Donna Talarico

Wilkes University

Elizabethtown College

Pocono Mountain High School

Compelling Content for Higher Education & B2B  -  Freelance Journalist  -   Small Press Publisher & Conference Founder

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States

CONTENT MARKETING/COPYWRITINGCompelling content for print, online, and interactive campaigns for higher education institutions and B2B. Much of this work is through agency partnerships, which means I often am under an NDA, so here are a few examples of types of organizations:Engineering Consulting Firm in the NortheastBusiness School in the NortheastPublic University in the NortheastCatholic College in the NortheastChristian College in the SouthwestTechnical College in the NortheastChristian College in the NortheastPrivate University/College in the Northeast (8)Armed Services-related institutionTrade school in the SouthwestPrivate University in the WestEDITORIAL - STORYTELLING WITH HEARTContributing to a variety of trade, alumni & commercial publications including: -Administrative Eyecare -Bentley Magazine (alumni)-Campus Security Report (Wiley)-Campus Sonar blog-Currents (from Council for Support and Advancement of Education)-Disability Compliance for Higher Education (Wiley)-Elizabethtown (alumni magazine)-Enrollment Management Report (Wiley)-GAMES World of Puzzles-GoizeutaBeyond.com-The Guardian Higher Education Network-The Los Angeles Times-mental_floss-Recruiting & Retaining Adult Learners - monthly marketing columnist since 2015 (Wiley)-Student Affairs Today (Wiley)-The Successful Registrar (Wiley)-UX Booth-Wilkes (alumni magazine) -The Writer(see website for full list of credits)CONSULTING & TRAINING Help individuals or companies in higher education or publishing kick-start or improve storytelling, personal branding, and content marketing efforts. SPEAKING - 70+ appearances since 2009You can find me throughout the year at marketing and publishing conferences speaking on a variety topics, most often in storytelling, audience engagement, social media, content strategy, and creativity. List of past and future engagements at my website, but they include HighEdWeb, CASE DII, eduWeb, CUPRAP, AWP, WP Campus, and ASJA.

Donna Talarico: Independent Content Marketer for Higher Ed, B2B and Brands

Content Strategist & Writer for Higher Education and B2B; Freelance Journalist/Storyteller

Content development and marketing copywriting.

Azola Creative

Content Writer/Strategist

Modern Tribe Inc.

Content Writer & Strategist (Freelance)

Courses include Marketing Magazines and Books and the Business of Publishing in Rosemont College's graduate program in publishing.

Rosemont College

Adjunct Instructor - Business of Publishing and Marketing Books & Magazines

Content writing for digital marketing campaigns and web redevelopment projects.

OHO Interactive

Content Specialist

- This is a volunteer role.]Founded in 2010, Hippocampus Magazine is an exclusively online publication set out to entertain, educate and engage writers and readers of creative nonfiction. Each issue features memoir excerpts, personal essays, reviews, interviews, and craft articles.Hippocampus also hosts an annual creative nonfiction conference called HippoCamp and, in summer of 2016, launched its small press division.

Hippocampus Magazine and Books

Founder & Publisher of online creative nonfiction magazine and press; writing conference organizer

Creative Writing:Beginning in the June 2016 residency, I joined the low-residency graduate creative writing program as a social media/content marketing/author branding consultant. In addition to offering a branding workshop during the residency, I provide individual consultations during residency and project semesters, to students and faculty members about how to leverage technology and audience engagement to build their brands and promote their work. Communication Studies:In the spring 2010 semester, I developed and taught a newly created class, Social Media & PR, where through discussion, readings, demos, guest speakers, and interactive projects students learned how then-emerging social media technologies have changed the landscape of public relations and marketing, and learned to connect the dots from these new tools to traditional theory and practices. The class, innovative for its time, was highly rated as noted in student satisfaction survey.(Note: I did not want to list this position twice, so please note the duration is not accurate; I held this position in the spring semester of 2010, and then began a new role in 2016.)

