The employees here at IFMG are excited for the upcoming holiday season and with Thanksgiving in a couple of days we wanted to share some fun Thanksgiving facts with you! Check them out and let us know how you will be celebrating Thanksgiving this year.

Fun Facts:

• Since 1947, the National Turkey Federation has presented a live turkey and two dressed turkeys to the President. The President does not eat the live turkey. He “pardons” it and allows it to live out its days on a historical farm.
• The five most popular ways to serve leftover turkey is as a sandwich, in stew, chili or soup, casseroles and as a burger.
• In the US, about 280 million turkeys are sold for the Thanksgiving celebrations
• Lobster, rabbit, chicken, fish, squashes, beans, chestnuts, hickory nuts, onions, leeks, dried fruits, maple syrup and honey, radishes, cabbage, carrots, eggs, and goat cheese are thought to have made up the first Thanksgiving feast.
• More than 40 million green bean casseroles are served on Thanksgiving.

So will you keep it traditional with family and home cooked food? Or modern with close friends and dining out?  No matter how you spend your Thanksgiving; be safe and be joyous! Happy Thanksgiving.

The Staff of Interactive Financial Marketing Group

Rosa Luciano is the Marketing Coordinator and blogger extraordinaire for Interactive Financial Marketing Group. Follow her on Twitter @RozaLuciano

We are very excited here at IFMG for our latest employee. Nick Beranek joined the IFMG family this week and we are thrilled to introduce him to you!

What is your role at IFMG?
Graphic Designer

What does your role entail?
As a Graphic Designer, my main tasks include managing the look-and-feel of our websites and marketing efforts, but also bringing in my knowledge of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how to properly format a webpage. I began working here on Nov 8, 2010, so I’m still fresh and my duties may take some twists and turns depending on what is needed at any given moment.

What do you look forward to the most with this role?
I look forward to contributing my ideas and talents to further the success of IFMG and its clients!

What do you do for fun?
For fun, I like to do many things. I have two daughters that love to be active and experience new things. We like to dance, tell jokes, read stories … They bring so much inspiration and joy to my life. In the digital realm, I like to immerse myself in the fantastic worlds of role-playing games (RPGs), whether on a console or on my PC at home. I also am an amateur gardener and like to plant herbs and vegetables in my yard. My favorite herb would have to be rosemary with its earthy fragrance and taste.

What has been an interesting event in your life lately?
My wife and I recently got married on Halloween Day, 2010. We had a costumed affair and many of our friends and relatives, including their children, were there. We held it at the William Byrd Community House here in Richmond, VA, and had such a wonderful ceremony. Then afterward we went Trick-or-Treating!

Nick currently resides in Richmond with his wife of 6 years. He has two daughters, ages 2 and 5. “They are wonderful, free, independent spirits and I love them dearly.” As for animals, they have 6 cats … “Yes, we have turned into *that* house!”

Rosa Luciano is the Marketing Coordinator and blogger extraordinaire for Interactive Financial Marketing Group. Follow her on Twitter @RozaLuciano

We have a new employee on deck who we are very ecstatic about, Albano Stefani!  Albano brings a rich background in both lead generation and automotive Internet sales to our Team.  He sold cars at Coconut Creek Mitsubishi in Florida before becoming their Internet Sales Manager.

In his spare and eventually his full-time, he built his own mortgage leads business.  After selling the leads business and relocating to Richmond he took over Pearson Chrysler Jeep’s Internet Sales department.

Albano’s full of energy and his passion about the web is contagious.  We especially are enthused by his knowledge of the automotive landscape and its application to our business opportunities.  We are pleased to introduce you to Mr. Stefani.

What is your role at IFMG?
Search Marketing Analyst

What does your role entail?
Optimize search engine rankings for our websites to increase overall traffic; optimize our landing pages to increase conversion and profitability; improve our brand awareness and trust in our services.

What do you look forward to the most with this role?
The everyday challenges in the organic search world especially involving changes in the Google ranking algorithms and trying to reflect those changes in our site optimizations.

What do you do for fun?
Travel a lot, cooking, online poker.

Albano and his wife currently reside in Richmond.

Rosa Luciano is the Marketing Coordinator and blogger extraordinaire for Interactive Financial Marketing Group. Follow her on Twitter @RozaLuciano

Over the past couple of months we have introduced you to some of our awesome team here at Interactive Financial Marketing Group. In case you missed any we have listed them below with their Employee Spotlight posts. We look forward to posting more spotlights as we grow. Enjoy!

Management:

Tom Feary
Brian Guillano
Amy Taggart
Dorothy Juntunen

Development:

Kevin Boylan
Andy Gagne
Sangeetha Bagathi
Dinesh Prakashchand

Operations:

Scott Siefert
Zenaida Burnette
Rosa Gallegos

For profiles on our sales team click here.

Rosa Luciano is the Marketing Coordinator and blogger extraordinaire for Interactive Financial Marketing Group. Follow her on Twitter @RozaLuciano

As we near the end of our Employee Spotlight Series, we bring to you another member of our development team, Sangeetha. She has been with us since 2008 and before her arrival had worked as an Application Developer at Hewlett Packard in Houston, Texas. She started her career as a junior developer in 2001 and has worked in development since.

How long have you been with the company?
I have been with IFMG for 2 years.

What is your role at IFMG?
I am a web developer.

What does your role entail?
I’m involved in developing a Centralized Reporting System.

What do you enjoy most about your role?
Working in different areas of the development process and learning new things in day to day work.  

Are you currently working on a new project and if so what is it?
Currently working on Quick Book Invoice extraction through the web application.

What do you do for fun?
I like to watch movies with my family.

What is something that no one would ever know about you?
I still  love to eat baby food with lots of sugar in it. I prefer it over regular food.

A native of India, Sangeetha currently resides in Richmond VA with her husband and her 5 year old daughter and one year old son.

Rosa Luciano is the Marketing Coordinator and blogger extraordinaire for Interactive Financial Marketing Group. Follow her on Twitter @RozaLuciano