansas, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia, Washington, DC, and now Illinois again (in that order).

I’ve had a fun and varied life that just seems to get better and better each year. I played Division I golf, worked for and studied with the man who hired Walter Cronkite and fired Edward R. Murrow, walked large sections of the Appalachian Trial, ran a suicide hotline, and my parents swear I am the most photographed child in the world standing beside a cannon (my father’s PhD is in Civil War history).

I spend my non-work hours playing golf, taking bad photos, mountain biking, reading, playing with my PS3/PS2/N64/Sega Genesis gaming systems, listening to music, and obeying the detailed instructions of my four cats.

Professional Background

I have close to 20 years experience in the high-tech b2b market space with experience in account service, strategic planning, research and account planning, and public relations.

Prior to setting off on a freelance career I was the Vice President of Marketing for a virtual, web-based Application Service Provider (ASP) that sold high-end interactive marketing products and services (electronic newsletters, email marketing, and web meeting software).

During the dot com bubble I was an Account Supervisor for KSK Communications (now a part of Earle Palmer Brown); a specialized ad agency focused on b2b high-tech clients. I was responsible for crafting marketing and strategic planning for high-profile new and existing clients, including Lucent Technologies, HP, PeopleSoft, Octel, and Unisys.

Before that I worked at E. James White, one of Northern Virginia’s largest agencies, where I built the Account Planning department from scratch into a profitable and productive business unit. Before that role I was a Senior Account Executive that managed three of the agency’s largest clients for the $80M shop.

Prior to joining E. James White, I worked as a market research analyst at INPUT and as an Account Executive at award-winning Elliott Van Deutsch (then MHI Communications, now Blattner Brunner), where I cut my teeth working on accounts such as AOL, EDS, Nortel, and the National Parks and Conservation Association.

I have a Masters of Arts in Communications from Louisiana State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and Communications from Western Illinois University.


tommy@webranding.org

Idle Musings

Since 1995 weBranding has been the primary place where I experiment and organize my thoughts online. However several years it morphed into my professional site. I felt it important to separate my personal site from my professional site, so Idle Musings was born Come on in and explore.

weBranding

My professional site, creative outlet, testbed, and digital playground. You’ll find articles and posts about interactive marketing, online publishing and community development, information architecture, graphic design, gaming, and all things digital. Oh, and if you're looking to hire me, you can view my resume here.

Project Katrina

This blog is my historical record of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. You’ll find posts about general news, government procurement, the rebuilding of the levees, links to government reports, book reviews, videos, tons of photos, and of course commentary. Project Katrina is updated almost daily.

Articles & White Papers

Mandatory Elements for B2B e-Newsletters

Enhance Lead Generation & Sales With e-Newsletters

The 411 on E-mail Testing

Conducting a Successful Webinar

Key Benefits of Landing Pages

Six Simple e-Newsletter Publishing Tips

Trust And Loyalty Go Hand-in-Hand

Five Steps To Plan A Strategic e-Newsletter Program

Associations

American Marketing Association
Association of Knowledge Workers
Info Technology Association of America
LSU Alumni Association
Manship School of Mass Communications

Tommy is also a frequent writer and commentator on the progressive political website Daily Kos.

Elsewhere Online

43 Folders
A List Apart
Ad Contrarian
Adaptive Path
Ars Technica
Boing Boing
Buzz Machine
Design Observer
Digg
Drupal
Fimoculous
FreelanceSwitch
io9
Jeffrey Zeldman
Joomla
Kottke
Lifehacker
Mashable
Meyer's Web
Presentation Zen
ReadWriteWeb
Searchblog
Seth Godin
Signal vs. Noise
Six Revisions
Smashing Magazine
TechCrunch
Technorati
WebMonkey
WebWorkerDaily
WordPress
xBlog