I am the Senior Manager of New Media at Coach, Inc. in their Global Web and Digital Media Department.
I'm a thinker, communicator and educator of digitally and socially smart strategies and executions. I advise individuals, corporations and brands on how to plan and activate a social campaign that successfully establishes and maintains mutually-beneficial relationships with the people on the internet they care about the most. I am interested in observing how people interact with brands, in both niche and major online social platforms, and thinking about the unique ways brands can be the facilitator of truly memorable and beneficial user experiences that go far beyond the realm of marketing. I am excited to see advancements in development of tools that measure online engagement and sentiment. With more accurate measurement, we can more confidently celebrate success, more accurately determine areas of needed improvement and more quickly respond with better future strategies and executions.
So how the heck did I get here? A little history...I was born in Schenectady, NY and raised in Erie, PA. I went to Simmons College in Boston Massachusetts, studying International Relations, Public Policy, and Political Science. After graduation, I realized that a career in politics was not what I wanted, so I started bartending in Boston and began soul searching for what I really wanted to do with my life.
I was given an opportunity at Cone, Inc. to work on a fund-raising campaign Making Change for Katrina. Noticing that there were lots of other blogs out there created to spread awareness and raise money for New Orleans, I thought that doing the same for Making Change for Katrina would help our initiative grow and connect. After only two weeks, the blog came up higher on a search engine query for "Making Change for Katrina" than the actual website did. I wondered why? How could this –poorly designed and makeshift blog – be considered by Google to have more "authority" than the website, which had been up and live on the web for several months prior. How is this even possible?!
I became fascinated by the proliferation and popularity of social networking, digital interaction and user generated content. After spending the first half of 2007 immersing myself in the culture and cult of emerging digital communities, I was hired by Joan Schnieder of Schnieder Associates to extend their client service offering – to include the planning and execution of social campaigns. I will always be grateful to Joan for giving me the opportunity to build a social media practice and share my passion for social outreach with the agency and its clients.
Less than a year later, I was scooped up by Undercurrent – at the time a young start up consultancy – in their quest to build an agency that offered strictly digital strategies and executions. Undercurrent, then based in Boulder and myself in Boston, soon moved to NYC to establish and build a digital think tank amongst the trendsetters of Soho.
I've been planning, executing, managing and measuring branded social campaigns for close to 3 years now. And during this time, I have also been able to amass a somewhat significant online following, through social networking and personal branding strategies, that have developed and grown a community of loyal friends, followers and fans across the web.
Listed below are a few of the more fun social experiences, recognitions and placements I've received on behalf of web communities, followers and bloggers.
Twitter Grader, Top Twitter Users Ranked #1,212 out of 3,602,429 (2009)
Constructive Grumpiness, Top 30 Under 30 Tweeters (2009)
Things Marketing People Love, Taking Pictures of Themselves at Work (2009)
The Society for Geek Advancement, I am a Geek [Video] (2009)
The Trades, Interview: Julia Roy – Digital Queen (2009)
Huffington Post, Hottest Girls on Twitter Ranked #9 of 10 (2009)
Twestival Ebay Auction, Auctioned off a Date with Myself Raising $1,549 for charity: water (2009)
The Adrants Ad Guy, Bright Ones: Julia Roy Lives the Digital Lifestyle (2008)
Adverlab, The Shortest PR Pitch Placement featuring my unique outreach strategy (2008)
Awesomeology, Real Girl Julia Roy (2008)
Trendhunter, Dig a Tech Girl Voted one of the Top Girls in Technology (2007)
