Social Media and Content Fundamentals with Laurie Dunlop

A press release is a great way to present newsworthy content for your readers. However, the cost can be prohibitive for a small business or association to subscribe to the big press release distribution sites. Before you shell out $350 or more to get your news noticed, you might consider registering for a few of the free directory websites. While the free sites do not normally contain links, video embeds, or graphic images, they do receive notice via Twitter, blogs, and search engines.
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Learn Social Media with Laurie Dunlop

Army leadership began drumming operational security (OPSEC) into my head 20 years ago when my husband was a “butter bar” lieutenant. The recent explosion in social media caused me to wonder what the Army’s official take on this craze is, especially when it comes to OPSEC.
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Learn Social Media with Laurie Dunlop

I recently read Adam Ostrow’s Mashable blog entitled, “Is Social Media Making Corporate Websites Irrelevant” and wondered how my Northern Virginia team at NetStrategies would react to that headline. Keep in mind, our area of expertise is helping businesses optimize their Web sites! So I asked my team for a rebuttal and here is their take:

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Learn Social Media with Laurie Dunlop

The shear number of Twitter tools to make Tweeting “easier” is somewhat overwhelming! You can discover thousands of programs that do this and do that. How can you stay on top of it all?
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Learn Social Media with Laurie Dunlop

Twitter. It’s in the news. Your favorite talk show hosts talk about it. Political cartoonists illustrate it. Politicians, celebrities, and family physicians now “Tweet.” While the wave of popularity continues to evolve you can jump in and engage potential customers in this new social media platform.

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Learn New Public Relations with Laurie Dunlop

If you read blogs, you know that any blogger worth her salt (his too!) includes an occasional Top 10 list. There are Web sites like Toptenz dedicated to Top 10 lists and even solicit for your ideas on what lists they can compile. David Letterman capitalizes on the public’s fascination with all things Top 10. You can watch those segments dating back to August 1993 on the CBS Late Night Web site.
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Learn new Public Relations with Laurie Dunlop

Notice my headline reads “solid writing” and not perfect, fancy, or academic writing. Most public relations efforts involve the written word. Whether you compose a blog, Web page, news release, or video script, pay close attention to the words you choose and how you use them.
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Learn new PR with Laurie Dunlop

Some days I hate the drive to work. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job as Web content writer at NetStrategies. But those traffic lights — there are 24 of them between my house and workplace. Some days I sail right through and other days, ugh!

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Learn new PR with Laurie Dunlop

The Internet marketing gurus say blog. It makes perfect sense. If you’re an expert in your field, who better to share that knowledge, that passion, but you? In theory you can write a few blog entries a week, engaging your readers (hopefully your customers) in conversation, educating them about your industry, your business, your specialty. OK, perhaps it is not so easy to get started, but I got my feet wet commenting in other blogs for a few months, so here I go! 
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