Jonathan Pic Photo by: Hannah Says Photography


Our social media guru has officially reached one year at Lawton Digital. To celebrate his benchmark at LDM, we thought a blog-post was in high order. As he interviewed me recently, I jumped at the chance to interview him back. Jonathan graduated from the University of Denver in 2013. Since then, he has focused his energy on working at Lawton Digital and his folk band, The Query.

I took some time to sit down with him and find out his own path to and through Lawton Digital Marketing.

How did your mythology with Lawton Digital begin?

When I was still in school at DU, I took a theatre class. My theater teacher knew someone on LinkedIn that worked for Craftsy, a company I was interested in at the time. He connected me with her and we met for coffee. She, in turn, ended up connecting me with her friend who was searching for an intern for her digital marketing start-up.

That is when I met Lauren at a coffee shop to discuss the potential internship. She had just come from a business meeting and was dressed to the 9’s. Once Lauren left, an older woman sitting behind her turned to me and said “That lady is just so sharp. She is just so sharp”. I took this as a good enough omen, and joined the LDM team. Who would think my elective theater class would be the key to landing a job?

What were your motivations for joining LDM?

As a new college grad, I wanted to learn skills that I could use to get a job. This was coupled with my desire to learn marketing in order to promote my band. Social marketing is the most powerful tool an indie band can use. I wanted to learn how to manipulate and learn these platforms in order to promote my own passions. Working for Lauren has been a win win.


How have you seen the company grow and change in one year?

Its a startup, so a lot of things have changed in one year. I have seen everything change from the internal processes of LDM to the way we handle clients. I would say the primary things include becoming more clear on company goals, focusing on our strengths, and refining the programs and procedures we use daily at Lawton Digital.

What is one of your fondest memories of working at LDM?

One time I was working from Lauren’s home office. I was using her yoga ball as a chair. Apparently it had lost a lot of air while I was using it because when she tried to sit on it, she nearly fell off. I have this vivid image of her vigorously trying to pump the thing back up. Eventually she handed it off to me and I finished refilling it.

Any advice for your newest member?

Go with the flow. Things are always changing in a start-up. Take advantage of what you have now; the opportunity to learn from an expert who also cares about you. You will have moments of that for the rest of your career but only in moments.


Do you think that SEO has or will become a practice of every single business (small and large alike) just like an IT or Accounting department?

I think it will definitely be around for a long while and will continue to be greatly important. At the same time, SEO is becoming very integrated with other digital platforms like social media. For example, if you have a Facebook page that is getting lots of action, it will show up higher in Google. There is such an explosion of apps and available information, that there will be increasingly new ways to discover things. The internet is more pull-based right now. You are finding the content. Signs point to it becoming more push-based. The content will come to you. SEO will always be important, but probably will not always remain as powerful as it is now. Everyone might not have an SEO department in their business, but everyone will have some sort of digital management/marketing department.

Information is becoming less pull-based, and increasingly more push-based. This is going to effect SEO and the greater web community.

Now that we are moved into our new office downtown, do you have any recommendations of cool restaurants or bars in the area?

Before I came to the office I had been downtown about 5 times, so I wouldn’t call my self the cultural expert of this particular urban topography. Probably City o City takes the cake. Little India is also a favorite.

What kind of things do you do in your free time? Any consuming hobbies?

My band would be my first priority.
I also really enjoy board games- the more nerdy ones. Games like Settlers of Catan and Dominion engage my creativity and strategic thinking style.
I love being in the mountains and hiking….just like EVERYONE ELSE IN THIS STATE. So I guess that doesn’t make me unique.
I also like dancing and lifting weights.

So would you describe yourself as “swoll”?

Uh…not exactly…

What is The Query’s most popular original song?


If you had a full expense paid vacation to anywhere in the world where would it be?

I would bring my best friend. It would have to be between Europe and Japan. I have already been to Japan but I would love to go back and visit. If I went to Europe I would go for the summer and have a period where I could backpack in the backcountry and then jump into the city for a few days at a time.