Michael Thompson worked in digital marketing for over 15 years and started out teaching Internet usage to youth groups followed by a short period selling affiliate marketing for the (then) UK’s largest dot com retailer in DVDs, Blackstar.

Following company profitability Michael moved into design and development becoming adept with HTML, PHP and later CSS. After working as a web developer for five years he made the move to retail and within one year became the largest underwater camera retailer in Ireland selling thousands of products worldwide exclusively through his custom home-built website, BigBlueSquid.com.

With indepth knowledge of photography, web development and Photoshop skills in 2006 Michael was hired by one of the top PR photography agencies in Northern Ireland, Harrison Photography, where he remained for almost five years before launching an online marketing company and resurrecting the name Big Blue Squid. In 2011 he teamed up with Guru Networks for a year to become a director with the founders Guy Bucknall and Ruan O'Tiarnaigh doing the same job but with a cool office in Belfast.
Today Michael still works under the Big Blue Squid brand and provides specialist digital and technology advice to all sorts of interesting and innovative people.

In 2012 Michael published "Cracking Social Media, a busy guide for managers". His no nonsense and practical direction has led to numerous training seminars and speaking engagements.

Michael's previous experience includes:
Social media strategy design and implementation.

Network & storage management, Image Retouching and PR Photography (4 years)

Online Sales & Marketing (3 years)

Professional Web Developer (5 years)
HTML, CSS, PHP, Flash, MySQL

Online Customer Service & Marketing (1 year)

Military & Private Security (4 years)

Specialties: Social Media startegy and production
Online Marketing
Digital image manipulation in Photoshop
Digital media & workflow management