Gene De Libero's Wild Ride: Self-Education, Social Networks, & Music-Tech Connection

Gene De Libero's journey in marketing and technology has been a wild ride. He created and sold one of the first social networks, developed an early digital out-of-home platform for movie theaters, and wrote a handbook for a major publisher. He has been advising executives at major enterprises and teaching marketers of the future at New York University, and is currently a principal at Digital Mindshare LLC. In this interview, Gene shares his experience of self-education, the development of his first social network, and how he moved into working for companies and advising them. He also talks about his transition to teaching and the connection between musicians and technology.

Gene's journey began in the late teens, when he had to drop out of school to take care of business and never got to go to college. He travelled west to Seattle, and became a professional musician. When he left the music business, he returned to New York and needed a way to keep in touch with all the people he had met and played music with. This led to the creation of one of the first commercial social networks. As it grew, Gene started reaching out to vendors and charging them to have a support forum on his network. He eventually sold it.

Gene then moved into companies working as tech support and got super focused on network technology, building networks around the world. He was inspired to get into the tech side of the creative scene and built one of the first digital out-of-home platforms. He then wrote a handbook for managers on how to understand networks and tools for learning, communication and commerce. This book became a textbook at colleges and universities.

Gene moved into the marketing space, working with agencies to help them become digital. He was noticed by New York University and got a gig as an adjunct, developing their first digital marketing program. He has been doing this for over 20 years, without a degree.

The conversation then turned to the connection between musicians and technology. Gene believes it is more fundamental, as his children who are into science and math, also gravitate towards music. He also spoke about the transformation of social networking and how there was less bad in the early days, as networks were smaller and easier to manage. However, with the growth of platforms such as AOL and Facebook, bad actors became more prevalent. He also mentions the challenges of using AI and predictive analytics applications in marketing.

Originally reported by Martech: https://martech.org/gene-de-libero-spotlight-on-the-expert/
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