Joyce's Writing Portfolio

Random people on Facebook have no idea how good your product is. Until they make their first purchase, they only have your pictures and videos to go by. So how do you capture the deliciousness of a cake in a picture? How about the luxury of a Swedish massage? The ability to communicate visually is vital to the success of any online campaign. Master your Tools We are guessing that you are using a phone camera or a small, amateur digital camera for your product photography. Never assume that the camera in your phone is only good for a point and shoot. There is a good chance that the cellphone you have in your hand can do a lot more than you know. Take time to read the manual. Watch videos on YouTube. There are plenty of videos on iPhone photography on YouTube, for example. Fool around. Practice with a plate of food. Take pictures from different angles, and in different locations within the room. Play around with the camera phone settings. Natural Light Find a room that has ...

" You deserve better breasts! " I've seen a lot of weird sales emails in my spam folder but this was by far the most hilarious. Once in a while, I peep at my spam folder in case I missed anything interesting. Sometimes I do find something interesting, but most times there is nothing worth my time. Gmail users love having a (relatively well) functioning spam filter. For those people whose emails end up on the other side of the spam filter, it is not such a good thing. So here is how to avoid it: Mind Your Language Salesy words like 'free,' 'buy,' 'bonus,' 'order,' etc. are a dead giveaway. You bet spam filters are scanning your email for them. These words are risky and best avoided. Find other ways to communicate your message. Use exclamation marks sparely. Spam filters are wary of exclamation marks in subject lines. Use multiple exclamation marks and your email will take the express lane to the bin. A whole sentence in all cap...

By now everyone knows that mobile friendly websites rank higher on Google. Still, a lot of business people are yet to make their websites mobile friendly. Already, more than half of searches originate from a mobile device, instead of a desktop or a laptop. Mobile friendly websites are easily accessible to people who are browsing the internet on their phones or who are searching using their mobile phones. For this post we are sticking to the simple stuff. We are keeping it simple stupid. Here is how to make your website mobile friendly: Apply Responsive Design Responsive design simply means that the website can easily be viewed from a variety of screen sizes and shapes. Today's internet user is using different devices to view content. In less developed countries, some of the screens are quite tiny. The layout and the visual components need to be adjustable. Web pages intuitively alter their layout to fit the user's screen. Bigger is Better A goo...

We have all witnessed Social Media disasters. A disgruntled customer goes through an unpleasant experience with a service provider. She pleads her case before the court of public opinion on social media. The business owner, his employees, friends, and family go on the offensive against the malicious complainant who was (obviously) hired by a competitor to tarnish the good name of the business. Emotions run high. Insults are traded. The confrontation goes on for hours - or days, depending on how much stamina each one has. Finally everyone walks away bruised and bloodied, swearing never again. Here is our guide to putting out fires quickly and effectively. Less is more The more you say, the more likely you will do more harm than good. Your response should be as short and simple as possible. Express remorse for the customer's unsatisfactory experience. Express readiness to further the conversation privately in order to learn how you can improve your service. If a face-to-fa...

Everyone is talking about the coming changes in Facebook's newsfeed. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg predicts that people may end up spending less time on Facebook, and this has a parked fears that ads will become more expensive than they were before. Is this the end of organic reach on Facebook? With 'public content' expected to get less exposure, will Facebook still be worth it for local businesses? These doomsday predictions are not quite accurate. The rules of the game change from time to time, but the game goes on. Local businesses will just have to learn to dance to a different beat. A different way to engage Engagement posts will need to be done in a different way. Encourage people to comment and to talk to each other - not just to talk to you. Create posts that causes people to share their experiences, to write longer and more thoughtful responses. The usual 'like and share' may not necessarily work, especially if the post openly solicits the lik...