Person of Interest: Pete Cashmore
AKA: The Young Gun
Known Associates:
Profile: Originally founded in Aberdeen, Scotland, Mashable has become a household name for most because of its huge archive of information best suited for marketers as well as wealth of technology, entertainment, and science news. The man behind Mashable is Pete Cashmore, The Young Gun, who founded the website in 2005 at the mere age of 19.
With most of the other best inbound marketers, they didn't delve into Internet marketing until later in life after years of building experience in other careers. However, Cashmore has been an entrepreneur and marketer for most of his young life, a movement which is starting to become more commonplace in the younger generation. Taking this route at a younger age has helped Cashmore become named one of Inc.'s "30 Under 30," Forbes "Top 25 Web Celebs" list and even Huffington Post and their list of "Top 10 Game Changers 2009." And in 2012, Cashmore even made it to Time magazine's most influential list, beside names like Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey.
Dividing his time between New York, San Francisco, and Scotland, Cashmore helped Mashable become a Technorati top blog and influential source of technology news within a relatively short time span with the help of Editor-In-Chief Ben Parr. However, Parr has since left Mashable for other ventures and was replaced with equally well-known Lance Ulanoff. Cashmore is also a sometime columnist for CNN, and most rumors say that CNN is interested in buying out Mashable for roughly $200 million.
For now, Mashable remains independent and highly profitable, even acquiring a "Twitter for reviewers," called Blippr. The blog currently employs hundreds of employees, has over 50 million page views per month, has two offices in New York and San Francisco, and even hosts its own events called the Mashable Awards to represent the best in technology with worthy recognition and Mashable Connect for industry experts. Fast Company and PC Mag both dub Mashable as a must-read for anyone interested in technology and marketing or work closely with the industry.
As for Cashmore, he can be often found in the spotlight of mainstream media, mostly to discuss entrepreneurial topics as well as online marketing tactics for large-scale businesses. He has been interviewed by the Guardian, AOL, at SXSW, Net magazine, and Media Bistro.
Last Seen:
- Mashable -- A top influential technology news and how-to blog that is on the same rank as TechCrunch and Engadget.
- Mashable Connect -- Another annual conference held by Mashable, except this one is invite-only for industry experts.
- Twitter -- Active tweets mostly with articles from Mashable, although this is Cashmore's personal account.
- Facebook -- Yet another active source where Cashmore shares news and insights from Mashable and his own thoughts on the Internet.
Special Skills: The best inbound marketers before Cashmore had the upper hand of being older, more experienced, and being established to create the industry of inbound marketing. Cashmore came much later when most of today's tactics in online marketing were well-known, more saturated, and thus a bit harder to gain traction as a new blogger. However, Cashmore beat these odds and created a highly influential and powerful blog. It could be argued that Mashable is even much larger and well-known than Copyblogger or ProBlogger.
Cashmore created a very strong continuity in Mashable's "voice" on multiple channels. To become one of the best inbound marketers, a easily recognizable voice and focus among all forms of content marketing and inbound strategies must be established early on. However, this doesn't mean that the voice of a company must stay absolutely the same over the years. In fact, that could potentially be a bad decision.
For example, Mashable's voice has been a journalistic approach with a casual overtone (compared to the traditional, editorial style of the New York Times), though it started out as a simple blog by Cashmore which talked about social media and networking. Mashable continues to cover social media as one of their main focuses, but, expanded to encompass all tech and even world events. To be one of the best inbound marketers, adapting and changing is required.
Cashmore also rapidly expanded once Mashable could support itself, because relying solely on advertising revenue when it comes to blogging will eventually plateau and more leads will need to be captured. He immediately started to extend all of the channels on Mashable to include more news-worthy topics as well as create the Mashable Awards, Mashable Connect, and most recently Mashable TV. To date, Mashable is still growing and changing with the trends of online marketing--as any business should do.
Notes: In some profiles online, Cashmore simply describes himself as a "lifelong fan of unicorns."
This post is part-one of the 11-part blog series "The Inbound 11," a collection of today's best inbound marketers as seen through the eyes of Magnetic MarCom. You can learn more about upcoming "Inbound 11" profiles by visiting our introductory post.
