Glen Gilmore sits with his gadgets in his office at his Yardville home.
By Bill Sanservino
For Glen Gilmore, his time in political office was like another life.
Since losing his effort to be elected to a third term in 2007 to John Bencivengo, the only Democrat to be elected mayor of Hamilton in more than 35 years has reinvented himself as a social media and technology guru who travels around world speaking on the subjects.
The change in direction was the ultimate result of a long sabbatical that Gilmore took after leaving office—travelling the world and examining where he wanted his life and career to go next.
“I had always wanted to learn how to scuba dive, so I went to Thailand and earned my scuba certificate,” said Gilmore, an attorney and former paratrooper. “I also did some hiking in Alaska, and climbed Mt. Fuji. I followed my passions, and while I was doing that I was paying attention to this new thing called social media.
Primarily through Twitter, Gilmore began to share his “journey of learning.”
“I would read 10 articles on the subject of social media and I would share one,” he said. “Over time people began to follow me because they knew I was sharing content related to the development and the cutting edge of social media.”
As his presence on the Internet grew, marketing firms reached out Gilmore for advice, and he soon realized that there was an chance to pursue a new career in the field. “Although I was still practicing law, I saw something extremely exciting happening with social media. There was a real opportunity there.”
In addition to working as a social media and marketing consultant to companies such as Johnson and Johnson, Cisco and Federal Express, for the past five years Gilmore has been teaching digital marketing, emerging technology and social media law at the Rutgers School of Business.
Gilmore was also able to take the preparatory work he did for those classes and use it to write a book. “Social Media Law for Business,” which was published by McGraw Hill and released at the end of last year. The book looks at the phenomenon of social media, its impact on the law and the ways the legal profession is working to adapt to social media and new technologies.
“It’s an interesting and rare thing to see a body of law evolve,” Gilmore said. “Because I have been an early adapter in this space and an attorney by profession, it’s only natural that I was able to track the evolution of that law.”
Gilmore also writes about how businesses, particularly larger size companies, are setting up social media marketing efforts within their enterprises. Over the years, his reputation as a social media expert has grown exponentially. In 2012, Forbes magazine ranked Gilmore at number 7 in its list of Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers, and he was ranked number 15 the following year.
“That created a lot of excitement with a lot of people, and as a consequence I find myself being invited all over the globe to speak about social media marketing,” Gilmore said.
Last year he spoke in Dubai, and he recently returned from a trip to Trinidad where he spoke at a conference of 22 Caribbean nations to officials interested in learning about how to tap into social media and social media law. Before the end of the year, Gilmore has trips planned to Miami, Istanbul and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
“I’ve always been someone who has had a passion for travelling, so I found a way to combine the two,” Gilmore said. In fact, in addition to his primary Twitter account at @GlenGilmore, which has more than 300,000 followers, he has an account called @TravelEsquire, which has some 54,000 followers that focuses on his travel exploits. He can also be found on Facebook, and on the web at gilmorebusinessnetwork.com and lawofficeofglengilmore.com.
In March, Gilmore went to Jordan with a team of travel bloggers on invitation from the country’s Board of Tourism. His exploits there included a visit to the ancient lost city of Petra and a three-hour camel ride in the Wadi Rum Desert following the path of Lawrence of Arabia.
“It’s almost like I’m living a different life now,” Gilmore said. “As mayor, my focus was entirely on one community—this great community of ours, Hamilton. As a social media strategist, which is first and foremost what I do now, it’s a global audience, because that’s what social media is all about. Reaching out to the widest community possible and crossing all sorts of boundaries in time and in distance.”
His new career has left him little time to work as an attorney. His practice has evolved to a point where he does some traditional law, but also works with startup companies to figure out how to create communities and be compliant with an evolving body of law.
“I take a few special cases, but I’ve largely moved away from it,” Gilmore said. “The great thing about being an attorney is that you always have insights into legal issues. Within the digital and social media marketing space, there aren’t many attorneys who are focused in an area of law that is evolving not only in the United States but globally. Because this is what I devote most of my time to, I’ve been able to track what’s happening.”
