Damion White has done a lot in his first few years out of college and is definitely someone to keep an eye on.
This is the fourth in a week-long series of posts recapping the Blogworld NYC experience. What I learned, who I met, how I’m planning to apply it all to my day job.
Every time I go to a conference, I always meet at least one person I didn’t really know that well who leaves a lasting impression. At BlogWorld NYC, that person was Damion White.
Damion is pretty much like any other communicator dabbling in social media and digital. Except for the fact that:
- He can freestyle rap like you wouldn’t believe. In fact, coming out of college, he pursued a music career and has two rap albums to show for it. Here’s a sampling and you can also check his music out on iTunes.
- Damion was a highly-ranked high school basketball player and was recruited as a walk-on to Duke and UNC Charlotte. He ended up going to Davidson and playing basketball for legendary Coach Bob McKillop. In 2002, his freshman year, his Davidson team was seeded No. 13 in the NCAA Tournament and lost to Ohio St. by five in the first round.
- Back to music…A few years back, Damion made a parody video of Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” (may not be SFW) that got 112,000 views the first day it was posted on YouTube. Soon after, Perez Hilton picked up the video on his blog and it now has more than 3.5 million views.
- Damion is one of the more solid communications minds I have met recently. His passion for learning, conversation and discussing social media is contagious and I highly recommend keeping an eye on him.
Questions
- You’ve had a career path that has taken you a bunch of different directions in just a few short years. Tell us where you are and where you’ve been.
- Currently, you are the social media and digital strategy lead for BookItDotCom. What does that job entail and what role do you play in the company’s overall communications approach?
- Talk to us about playing college basketball at Davidson. What was that experience like?
- The last question is always reserved for you to tell us about a cause you care a lot about. What’s your passion?
3. June 2011 at 2:22 pm
Dude so funny that my video is #9! That was my football number at Davidson.
For the record, what I meant to say per question #2, as I got a bit sidetracked (LMAO) was: I am social media and digital strategy lead for BookIt.com and for our subsidiary brand, SpringBreakRooms.com. I am the community manager for both brands, as well as a customer service rep, web 2.0 PR/Communications director, content creator, and an applications developer. We are most heavily present on Facebook and YouTube with a rapidly accelerating growth curve in Facebook, currently. I, as a result have developed a relative level of expertise in Facebook app creation, and promotional strategies. We are present on Twitter, but relying heavily on organic growth and engagement tactics has had it’s drawbacks relative to the rapidity of our growth therein. I also operate a robust listening and analytics program to keep tabs on forum, blog and other chatter throughout the web, as most of this happens in the way of complaint boards and such. At BookIt, we believe in Total Guest Elation - we are guest centric business, and as a result I have to often track down the non-elated to guest in hopes to achieve a resolution with them on par with our standards.
Usually I am as good on camera as I am on paper.
Just thought I’d clear the air. Thanks again for the opportunity and for posting J!