Thomson
Reuters (FindLaw)|
Content Marketer
2022-present
•
Write original legal website content of interest to consumer audiences
• Create and publish paid promotions through Facebook Ads Manager,
including audience targeting, art selection, eye-catching headlines
and descriptions
• Review legal content for accuracy, misstatements of the law,
and online usability
• Correct content for style, grammar, punctuation, and spelling
• Refine and improve content creation style
• Optimize content using best practices in tagging, keyword usage,
headline creation, content optimization and basic SEO
• Monitor content feeds and make updates to spreadsheets, databases,
and other related content repositories as needed
• Track content performance using multiple measures (e.g., traffic,
engagement, conversion) and use performance measures to constantly refine
content style and improve content performance
______________________
Additional
Experience
•
Nearly 15 years working in tourism marketing, travel writing, and
creative destination promotion, much of which was performed remotely
and independently with collaborators on four continents
• Author and researcher for several travel apps, including Mall
of America, Florence Explorer, Romania Traveler's Guide and Bindu
Media’s Florence guide
•
Author of Saving
the World on $50 a Day - fiction, comedy, spy thriller
• Author of Backpacking
with Dracula: On the Trail of Vlad "The Impaler" Dracula
and the Vampire He Inspired (2016) - history, travel, humor
• Author of Throwing
Up: Notes from 35 Years of Juggling (2018) - memoir, humor
• Extensive experience with travel writing and reviewing, long-tail
web content production, copy writing, blogging platforms, SEO, and
guidebook authoring
• Advanced understanding of social media strategies on Twitter,
Facebook, YouTube,
Instagram,
Weibo and Wechat
• Articles and copy have appeared on MSN, CNN, USA Today, Lonely
Planet, BBC Travel, StarTribune, Minnesota Monthly magazine, Global
Traveler magazine and vita.mn
• Have spoken, presented and appeared on panels at TBEX
(North America, Europe and Asia), radio shows (Rick
Steves, Rudy
Maxa's World, MyTalk107),
tourism and hospitality groups, travel and tourism podcasts and TV
• In-depth understanding of new media marketing and influencer
initiatives, vetting and designing media familiarization tours
• Visitor-perspective tourism marketing expertise collected
from living abroad for over four years, visiting 57 countries and
over 400 cities and islands
• Member of the Minneapolis Skyway Advisory Committee since
2013
• Solid base in a number of European languages, including Spanish,
Italian and Romanian
• Silver
medalist at the 2014 International Jugglers’ Association
championships
______________________
Previous
Employment
Mall
of America |
Tourism Communications Manager
2015-2017
•
Designed integrated campaigns to increase tourism visibility and visits,
including composing the bid for, planning and hosting the award-winning
TBEX
Minnesota conference (my
video announcement); creating the Writer-in-Residence
contest (which attracted more than 4,200 applicants); spearheading
the annual #MinNoCoata
travel media campaign, experiential
tours and interactive experiences
• Generated story/feature ideas to pitch to national and international
editors, producers, and reporters, including Racked (1,
2),
Buzzfeed,
Samantha
Brown and Rudy
Maxa's World travel radio show
• Drove the
early adopter effort in virtual
reality & telepresence robot tours, used to promote the Mall
at shows, events and conferences
• Broadened
relationships with news and travel media, placing more than 30 travel
media stories each year, in addition to the surge of stories resulting
from TBEX Minnesota
• Served on the Transportation and Wayfinding subcommittee for
the Minneapolis
2030 Tourism Master Plan
• Promoted the Mall at travel shows in key U.S. and international
markets, including TBEX,
IPW, IMM
and The New York
Times Travel Show
• Researched and launched the new Accessibility
webpage for travelers with special needs (a $17.3 billion industry
annually)
• Wrote
custom trade articles, partner communications and other media/marketing
•
Coordinated tourism social media activities with digital teams
• Managed
tourism content on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram
• Launched
the Travel Insiders e-newsletter, targeted for travel media
• Editorial
lead and content creation for the Mall employee intranet site
•
Assisted with annual strategic plan for tourism marketing communication
platforms, including digital (web, mobile, social), print and signage
• Managed
the day to day operations of the Tourism Department and staff
Lonely
Planet |
Guidebook author, online features writer
2006-Present
• On-the-ground
research for numerous travel guidebook titles
• Primary author for Romania editions 4 & 5, Tuscany
& Umbria editions 4 & 5
• Chapter author Italy 8, Eastern Europe editions
9, 10 & 11, and Europe on a Shoestring editions 5, 6 &
7
• Contributor for Bluelist '07 and The Europe Book
• Duties included desk research, cartography, text formatting
and fact checking
• Articles
written for LonelyPlanet.com frequently exceed 20,000 views
MSN
| Writer, content creator, humorist
2007-2013
• Writer/producer
for trending news site msnNOW (now dark)
• Frequent
traveler advice and tips for Connections, a resource website for Delta
Airlines
• Humorous
vignettes for the Verizon City of Speed web portal
• U.S.
street food map mash-up for Appetite for Life
• MSN
Buyer's Guides for tech and gadgets
Global
Traveler magazine
| Contributor
2004-2011
• Travel
destination feature articles tailored for executive business travelers
• Service
pieces and destination business reports
______________________
Technical Knowledge
•
High familiarity with Microsoft Office Suite, Dreamweaver, Fireworks,
Windows Movie Maker, Adobe Acrobat Pro
•
Experience with website hosting, WordPress and basic HTML and CSS
coding
______________________
Education
B.A.,
Theatre Arts from the U. of Minnesota, Twin Cities
|