Web Business by Ken Burbary

My New Gig…

I’ve been quiet as of late, but for good reason. Behind closed doors, I have been very busy and I am happy to be able to publicly announce the exciting changes in my life (some of you have already noticed and been asking questions, so here is the scoop).  Several weeks ago I began the next phase of my career, and started a new position heading up the Digital Strategy & Social Media practice for Ernst & Young.

For those that aren’t familiar with the E&Y brand, it is an incredibly successful and diversified company. We provide a wide range of advisory, assurance, tax and specialty services to an impressive list of blue chip clients around the globe. With over 130,000 employees globally, we have an enormous organization, with the ability to bring deep expertise and resources to bear on our engagements.

I’m excited to play a critical role in helping E&Y advisory clients transform their business through the opportunities that digital marketing can provide. I will be spending the majority of my time thinking about the ramifications of social media on traditional marketing & communications. This means participating in the social web (uh oh, more time on Twitter!), analyzing & writing about digital strategy, trends, and best practices. And advising E&Y clients on the impact these issues have on their business.

Enough about me. I’d much rather prefer to talk about others. Looking back, my career has evolved in unexpected and challenging ways. I wouldn’t have been able to navigate those challenges and difficult decisions without the help and guidance from an amazing group of people that I have come to call friends and rely on. Besides my family, I sincerely appreciate and highly respect the tremendous character of people like Adam Cohen, Scott Monty, Amber Naslund, Blagica Bottigleiro, Ron Lippitt, Damon Henry, and so many others (you know who you are). THANK YOU friends! I hope you know I’m always there for you as well.

For those that need it, I can be reached at my new email: kenneth.burbary at ey dot com

7 random things ‘meme’

My friends Shannon Paul and Marc Meyer recently tagged me to be the next in line for a blog meme that says I need to outline seven random and/or weird things about myself. This ’7 random things meme’ has been going on for some time, but I’ve successfully avoided it until now. So, at the risk of humilating myself or giving you 7 reasons to never read this blog again, here goes!

1. I’m a Digital pack rat. I collect all forms of digital media. I keep just about every file saved on some form of media, anticipating when I will need it again in the future. I seem to constantly come up with reasons to “need” that email from the last job, installer for the program I don’t use anymore, articles/whitepapers that will come in handy again…….some day. Every so often I will admit defeat and purge, only to start building up my collection again.
2. I’m a closet geek. I like to tinker with technology. Ever since I got my first computer, back in the early/mid 80s, I’ve been taking things apart and putting them back together to better understand how things work. I was an early user of Compuserv, Prodigy, and active on many Bulletin Board Systems. I like to know the “how”.
3. I am an active wrestler. No, not professional WWE style, but with my young kids (3 of them). It’s a tradition that my dad started with me and my brother back when we were young. After Dad got home, we would “roughhouse” a bit and wrestle in the basement. It’s a fond memory of my childhood, and now something my kids enjoy with me. It’s wrestlemania some nights. Not 2 minutes after I get into the door after work and I am bombarded with “Can we play wrestle Daddy?” requests. I. Love. it.  (As I get older and they get bigger, my advantages are quickly diminishing)
4. I remember peoples faces. Always. I see someone I went to school with 20 years ago in a grocery store and recognize them. Someone I worked with 3 jobs ago at a gas station and immediately recall them. Most of the time they do not notice me, but I seem to always recognize them. So chances are, if we meet and I see you again, I’ll be sure to stop and say hi.
5. I was the pickiest eater in the world growing up. As a kid, I definitely lived in a “meat & potatoes” household. There wasn’t much exploring into new cuisines. As a result I was afraid to try new foods. That all changed in my early 20s and I leapt to the other end of the spectrum. I’m now a foodie. I love food. All different kinds of foods. I love to cook with them, experiment and try new combinations and dishes. If I could go back and do it all over again there is a good chance I would have gone to culinary school instead.
6. In college I sold my body (NO, not what you are thinking). I often traveled to another school on weekends to visit my girlfriend (and now wife). However, I was broke and had no car. So I took the bus. I had to get creative with ways to fund my “true love” and pay greyhound. For a semester, until I found a better job, I donated blood plasma for $25 per donation (coincidentally the donation center was located right next to the bus station) to pay for my transportation and food expenses for the weekend. Yuck. Double Yuck.
7. I’m a World War II history nut. I have an insatiable appetite for knowledge on the topic. I have many books and movies covering that genre/era. I’m fascinated by it. I’m the guy that gets excited by the time-life commercials advertising the “never before seen” black-and-white footage of the european or pacific campaigns during WWII, and for a limited time only. Call now! Yeah, that’s me. Hook. Line. Sinker.

Hopefully you haven’t wet yourself or strained a facial muscle from laughing too hard. Now it is time for me to designate some others to take the 7 random things walk of shame.

I tag:

• Adam Cohen
• Stacy Lukas
  
• Blagica Bottigleiro
• Shauna Nicholson
• Warren Sukernek
• Gennefer Snowfield
• Terry Bean

Here are the rules for my fellow bloggers:

• Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post – some random, some weird.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

Updated: I removed Aaron Strout from the “tagged” list because he had already been tagged, and added Stacy Lukas