Don Philabaum

Current

President & CEO at Internet Strategies Group

Past

President & CEO at IAC
President at Graduation Photo

Education

Kent State University

Recommended

6 people have recommended Don

Connections

341 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

Don Philabaum’s Summary

I've created 3 businesses, sold two of them. As a business owner, speaker, trainer and consultant, I have 13 years experience in helping organizations around the world create, host and maintain active online communities using social media and now Web 2.0 tools to increase revenue, cut costs and increase profits.

This experience has afforded me the opportunity to work with hundreds of organizations and help them increase donations, grow sales, and increase market share, just to name a few. This knowledge has been captured in over a dozen white papers on how to acquire, retain and engage customers online.

The methodologies developed help businesses determine what their Internet strategy and how to integrate this strategy in the marketing, product development, customer service and other processes that impact the organization.

These concepts have allowed me to travel the world presenting, speaking and teaching. As a featured speaker at conferences around the world, Internet Strategies Group now provides Webinars to train your staff, your distributors and or your members how to develop a social media marketing strategy

I love to create new businesses built around emerging concepts. When I founded my first business none of my clients had ever had a graduation photographer. When I founded my second business (IAC) no one in the industry had an online directory and now in my current business, virtually NO ONE has a written Internet strategy!

My clients have; generated millions of dollars, saved millions of dollars, increased customer participation and retention.

Don Philabaum’s Specialties:

* Building partnerships to increase value for all involved
* Developing social media marketing strategies for your firm
* Creating company wide Internet strategies for your firm
* Consulting, Coaching/Training

Don Philabaum’s Experience

President & CEO

Internet Strategies Group

(Online Media industry)

December 2006 — Present (2 years 8 months)

Business Partnership - Always looking for synergistic partnerships

Strategic Consulting - NOBODY has a written Internet strategy. I help organizations integrate Web 2.0, social media tools to engage the changing behaviors of their customers

Training - Based on my book, Internet Dough, Make More Dough Marketing Online, we provide a series of Webinars to train businesses how they can use the Internet to acquire, retain and engage customers

* Write white papers focusing on online community, social media and engaging customers online
President & CEO

IAC

(Public Company; 11-50 employees; Computer Networking industry)

August 1995 — September 2007 (12 years 2 months)

I founded this company in 1995 to provide private password protected online communities. My business plan called for providing online communities to funeral homes to pizza shops!

In early 1996 our first online communities were designed for college students. We created an early version of Facebook which we called, Studentaccess and later started an online community where students could start their own business!

In the later part of 1996 we focused on building private password communities for alumni associations, primarily because we knew they were able to pay anywhere from $995 to $50,000 per year.

During the 13 years I owned the business we built over 300 online communities for clients like The London School of Economics, Columbia University, Open University etc. As the industry became more competitive and it appeared the price of providing online communities were going to continue to drop, I sold this company to iModules in 2007 and founded Internet Strategies Group.
President

Graduation Photo

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Photography industry)

February 1975 — August 1995 (20 years 7 months)

I founded Aardvark Studios while in college. Drove 50,000 miles a year to build the business. Carried an old cast iron, IBM typewriter around to type letters in my hotel rooms at night. The PC introduced in 1982 changed my life!

We photographed graduates when they received their diploma. Starting with two schools in 1975 and sold it when we were serving 550 colleges and high schools and photographing nearly 200,000 students each year.

Our 150 photographers would take a photograph of each graduate receiving their diploma, then our production team would send a free proof from which they could order. By the time the PC was introduced in 1982, we were tracking the 200,000 orders per year.

Don Philabaum’s Education

Kent State University

Bachelors , Telecommunications , 1970 — 1975

Prior to National Public Radio, we had free reign to create our own radio programs on WKSU-FM. I loved firing up the transmitter at 5:30 am and run my folk oriented radio program

Activities and Societies:

• Major - Telecommunication, focused on radio, TV production and journalism.
Favorite courses included Geology, Music History. Least favorite was
Russian!
• Minor - Political Science. Enjoy the political process

Additional Information

Don Philabaum’s Websites:

Don Philabaum’s Interests:

Technology, marketing, mountain biking, Web 2.0, social media marketing, online community, buzz marketing, word of mouth marketing, new media, Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin, networking, skiing, Telluride, Harley Davidson, newspapers, TV, radio