Welcome to the team, Conor!
In 2009, I started a project with good friends that would change my life’s course. Disgruntled by the state of politics following the 2008 election, and with the way both parties were handling themselves, my friends and I came up with an idea for a blog. After a few late nights of planning, we launched The Politicizer, an online magazine that would feature young students in D.C. and New York writing their political opinions, regardless of how left, right, center, or fringe they were. Every idea, we said, would be welcome so long as it could be backed up by research or reason.
In the fast-paced months that followed, one moment sticks out. I checked my email after a night of studying and paper-writing, and had received requests to write for our site from Germany, Ukraine, Canada, Australia, India, the U.K., and Mexico. They kept coming from all over.
I had never planned to go into digital communications, but sometimes a good idea just hits you in the face. For me, it was at 2 A.M. in my dorm room while wrapping up a paper. Armed with no budget except a good idea and the intent to make our views heard, we’d gone to Sydney and back in a few short months. We had Facebook and Twitter to thank.
Sometimes we wish it weren’t the case, but what your brand says — whether you’re General Motors or a start-up website of college kids — bounces back and forth across the world every day.
It took everyone a few years to notice, but with every website college kids might start, or page we ‘like’ on Facebook, we’re revealing things about ourselves. We’re creating data. Loads of it, free for the taking. We may be accidentally identifying ourselves as a swing voter, or declaring ourselves the most loyal Democrat around; and that’s a good thing. We’re making it easier for the places we shop, the people we vote for, and the causes we care about to reach out to us. The distance from a policy battle over children’s healthcare in Washington, and a concerned West Coast family it may affect is now only seconds, despite thousands of miles.
Since jumping into the online media scene a few years ago, I’ve gained three years of experience in digital media in the entrepreneurial, political, and corporate arenas. Here at Engage, I’ll be looking to use what I’ve learned to help existing clients reach out to their supporters in ways they may not have thought of before, at cheaper costs than they anticipated. I’ll also be reaching out to establish new relationships between Engage and successful online brands to form powerful partnerships.
I’m incredibly excited to join an avant garde team like Engage that understands both the immediate global impact of digital media, and also values the long-term impact of digital data.
If you’d like to talk shop or just say hello, you can email me here or follow me on Twitter, @ConorJRogers.
