I’m David Spinks but you’ll inevitably just call me Spinks.

I’m the Director of Product Marketing and Community at Zaarly where I get to do what I love, build communities and create a badass product for them.

I also cofounded  a young professional community called u30pro, and a community for community managers called The Community Manager.

Before Zaarly, I spent most of my time building a blogger outreach tool that I founded called BlogDash.

Before BlogDash, I worked on a blogger review site called Scribnia.

I’m pumped to be living in Manhattan at a very exciting time, as the web startup space is exploding here.   I meet someone new every day who’s working on an interesting new project.  New coworking spaces and incubator programs are sprouting up left and right.  I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else right now.

When I’m not at my computer, I’m either drawing, taking photos, playing video games, playing basketball, watching movies or I’m actually still at the computer and have just developed harmless delusions of life away from the glow of my macbook.

What is this blog about?

The answer to this has changed a lot

The Short: This blog is my straightforward, critical look at the impact of social media trends on business and the way we communicate.  You’ll also find posts on startups, entrepreneurship, and other random shit.

The Less Short:

I started this blog in January, 2009 when I was still a student at SUNY Geneseo and I was looking for a job.  This was the description I put in this page:

“I believe that we are living in a time of great change in terms of the way we communicate with one another.  With the growth of social media, people are beginning to communicate in ways that were never before possible.  With such unfamiliar concepts comes both success and failure.

By discussing our experiences and ideas, we become catalysts for the spread of knowledge and can develop new, creative concepts into relevant business applications.  I learn something new every day from innovative leaders that share their ideas and experiences with others.  I write this blog to return the favor and contribute to the conversation.”

Looking back at this description, a lot has changed since I started my blog but the reason behind it hasn’t changed at all.

Social Media went from a fad to a revolution in how we communicate.  Today, you can’t watch tv without hearing “follow us on twitter” at least once per commercial series.  It’s hit the mainstream hard and fast.

As far as conducting business on social media platforms, we’ve come a long way but there is still a long way to go.  There are still many companies who aren’t comfortable jumping in.  There is still a lot of confusion on the right way to approach it.

As my career has developed in the social media space, I’ve become obsessed with building amazing products.  I am an entrepreneur at heart, and you’ll find that over time, the content on this blog represents that.

I’m still learning a ton every day, and I still hope to contribute to the conversation by sharing my experiences while challenging you to think critically.

I can only promise that I’ll try to do so in a way that is useful, straightforward and witty when possible.