About Me

Ted Rubin

Ted is a leading social marketing strategist and in 2009 started using the term ROR: Return on Relationship™... a concept he believes is the cornerstone for building an engaged multi-million member database, many of whom are vocal advocates for the brand, like the one he built for e.l.f. Cosmetics as the Chief Marketing Officer between 2008 and 2010, and the one being built for the new updated OpenSky where Ted was Chief Social Marketing Officer until the end of April.

On May 1st Ted announced leaving OpenSky and accepting the position of Chief Social Marketing Officer at Collective Bias (whose Advisory Board he joined in January 2011), a company he has worked closely with since it was founded by John Andrews who Ted met through the blogging community when he was leading Emerging Media at Walmart.

With e.l.f. Cosmetics from 2008-2010 and OpenSky from 2010-2011 Ted has become known for his active use of Twitter where he has in excess of 66,000 followers and grew 60,000+ followers for e.l.f. Twitter handles, over 100,000 for OpenSky, and now in excess of 300,000 for Collective Bias and growing every day… all with deep engagement and interaction. Ted is the most followed CMO on Twitter and has one of the deepest networks of any marketer in the social arena. ROR is the basis of his philosophy…It’s All About Relationships!

At e.l.f., Ted’s responsibilities included communicating with and building e.l.f.’s client base (membership increased from 800k to in excess of 2.4MM during his tenure), leveraging brand equity through strategic marketing programs (with many major brands and publishers), and creating/developing/managing a major thrust into social media initiatives and partnerships and building the most highly respected social media presence in the cosmetics industry. In addition, the merging of traditional PR and the ability of social media to create/spread PR opportunities was leveraged to full effect under his tenure… a first for many companies and something which many are yet to understand.

Ted believes the key to continued success for any brand/retailer/etailer is identifying with the customer. Ted is quick to point out “listening is finally getting the respect it deserves through Social Media… listen and adjust your message to make it relevant to your consumer. Brand loyalty declines due to lack of relevance… a direct result of not listening.” “Number one is always try to understand who your customer is and stay true to your brand.”

Ted has a deep online background beginning in 1997 working with bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change Seth Godin at Yoyodyne, which was acquired in Q4 1998 by Yahoo!

In December 2009 Ted became a member of the OpenSky Board of Advisors, and steered their blogger and social outreach as Chief Social Marketing Officer until the end of April.

Ted worked as a Social Marketing and Engagement Advisor to Big Fuel Communications until they were acquired in March by Publicis Groupe, and is on the Advisory Board of Blue Calypso, OpenSky, SheSpeaks, Taptank, and Zuberance.

A native New Yorker, Ted holds a Bachelor of Science in business and economics from Cornell University. He is divorced, has two teenage daughters, and lives in Long Island.

Personal philosophy: “Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass… it’s about learning to dance in the rain.”