Houston, TX

Derrest Williams Jr.

Social Strategist at Tellagence, supporting YouTube

I’m a social strategist at Tellagence, where I help YouTube teams use audience insights to make better campaign and content decisions. My background spans global paid media, enterprise customer success, and e-commerce growth. I build AI into how I work, so the path from raw data to a recommendation is shorter and more of my time goes to judgment. I also run The Urban Slide and build websites and tools around problems I run into as an operator.

View Résumé See My Projects

derrestwilliams@gmail.com LinkedIn

Portrait of Derrest Williams Jr.

Experience

Corporate experience

Ten years across social strategy, global paid media, enterprise customer success, and e-commerce, most recent first.

Full profile on LinkedIn

  1. – Present
    Current

    Tellagence

    Social Strategist, supporting YouTube

    I lead owned and earned social strategy for YouTube, connecting the analytics team to the people who plan campaigns and content.

    • Lead owned and earned strategy across YouTube product areas: Core, Music, TV, GenAI, Artist, and Shopping. Social listening is one input, alongside audience insights and campaign measurement.
    • Partner with the go-to-market team on innovation and activations, bringing ideas from outside the usual playbook and the audience evidence to back them.
    • Contribute to naming new products, including the name chosen for a product now in development (not yet public).
    • Turn analyst findings into recommendations on content, timing, and which moments to build around, and present them to stakeholders with clear next steps.

  2. –

    Lenovo

    Senior Paid Media Buyer, Global Marketing CoE

    • Ran global paid media strategy and execution across multiple business units, managing more than $1M in monthly ad spend across Meta, Google, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, Amazon DSP, and Snapchat.
    • Built channel partnerships and feedback loops with stakeholders so reporting led directly to clear, actionable optimizations.
    • Improved performance through ongoing testing and campaign optimization, keeping spend tied to business objectives as budgets scaled.

  3. –

    Sprinklr

    Lead CSM, Global Strategic Accounts

    • Launched a strategic account management program with customized insights and analytics reporting for our largest Global Strategic Accounts client, which drove a 30% increase in net dollar expansion on that account.
    • Built a tiered onboarding program and led tailored workshops that brought several GSA clients to 100% product adoption; named Ads Product Specialist of the Year (2022).
    • Owned executive relationships across a portfolio including Microsoft, Audible, Citi, Nissan, Activision Blizzard, Havas, OMD, Wavemaker, and Carat, and set up a white-label program with Havas plus channel partnerships with Snapchat, Meta, and LinkedIn.

  4. –

    500 Below Cars

    Marketing Director

    • Led marketing and customer acquisition for a private equity-backed automotive business, owning strategy and execution across paid media, local SEO, and social.
    • Focused every channel on qualified leads and dealership growth, and managed and mentored a team of two.

  5. –

    TreadWright Tires

    eCommerce Brand Manager

    • Built the marketing team from the ground up and reported directly to the CEO, owning the brand’s marketing budget.
    • Grew direct-to-consumer and marketplace channels (Amazon, Walmart), helping grow revenue from $6M to $11M over three years.
    • Launched a new sales-coverage strategy that added $1M+ in new distribution business within a year, and grew the brand ambassador program 50% in six months.
Education
M.A., Advertising, Stephen F. Austin State University
Strengths
  • Owned & earned social strategy
  • Social listening & audience insights
  • Campaign measurement
  • Go-to-market planning
  • Paid media strategy
  • Enterprise customer success
  • AI-native
  • AI workflows
Tools
  • Sprinklr
  • Brandwatch
  • Anthropic Claude
  • Gemini
  • Codex
  • Google Antigravity
  • Meta Ads Manager
  • Google Ads
  • Amazon Ads & DSP
  • GA4
  • Looker / Tableau
  • Next.js
  • Supabase
  • Vercel
  • Make.com

AI workflow

From raw data to a recommendation

Two workflows I run: one for social insights, one for paid media. AI gets me to the first pass faster, and I check the work before it becomes a recommendation.

Social insights

Start with what people said

Pull the conversation

I pull replies to the brand and conversation happening elsewhere, across languages and markets, and keep the raw posts close.

  • “Where can I watch this in Canada??”
  • “¿A qué hora empieza en México?”
  • “No way they left her off the lineup”
  • “That surprise duet 😭 sending this to everyone”

AI · Gemini

Translate and group

Gemini gives me a first pass at translation and groups recurring themes. That gives me somewhere to start in minutes.

  • ThemeHow to watch2 posts, in English and Spanish
  • ThemeLineup debate1 post
  • ThemeShareable moment1 post

Me

Check it against the posts

I go back to the underlying examples and bring in local context. A translation can be literally correct and still miss a joke or a fan reference.

