LocalTalk is the section of our website reserved for content created by our customers and other community partners.
Here are some ways that customers use LocalTalk:
- Recognize an employee’s promotion.
- Applaud the good work of a team.
- Announce a new product or service.
- Promote an upcoming event. (Use our calendar, too!)
- Remind the community about the business/organization.
- Highlight a specific product or service offered.
- Shed light on a partnership with a non-profit or other organization.
- Talk about a certain aspect of the business.
- Share seasonal news.
When writing a LocalTalk post, it’s important to remember a few key points:
Craft unique, original content. Search engines don’t like duplicate content. We encourage customers to write something unique and specific for our site. Then, take the first few sentences and publish it to your website, with a “read more” link back to the original article.
Include 3-5 photos as attachments (rather than embedded in Word). Let us know what’s going on in the photo and any necessary photo captions and we’ll weave it into the article. The pictures don’t need to be professional images, but should help tell the story. Clear, crisp images that include people are the most well-received.
Focus on people. Readers like to learn more about the people they choose to do business with. Shoot for a story about an employee, team, or service provider that people will recognize and connect with.
Avoid getting hung-up on the perfect topic. Pick something that you are comfortable writing about and start there. We’ll help with editing for correct grammar and punctuation. However, the topic does need to fit within our publishing guidelines of being a positive story about people, businesses and organizations doing good things in our community.
Use our platform to tell your story. LocalTalk is a great way to enhance your message. What do you want the community to know about you? What would you like to say about your business? And, it’s okay to use the first person voice if that’s comfortable for you.
Work on whatever time schedule is manageable for you. Customers are welcome to submit LocalTalk stories once a month. Find a timetable that works for you. Since we publish seven days a week, we have no set “due date” or requirement for when customers should submit their stories.