Adjunct Instructor - MFA Residency Faculty for Marketing & Publishing

From 2010 to 2015, I told the Elizabethtown College story through a variety of mediums as part of the award-winning Office of Marketing and Communications team. Major milestones:I established Elizabethtown's official social media presence (and personality) and played a large role in the then-new branding, messaging and creative direction of the College's creative suite. I was part of the complete redevelopment of <a href="http://etown.edu">etown.edu</a> (launched in May 2011), the launch of the redeveloped website for The School of Continuing the Professional Studies (<a href="http://etowndegrees.com">etowndegrees.com</a>), the new website for The High Center (<a href="http://thehighcenter.com">thehighcenter.com</a>) and was key in the development and launch of E-town NOW:My major duties included: --Manager of official college social media accounts--Editor, Elizabethtown, the official magazine of Elizabethtown College--Managing Editor and contributor, E-town NOW, the College news website--Project manager or contributor on various marketing campaigns--Chief copywriter for recruitment material--Primary writer/wrangler of top-level web content--Trainer on CMS and content managementAdditionally, I developed and managed web content for college website and blogs, created engaging content for other print and online publications/marketing materials, provided creative input on print and traditional projects for campus clients, provided content and social media trainings for campus and more.I still enjoy sharing what we've done at E-town by way of presenting at national and regional higher ed conferences and participating in online conversations with my peers.

Director, Integrated Communications in Higher Education

Provide solutions for those looking to start or improve an e-commerce business by way of web development and design, call center services, Internet marketing and more. Also, write for the eBiz Insider, a monthly ecommerce magazine and the Solid Cactus corporate blog.Milestone: I generated more than $1M in sales for this leading eCommerce company.

Solid Cactus Web.com, Inc.

Senior Account Mananger

The e-mail announcement for my new position described this new position as Solid Cactus social director and I like that description. But here's the real gist: Contribute to various marketing initiatives, creative pieces, prints and online publications, and more for Solid Cactus and sister brands. Typical duties include marketing copy writing, website content creation, writing articles and copy editing for eBiz Insider magazine, social media management, public relations, creative collaboration with others in department on design and product development initiatives and more. (I previously served as an account manager at Solid Cactus, until July 2009.)

Interactive Marketing Specialist

Worked hand-in-hand with sales team by both qualifying/warming up new leads and reengaging current clients and leads which did not yet convert. Helped provide solutions for those looking to start or improve an e-commerce business by way of web development and design, call center services, Internet marketing and more. Also, write for the eBiz Insider, an ecommerce magazine with a circulation of 16,000.

Outbound Sales

Scranton, Pa. campus.  Held same position more recently at Forty Fort, Pa. campus.  See that listing for more information.

Education Affiliates

Admissions Rep.

Manage new and old leads from various sources; Gain back lost business by contacting students who cancelled or withdrew; Meet and exceed personal and team goals for student start dates; Meet and exceed personal student retention rate goal; Assist prospective students with enrollment process;And in latest position: Spearheaded development of new agency representative position; Develop new business through various social service and employment agencies; Develop new ways to keep cost-per-lead to a minimum, such as creating MySpace page*; Design and provide interactive, education workshops to community groups; Write press releases, story pitches and other public relations tasks.*This was before Facebook; I was ahead of my time!

Admissions Representative, Fortis Insitute campus (Previously Allied Medical & Technical Institute)

- Plan radio stations contests, events and community service projects and run live action broadcasts; Collaborate with general sales manager to create added-value promotions for clients; Order promotional items and manage ‘prize closet’; Write promotional copy for live and recorded promos; Reinstated the ‘Froggy 101 Green Team’ and mentored these high school interns

Entercom

Promotions Director, WGGY-FM (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton)

Floor managed and ran camera for variety of local live and recorded programs (studio and remote) including PA Polka, Call the Doctor, You and Your Pet, State of PA, as well as live fund raising events such as pledge drives and auctions.

WVIA-TV

Freelance Production Crew

Worked as student employee in Marketing Communications Office at Wilkes University- aided in organizing and distributing press clips and recording press release distribution, wrote articles for the university website and magazine, edited and updated Class Notes section and other administrative type tasks.