The legal profession is one of the professions that’s been slow in the race to adapt to social media, Gilmore said. “Very few law schools, even today at this moment, are including social media law as a core subject.”
New York is one state that has addressed this situation, Gilmore said. The New York Bar recently decided that an understanding of social media is part of an attorney’s obligation to represent a client effectively and competently. The bar said that if an attorney is unfamiliar with, or unaware of the requirements of social media they may not have the competency that is demanded of an attorney to represent a client.
“It was a wake up call for the members of the legal profession within the state of New York,” he said.
But the law isn’t the only area where Gilmore has concentrated his learning. He also found that he needed to learn about new technologies.
To that end, Inc. Magazine recently named Gilmore as a top 30 expert in the Internet of Things, which Gilmore explains is where everything becomes a connected device, and where information can be shared over various forms of social media.
“We think of our car as a connected device, and now you’re refrigerator can be a connected device and your watch can be one,” he said. “Within this space, it’s about the convergence of technology and social media that is providing incredible opportunities and incredible challenges as well. Part of what I do is to focus on emerging technologies how they converge with social media. So much of it still involves sharing of information.”
One of the technologies Gilmore worked with was Google Glass, as a Google Glass Explorer.
“I wrote extensively about it, and unfortunately what I wrote was not flattering because the technology wasn’t ready, but it has incredible potential,” he said. “For now, Google is going to focus on enterprise uses. For the public, Google Glass became too intrusive. Too scary.”
There was a point where Gilmore said he was the least tech-savvy person you could ever meet, but he has followed his passion to his current status.
“My passion has led me to finding myself listed as one of the top leaders in the Internet of Things,” he said. “I can assure you that there’s some of my staff back from when I was mayor who would say, ‘What? That guy had trouble with a remote.’”
Reflecting on his time in politics, Gilmore said that although he feels it is a privilege to have served as mayor, he doesn’t miss it.
“I loved the opportunity, yet I’m certainly glad to be out of politics, which unfortunately was too much of a blood sport,” he said.
He added that he is able to fulfill his need for social connection through his time on the Internet instead of working with people as an elected official.
Another big change in Gilmore’s life was his marriage to Rosa Spera, owner of Rosa’s restaurant on South Broad Street, about four years ago.
Gilmore and Spera knew each other for about 15 years, mostly from time he spent at the restaurant, and connected romantically during an event where he was having dinner with representatives of Norcia, the town in Italy that Gilmore began a sister city relationship with while he was mayor.
“When they came out here, I wasn’t mayor any longer at that point, but since I had visited their community to establish the sister city relationship, the were kind enough to invite me out. I joined them for a dinner at Rosa’s and at that point, with some great wine and food, Rosa and I began seeing each other.”
Both Gilmore and Spera work primarily out of offices in their Yardville home, which enables them to spend time with each other throughout the day.
“We’ll take little breaks,” he said. “Every morning we start our day after breakfast with a walk with our dog, Simba (a rescue from the Hamilton animal shelter) in Veteran’s Park. Then occasionally take some time during the day. The nice thing is that when we take a break, we take a break together.”
Spera’s mother, who is in her mid-80s, also lives with them. Gilmore called her “one of the best cooks I’ve ever met.” She starts each morning early, pounding meat and preparing sauces and also cooks lunch for them almost every day.
“It’s been a fun thing, to see an immersion in the Italian culture, which is beautiful,” Gilmore said.
Part of that immersion involved visits to Italy. For the last three years, Gilmore and Spera have gone to Villalba, her village of origin in Sicily. The town is about an hour from Palermo, and Gilmore said it’s a town out of the storybooks. Many of Spera’s relatives still live in Villalba.
The best thing about being out of politics is that it allows Gilmore more time to spend with his family.
“Being in politics has a personal sacrifice that goes along with it in terms of family time, and it does take a toll,” Gilmore said. “When you’re in government, every night there are events you need to go to. A community only has one mayor, and I tried to go to as many of them as I could.
“Now, every Friday night I only have one place to be, and that’s date night with Rosa. Life is good. I consider myself very blessed and very grateful. I couldn’t be happier actually, so it’s kind of nice.”
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