Ryal Curtis is a dynamic and award-winning social media professional with more than a decade of experience helping craft successful social media campaigns for national public and private sector brands. His work in both agency and in-house roles has earned him a reputation for building high-performance teams around emerging digital platforms and integrated online communications.

Ryal joined NP Strategy from BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina where he was recruited to pioneer the company’s first-ever social media program when the healthcare industry was undergoing major reform in response to the Affordable Care Act. He established new corporate-wide communications initiatives for social media listening and online reputation management, blogging, podcasting, social media advertising, and paid influencer marketing. It is now recognized as one of the top healthcare social media programs among all BlueCross and BlueShield companies in the United States.

Prior to his work at BlueCross, Ryal was part of the core leadership team at a full-service public relations firm based in Raleigh, N.C. working with leading brands in the industries of healthcare, higher education, government, transportation, and technology. He also spent two years at the University of South Carolina leading communications, publications, and social media for one of its largest colleges.

In 2015, Ryal was honored with The State Newspaper’s “20 Under 40” award. He is a graduate of Leadership Columbia and Leadership South Carolina and has sat on boards for the Columbia Opportunity Resource (COR), Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Columbia, and the American Marketing Association (AMA) – Columbia Chapter.

Ryal is a Michigan native and a proud graduate of Michigan State University. He lives in Columbia with his wife and three children and their golden retriever named Binx.

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