Public Relations Association of Western North Carolina, or PRAWNC, is the region’s premier professional organization for public relations, marketing, advertising and communications professionals since 1983. Learn more about PRAWNC at http://www.prawnc.org/.

PRAWNC is a 501C3 not-for-profit corporation providing practitioners with opportunities for education, collaboration, networking and professional excellence.

Today, social media is everywhere... FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIN -- oh my! Where does one begin? Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Remember that social media is unique.  It provides a new frame of reference - another way to communicate. Incorporate it with other marketing and networking strategies.

2. Develop a strategy. Who do you want to communicate wIth? What do you want to say? Set some goals.

3. Create good content.  Content is king! Use words, photos and more to make your content informative and engaging. It will keep people coming back for more.

4. Make time to engage and to encourage feedback. You have to keep the lines of communication open.

5. Don't sell anything. Be members of the community. 

6. Embrace the one-to-one that social media networking can offer. It can help to build important business and personal relationships.

7. Be authentic and transparent! Social media users are savvy. Openly share information and they will learn to trust you.

 Some “techies” in the industry are affectionately referred to as “pasty whites.” Many people believe that the pastier the face, the more talented the techie. This comes from a belief that techies are tied to their computers and rarely see the light of day.  While this may be true in some cases, the most important thing to look for is a person or team who is easy to communicate with and responds within a given deadline. Writers are deadline driven and if the tech company cannot meet deadlines, then a problem will naturally ensue.

While you may be a top-notch writer, if you are not using the words (keywords) in your content that people are searching for on line, then you might as well be writing in ancient language.  The content on your site needs to match keywords that people are using to search for your services.

Repetition of keywords seems to have positive effect on search rankings. For example, if you have a tree planting business, the more your use these phrases within your content, the higher you will rank in search. It may take some time, but it’s worth it in the long run.

A keyword analysis will help to determine your top keywords and also identify what the competition is doing. There is a wide array of programs available to assist in this process.