Lisa Du Bois Low is a marketing and communications executive who teaches digital and social media courses. She runs The Outpost, a state-of-the-art student-run social media lab that gives graduates a competitive edge. In the digital age, brands must have two-way conversations on social media or risk going out of business as what customers say becomes the brand. Content marketing now accounts for over 25% of marketing budgets on average, and visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text by the brain. Success requires being curious, fearless, passionate, and constantly learning through various free content creation platforms and tools.

1. Lisa Du Bois Low | @ldlow
 Marketing, Digital & Emerging Media
Communications Executive (25 Years)
◦ NERD
 Education
◦ BA Business Administration/Marketing & Finance
◦ MBA
◦ Autodidact and any professional development
opportunity, book, webinar, etc. that crosses my path
@ldlow | #WWDFWImpact

2. Professor of Practice in PR
 Teach Digital and Social Media Courses
 Marketing/Branding for the College
 Faculty Advisor of the Outpost Social Media Lab

3. The Outpost
 State of the Art
 One of the first in Higher Education
 Student Run
 Gives graduates a competitive edge

4. Democratic Web
 Social and mobile web has changed the speed,
efficiency and ease with which consumers engage
with each other with a tremendous impact on
brands.
 Prior to 2005, brands enjoyed one-way
communication with customers.
 Now, if brands aren’t not having a two-way
conversation with customers, they will suffer and/or
go out of business.
 What customers say about your brand BECOMES your
brand—even uninvolved bystanders
(trolls/rubberneckers/slacktivists)
@ldlow | #WWDFWImpact

5. Connected = Power
 A report by Five9 found 85% of consumers will
retaliate against a company if they have received
inadequate customer service, 49% will stop doing
business with that company. Millennials are 3X as
likely to vent their frustrations on social media,
making their frustrations very public.
 Word of mouth is now viral (aka “I can’t wait to tell
all of my friends about this”).
@ldlow | #WWDFWImpact

6. Branding in the Digital Age
 Consumers have shut off the traditional world of
marketing and advertising.
 They own DVRs, listen to satellite radio, stream
Netflix and Pandora. They get their news from
social media, surf the web with smartphones and
make online purchases with apps. They are visually
fatigued and overloaded.
@ldlow | #WWDFWImpact

7. What now?
 Holy Trinity of Digital Publishing
◦ Listening/Engagement
◦ Content (Publish)
◦ Measurement/Analysis
@ldlow | #WWDFWImpact

8. Content MATTERS Yawl

9. Content Marketing Revolution
 Brands around the world are spending (on average)
over 25% of their total marketing budget on content
marketing.
@ldlow | #WWDFWImpact

10. Images + Words = Story
 The human brain
processes visuals 60,000
times faster than text and
90 percent of the
information transmitted to
the brain is visual.
 Caption (AKA Copy): tell a
story that enhances
or explains the image.
Sometimes images
won’t load.
@ldlow | #WWDFWImpact

11. Content 101 | What’s the Story?
 Ann Handley | @MarketingProfs | @AnnHandley
◦ Pathological focus on your target audience(s)
◦ “Mind Like Water”
 Erin Coldeway | @Visit_Lubbock | @erinnn_michelle
◦ There are few bad stories, only unengaged narrators.
◦ Brandscaping: Leverage partnerships, customers, brand
champions
@ldlow | #WWDFWImpact

12. Storytelling
 Use Active Voice (fewer words). Say it aloud.
 Punctuation is literally a speed bump on digital. Use
it sparingly (but accurately).
 Speling Matterz (and facts AND typos).
 Likeable = Don’t Make Me Think
 Use emotional language, if you don’t care, your
audience won’t either.
 #FOMO … make your target want to
◦ be here | do that | eat that | care
@ldlow | #WWDFWImpact

13. Content Creators
 Jack of All Trades
◦ Write
◦ Multimedia
◦ Web
◦ Social
◦ Photography
◦ Print
◦ Video
 Smartest Person in the Room
@ldlow | #WWDFWImpact

14. Do Your Research
 Pinterest (via Shopify)
◦ 87% of Pinterest users say they have purchased
something they discovered while Pinning.
◦ 73 million users log into Pinterest each month.
◦ The number of guys using the platform doubled
between 2013 and 2014. Dude, Where’s my Vintage
Muscle Car Board?
@ldlow | #WWDFWImpact

15. Keys to Success
 Be Insanely Curious
 Be Fearless
 Be Passionate
 Be “Up” or “Out”
 Pathological Focus
 Constantly Reinvent Yourself
 Never, Ever Stop Learning
@ldlow | #WWDFWImpact

16. What’s Next?
 Create a Klout account and connect all of your
platforms.
 Create a Google + for SEO
 Learn basic video and photography (udemy,
podcasts)
 Free(mium) Content Creation Platforms like
◦ Canva (graphic design)
◦ Piktochart (infographics)
◦ Biteable (kinetic typography)
@ldlow | #WWDFWImpact

17. • 100% Online
• Asynchronous
• Rolling Enrollment
• No Set Schedule
• Working Professionals
• 10 Courses
www.ttugrad.org