  • Checked“😭” here is praise, so that post stays out of negative sentiment.
  • CheckedThe two watch questions come from different markets, so each needs its own answer.
  • RuleIf a sentence sounds stronger than the evidence, I change the sentence.

Output

Say what to do next

The report opens with the decision it is meant to help with, and a way to tell whether the idea worked.

  • DoPut where to watch and local start times in the first post for each market.
  • DoHave the surprise-moment clip ready while people are still deciding whether to tune in.
  • MeasureFewer “where to watch” replies, and whether the clip keeps spreading.

Paid media

One Looker dashboard

Put every ad in one place

Every platform’s ads feed one Looker dashboard, so spend, conversions, and leads sit side by side. Search terms from Google Ads come in with them.

  • AdVideo ad ASpending steadily, no leads this month
  • Search term“water slide rental for backyard”Clicks, no ticket sales
  • Search term“free water park near me”Clicks, no ticket sales
  • Search term“city water slide tickets”Most of the ticket sales

AI

Flag what to change

AI reads the dashboard data and drafts a list: ads to pause, negative keywords to add, and search terms that have earned their own ad group.

  • Pause?Video ad A
  • Negative?“rental” and “free”
  • Own ad group?“city water slide tickets”Candidate for a single keyword ad group

Me

Check it against the business

A flag is a suggestion. I check each one against what the account is for before anything changes.

  • CheckedVideo ad A is there to reach new people. I check assisted conversions and lead tracking before pausing it.
  • Checked“rental” is safe to block here because the business sells tickets, not rentals.
  • RuleNo lead data, no verdict. If tracking is broken, fix that first.

Output

Make the changes and watch

Each change goes out with the reason for it and the number that will show whether it worked.

  • DoAdd “rental” and “free” as negative keywords.
  • DoMove “city water slide tickets” into its own ad group with its own ad copy.
  • DoPause Video ad A if it shows no assisted conversions either.
  • MeasureCost per lead and conversion rate in the same dashboard, two weeks on.
Illustrative examples with made-up data. No client or account data.

Projects

Businesses, events & tools I’ve built

What each one does, why I got involved, and what I personally built or led.

Riders on a multi-lane orange-and-blue Urban Slide set up along a closed city street.
The Urban Slide on a closed city street

Owner & operator · Since 2016

The Urban Slide

A large-scale pop-up water slide event that turns a closed downtown street into a one-day attraction for residents and visitors.

Why
Cities want events that bring people downtown. The slide gives them a turnkey, family-friendly draw they can put on a street for a day.
What I lead
City partnerships and permitting, ticketing, staffing, and on-site operations, plus the marketing and paid media that sell the tickets. Host cities include Hampton and Lynchburg, VA; Gadsden, AL; and Marble Falls, TX.

cityactivations.com ↗

ThingsToDoInAustin.com homepage with the Austin skyline, an AI concierge search box, and shortcuts for this weekend, live music, boat rentals, and tours.
ThingsToDoInAustin.com homepage, November 2026

Founder & builder · Live

ThingsToDoInAustin.com

A local guide that helps people find and book experiences in Austin: boat days on Lake Travis, tours, food, and what’s on this weekend.

How it fits together
Area pages (Lake Travis, South Congress, Zilker) and activity pages (boat rentals, tours, food & drink) are built for local search. Each one leads to bookable experiences and partner checkouts, so affiliate booking is what pays for the content. An events calendar, seasonal guides, and an AI concierge keep people coming back.
What I built
The whole product: site architecture and SEO structure, listing and activity pages, the affiliate booking flow, and listing and advertising options for local businesses.
Growing now
We’re building the audience around the site: the @doingthingsinaustin Instagram page and a weekly newsletter of weekend plans.

Visit ThingsToDoInAustin.com ↗@doingthingsinaustin on Instagram ↗

Also building

Builder

Ticketing system

A ticketing system I built to fill a gap for experience operators in Austin. It also handles ticketing for Urban Slide events.

Builder Work in progress

Chat automation tool

A ManyChat replacement I’m building to automate chat conversations with customers.

Earlier projects

Aerial view of a large crowd covered in pink and purple color powder at a color run.

Graffiti Run

Color run · National tour

A color 5K produced in cities across the country. I ran event operations, venue sourcing, staffing, and marketing.

Participants climbing a cargo-net obstacle at a Mighty Mud Dash course.

Mighty Mud Dash

Obstacle course · Regional

A mud-run obstacle course built from scratch, with truss infrastructure, dirt work, and heavy on-site logistics.

Ramp Nutrition

E-commerce · Amazon FBA

A supplement brand on Amazon. I rebuilt the PPC strategy from scratch and automated weekly reporting with Make.com. Read the write-up.

Writing

Notes & posts

Contact

Let’s talk.

Hiring for a strategy, insights, or growth role, or want to work together on an event or a build? Email is the fastest way to reach me.

Email me Connect on LinkedIn