Teaching PR

Dr. Lauren McGrath of Kennesaw State's English department led a breakout session on writing for the Web.

General principles:
Write to your audience
Keep it conversational
Chunk your content and use headings and subheadings to increase readability
Use a screen-friendly font like Verdana or Trebuchet
Write well -- clear, correct, well edited

Side discussion on SEO -- problem of overstuffing with keywords. Suggestion: add more content with keywords instead of stuffing all keywords on a few pages.

Suggested resources:
Hot Text: Web Writing that Works (Price)
The Web Writer's Guide (Maciuba-Koppel)
Writing for Multimedia and the Web (Garrand)
Writing for the Web (Jeney)

Brand "You":

• Communicating your own value
• Letting people know what to expect from you -- what is the promise you're making?
• Good qualities identified in this example site: creativity, identity and credibility, personality, consistency, audience awareness, media mix, linking, connections to other brand-building tools; thought leadership
• Getting "dooced"

Labels: conference, social media, writing