Sonny Cohen

Why Drupal:

“Drupal is the least risky option for our clients:

1. Because it’s a powerful social content management system (CMS);
2. Client needs are guaranteed to change and it is the best candidate to be able to move with these changes without having to completely redevelop a site;
3. The community contribution nature of the CMS is the best model for capturing the evolution of the internet. Improvements and upgrades are not vetted through corporate committees and prioritized among however many limited number of developers there may be. Rather, it's freely open to everyone to innovate.
4. Ongoing, continuous and ubiquitous events like the local CDMUGs provide a forum for sharing the best features and functionality of a CMS.”

Experience:

“I have a broad set of business experiences, and I’ve worked in both private and public sector organizations. The key to a successful project is to be able to understand, as best one can, from the perspective of that organization -- and I can do that.”

What Drives Me:

“I feel like I’m at the epicenter of what’s happening in our culture. Everything we do is incredibly relevant to our society, and daily newspaper headlines only support that idea. With revolutions talking about social media as a contributing factor, I can’t help but know that the things we’re doing are in fact contributing to these disruptive technologies that allow people with vision to leverage those technologies to whatever their objectives are. Being able to be part of that and contribute to it is very energizing.”

What Inspires Me:

“I’m inspired by both new ways of doing things and better ways of doing what we already do -- optimizing what we do and finding new ways to do it.”

Background:

Sonny works closely with Duo’s clients to develop their online business and marketing strategy, finding an online fit for what they do in the real world. His tactical responsibilities include:

• Implementing and managing paid search engine campaigns, organic search engine optimization (SEO) campaigns
• Consulting on and implementing permission-based email using ExactTarget, Duo's preferred email service provider.
• Providing strategic online marketing consultation to law firms and others using web analytics to help drive website and business performance.
• Conceptualizing and implementing social media marketing

Sonny has over 30 years of business management and marketing experience, often using disruptive business processes and technologies including:

• Serial entrepreneur and business marketer as an Apple Computer reseller growing his self- funded business into a $30 million multi-store retail chain and technology consulting practice.
• Internet partner in the business consulting firm Friedman, Eisenstein, Raemer and Schwartz (FERS).
• Director of Business Development for startup Primecom, an online e-commerce application service provider
• Director of Marketing for NextPart, Inc., an Internet-based distributor of recycled auto parts.

Sonny freely shares his thought leadership about social media marketing, blogs, email marketing, and search engine optimization. He hopes to energize and empower other people so they feel confident pursuing newer and less-traditional strategies:

• Contributor to the Duo Blog
• Speaker at the Web Content conferences
• Panelist at the Law Firm Marketing Partners Forum
• Seminar presentations at Legal Marketing Association Regional Conferences in Minnesota, Chicago, San Francisco and New England
• Seminar presentation at annual Federation of Humanities Council Conference
• Online marketing panel moderator at the Meritas annual Marketing Conference

Follow Sonny on Twitter and LinkedIn:

• twitter.com/SonnyCohen
• LinkedIn Profile

Sonny is a member of the Web Analytics Association, Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization and the Legal Marketing Association. He has a BS in Engineering and a Masters in Regional Planning from the University of Michigan. Go Blue.

When not helping his clients, Sonny is an avid inline street skater (Rollerblader) hitting the roads for 10 - 15 mile workouts. He is also into birding and land conservation and active in the Lake Cook Chapter of the Illinois Audubon Society where, besides watching birds, he takes a busman's holiday managing the Chapter's website and email communications. Sonny is married (for 40 years!) and has a daughter training for a career in law enforcement and a son opening a restaurant in Streeterville, Chicago, featuring the best local & sustainable food.  Oh yeah, and he's a Chicago Cubs baseball fan still hoping they might play in a World Series (and even win) in his lifetime.