The Gettysburg battlefield draws over a million tourists a year, and this July, the 150th anniversary of the battle, will be especially packed. Perhaps the best time to visit is early fall, when the crowds thin and the leaves are still on the trees, as at the time of battle. The National Military Park is too big to tour entirely on foot; most visitors drive to the major sites. Pick up a CD at the park visitor center to provide historical narration. Or hire a licensed guide to join you in your car. Horseback tours are available, too.

Leave time to amble around town. Bizarre relic stores hold muskets, coffins and blood-stained nurses’ uniforms. The Shriver House Museum and the Rupp House illuminate civilian life. Lincoln stayed at the David Wills House before delivering the Gettysburg Address. 

Don't risk negative information appearing in Google searches for you or your brand. These tools have you covered. Managing your personal brand and online reputation is not an easy task, but here are 10 free tools that can help.

A new report looks at 15 business fields to determine the best day of the week to share content on Facebook for engagement.
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There are fraudulent companies that will mail you statements, and trick you into paying fake internet fees. We received one this week from DNS Services, stating that we owe $65. Crawford Designs, LLC is in the Internet Design & Domain Name business, so we immediately threw some flags... but we realized how real this invoice looked, and how easy it is to fall for this scam! Please take a moment to view the video below, and take a look at the attached invoice copy. If you have any questions/concerns, please give us a call.

See how the world searched with Google's 2012 Zeitgeist (influences of a particular period in time).

• Increase link-visibility: Creating a dynamic, as opposed to a static and rarely updated, website is a foundation step in increasing web presence. Adding a blog to a website is even more useful.
  
• Simplify tagging and bookmarking: Making it easy for users to tag, bookmark and share content through buttons to Tweet or ReTweet, Like on FaceBook, share on LinkedIn or add to Google+ means that they are pushing your content forward for you.
  
• Reward inbound links: Finding a way to reward people for linking to your website, whether through linking back to them or posting comments on their sites further increases presence in the social network.
  
• Help content travel: Making it easy for users to pass along content through their network is key. This can be through PDFs, video or audio files, which can be shared across media.
  
• Encourage the mashup: Being open to the idea of content being used creatively through the social network (within reason, of course) means that users will be more willing to share.
  
• Be a user resource, even if it doesn't help you: Adding value to users is a great technique to increase visibility, no matter the media used. Becoming a "go-to" resource for users can only result in creating a better presence.
  
• Reward valuable and helpful users: Encouraging users who add value to your social site is a great way to build a loyal user base, which will feel comfortable sharing your information to their network.
  
• Participate: A tremendous part of social media is the aspect of participation and dual interaction within the community.
  
• Know how to target your audience: Being everything to everyone is impossible, so understand your target audience is critical to success.
  
• Create content: The important of creating relevant content cannot be stressed enough. If content does not speak to your target audience, the chances that it will sink unnoticed are much higher.
  
• Be real: Authenticity is, as always, the very foundation of interactions within social communities, online or otherwise.
  
• Don't forget your roots, be humble: This advice is relevant in all areas of life, not just social mediaoptimization!
  
• Don't be afraid to try new things, stay fresh: Keeping up-to-date on new tools, products and challenges will only make your SMO strategy better.
  
• Develop a SMO strategy: Any marketing initiative should have a strategy behind it with clear objectives defining the desired outcome. It is no different for an SMO strategy.
  
• Choose your SMO tactic wisely: Tailoring the Social Media Optimization techniques to your desired outcomes is very important to using resources wisely. What works for one site may not work for another.
  
• Make SMO part of your process and best practices: And finally, integrating Social MediaOptimization into the way you do business can reap rich rewards as you encourage your organization to share content.
  

Conclusion
Although these 16 rules were created almost 6 years ago, they are still very relevant for any business that is looking to use Social Media Optimization in today's wired world. Creating relevant content that speaks to a target audience, but does so with authenticity and a fresh perspective is almost guaranteed to provide rewards in terms of greater reach to a wider audience in the social network.

About the author:
Celena Watson - Passionate writer and blogger. I have written on many different topics which include demand generation, outbound sales, inbound sales, lead management, lead nurturing, inside sales, demand generation and many more. For more info visit lead generation

Building a positive image has always been an important part of doing business. A good reputation has a domino effect as satisfied customers tell other people and bring more customers, resulting in an upward spiral of growth for the business. In today's business world of computers and the Internet, creating and maintaining a positive image of your business has become even more crucial as more and more people rely on information that is freely available in order to make buying decisions of all types. 

Online Reputation Management is the practice of tracking, monitoring and, often, replacing bad online coverage with good coverage to positively affect Internet search results. Continuous vigilance over the kind of information that is being posted to the Internet from different sources and making constant efforts to highlight positive coverage while suppressing negative coverage will contribute to building a strong online brand reputation for any business.

With consumers increasingly going online to get information before making purchasing decisions, company websites, and online communities like social media sites, blogs, micro blogs and online review sites have become the new publicity management avenues for businesses today.

Sources that contribute to the online reputation of a business

• The business itself: Your website, company blogs and press releases all form part of a network of information that comes straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Thus, creating an elegant, informative and easy to use website, coupled with solid blog posts and timed press releases, should be the first step for any business serious about online reputation management.
• Customers: Nowadays, people are much more likely to contribute to (and use) reviews of products and services posted on various online sources before making any decisions. Satisfied customers mean more positive coverage and vice versa. Customer satisfaction has always been a business priority, but it takes on a more serious tone when we factor in online reputation management. One negative review on a popular site can cause an avalanche of negative coverage simply because of the tremendous reach of the Internet. A great strategy is to respond to negative comments on the various sites, directly addressing the issue in a professional manner. This can go a long way in letting other consumers know that the business cares enough about what they do to take the time to respond to grievances, even on online forums.
• Employees (both current and past): Current employees are one of the best sources of information about the intimate workings of a business. So what they have to say, especially if they take it online, matters when thinking about online reputation management. A business has less control over the actions of past employees, but they are also a key source of information about the business. Thinking about legal ways to keep employees from posting critical or negative information should be part of the online reputation management strategy. For example, many businesses already limit any mention of company ties in employee blogging activities with steep consequences for flouting these rules.

Conclusion
For businesses that do not have the internal resources or the technical ability to continuously monitor their online brand, using an online reputation management service may be the best option. Firms specializing in managing the online presence of a business or brand offer the easiest way for a business to protect their online presence without spending any time or effort away from actually running the business.

Author: Celena Watson
http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/celena-watson/1311998