Nonprofit aids college students who are first in their family to attend

College changed his life path, said Nance, the first person in his family to attend or graduate from college. His father was a prison guard and his mother worked for Sears.

“College can really change your perspective and lead you down a different path,” said Nance. “There are negative things that can change your life path, and there are positive ones.”

He is a graduate of the University of West Georgia and has a graduate degree in technology management from Georgia Tech. Nance founded Mansell Group in 1999.

“I’ve been blessed and now I’ve got to do something about it,” he said. “If I don’t give back, I believe it will come back to haunt me. I have to keep my karma in good standing.”

He organized the foundation in 2004, working with teens through the Mayor’s Youth Program. But the effort wasn’t formalized until six months ago, said Nance.

Q. How is business?

A. We are doing great. I feel very confident we are in the right business – technology has changed the marketing landscape. Today it’s the e-mail marketing business; tomorrow it could be something else, but as long as we focus on how technology is changing marketing we will be successful.

Q. Is social networking just a fad?

A. No. The Internet has become “the” communications platform: e-mail, mobile messaging, social applications are here to stay. Everybody is using it. The age group 60-72 is the fastest growing group on the Internet.

Q. Who are Mansell Group’s clients?

A. We currently support over 500 organizations including: AirTran, AARP, National Education Association, Payless Shoe Source, and Randstad. Our clients have one thing in common — a desire to use technology to communicate with their customers. So whether it is customer support e-mails for AirTran Airways, e-mail renewals for AARP, or marketing messages for Randstad, we help these organizations reach their customers using technology.

Q. Companies are falling all over themselves thinking they have to embrace social media? Do they?

A. I am a huge advocate of playing with it. The reality is the way you figure it out is to play with the technology, whether it’s e-mail or some other social media. Every business needs to take a “test and learn” mentality by prototyping various solutions and ideas. Those who don’t are making a mistake. If you wait too long, it is very difficult to catch up.

Q. Will the fixation on it disappear?

A. No. Every technology goes through a clearly defined adoption lifecycle. There are always early adopters – people who jump right in feet first — and there are always people who wait until it is proven. Technology has fundamentally altered the way we interact with one another — the pace of change will only increase with time.

Q. How do businesses measure the success of social media?

A. No one has figured out a repeatable way to leverage social media channels because they are difficult to track. If someone mentions your company on their blog, or posts an update about your company on Twitter, or posts a picture of your company logo on Facebook it is difficult to measure the effects of this on your organization. E-mail marketing and other forms of technology enabled marketing have a clearer ROI (return on investment) model that is measurable and reliable. Social media will get there; it is simply too powerful for it not to be a marketing channel for companies.