Content
Interviews, research, experience-based storytelling: Here are just a few projects that required more than a quippy headline:
iStock / Featured iStock Exclusive Artist
Challenge: Write a piece about a photographer who has a different native language. Tell a story about the photographer, but also tell a story about the way the photographs tell stories.
Solution: As a photography minor in college, I always love when I can connect other interests with my work. It makes for a more interesting piece when the person interviewing asks questions that go beyond the surface and can connect on a personal level. That’s what I try to do each time I write an Exclusive Artist piece for iStock. This one in particular meant finding a workaround for the call (WhatsApp) and listening very carefully, as well as not being afraid to speak back what I heard to make sure I heard correctly.
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Thrillist + McDonalds / How the McRib Became a Cult Superstar + others
Challenge: Write about the McRib sandwich … with little information available beyond cult-like fanaticism and superstitions.
Solution: This was a research-intense piece, but fortunately since I was living in Germany at the time, I had first-hand access to a country that (proudly?) serves the McRib all the time. There were several themes that kept cropping up during research, including the mystery behind the shape and the brilliant marketing. I organized the piece chronologically in terms of its first appearance to now and added other sections related to the themes as a way to add color and fill in the timeline gaps.
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Microsoft / Why 3D Printing is Disrupting Manufacturing
Challenge: As part of the Microsoft for Work (turned Microsoft for Business) content creation team, I was tasked with making weekly strategic content recommendations about the evolution of technology in the workplace and how SMBs can get the most of their tech investments. I wrote articles spanning IT, manufacturing, and healthcare, among other industries.
Results: Grew the Microsoft for Work audience by more than 200% (153K+ Twitter & 177K+ Facebook followers, last time I checked). On a good day, an article would receive nearly 30,000 unique visitors, making it (at the time) the most engaged-with platform of all Microsoft B2B channels.
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This piece was originally published on Microsoft for Work, but Microsoft has shuffled around content and I can only find this version, which Microsoft must have allowed its partners to repurpose.
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Babson Thought & Action (formerly Entrepreneurship of All Kinds) / What is Blockchain? + others
Challenge: When Babson asked me to continue working with them, long after I’d left my role as full-time employee to pursue my freelancing business, I said of course! The challenge with Babson is never the people (they are fantastic to work with), but doing justice to many of the stories I am fortunate enough to tell, whether it’s talking to experts on Blockchain, telling student and alumni stories, or working on SEO-focused content to help Babson stay at #1 for certain topics in search rankings.
Solution: On a recent piece, the client wrote back to me “Thank you so much for following directions.” This told me they’d worked with writers in the past who didn’t follow all the nuances they’d requested in their creative brief. I interview experts for all pieces I write for Babson, supplementing with data I find on the web from reputable organizations. The result is top-ranking content pieces.
How to Use Acceptance Rate and Class Profile to Guide Your College Search
KeyBank / Moving Countries: Tips to Make Your Travel Dreams a Reality, Saving in Your 30s: What You Need to Know + bundles of others (unfortunately KeyBank doesn’t have a handy tool to search by author)
Smarter Travel / I Crushed a Car With a German Tank + others
Hometap / How to Predict the Appraisal Value of Your Home + many others
Challenge: Each month for more than year, I worked with Hometap on creating blog posts, eBooks, and other content around managing your money. For this particular piece, the challenge was figuring out how to display numbers and math in a way that made this seemingly complex topic easier to digest for the readers.
Solution: I am a personal finance fanatic. I find it fascinating and even considered becoming a CFP. I think so many people can benefit from information that’s out there, if they know how to access it! For each piece, this one included, I did extensive research from reputable sources (banks, real estate agencies, etc.). Then, I organized the content in a way that made most sense for the piece, in this case a step-by-step process. I called out areas where I thought we could use some design help to make charts, resulting an piece that is much easier to follow than if I were to write out numbers and examples in paragraph form.
The Huffington Post / 10 Secret Spots in America’s Top National Parks
screencapture-huffpost-entry-10-secret-spots-in-americ-b-7706728-2021-08-03-16_09_56-pages-deletedSupercall + Captain Morgan / America’s Most Epic Spring Celebrations
Yahoo Travel / 10 Things You Should Never Do at a Destination Wedding
