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Tiffany Markman

5 design elements for writers to consider

Yoh. Content gets prettier every day. Back in 2008, when I started blogging, my highest priorities were capital letters, full stops and paragraph spacing. Today, we’re not in Copy Kansas anymore, Toto.

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Tiffany Markman

Why your writing matters on YouTube

The words that accompany your YouTube videos, once you’ve created them*, are a big part of how hard your channel, video and/or YouTube community at large will work for your brand or message. So never discount, half-arse, or rush the writing part. Every YouTube video can, and should be, organically optimised to derive the most value.

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Tiffany Markman

To emoji or not to emoji?

You should know, to start with, that I’m a hard-ass about most things when it comes to business writing:

• The phrase “I trust this email finds you well” (I hate it)
• The incorrect use of the verb “revert” (this makes me itch)
• Two spaces after a full stop (which should’ve vanished when women got the vote).

But, in a development that surprises many people, I’m no hard-ass when it comes to emojis.

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Tiffany Markman

Sh*t out of ideas for content marketing?

Sh*t out of ideas for content marketing? Sick of your usual methods? Unsure where to start to generate some fresh nuggets or new items of value?
Whichever it is, here are some methods that work for me (and sometimes I generate 40 ideas at a time, so I know what I’m talking about).

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Tiffany Markman

How to brief a writer? Like this.

First things first: You have to tell us stuff.

Ever heard the expression, “Garbage in, garbage out”? If your writer doesn’t have solid, accurate facts to work from, the job’s gonna be a #fail.

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Tiffany Markman

“Dear Sirs”? In 2021? Nope. Here are the alternatives.

A client of mine got very cross today. Not with me, thank goodness… But because her firm traditionally addresses its own clients as “Dear Sirs”.

Even when they are female or when they have not specified a preferred gender.

In 2021, this won’t do.

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Charlotte Nyatanga

August News Round-up

August has been largely dominated by negativity in South African news, but then again, which month hasn’t. This month saw the release of crime statistics, which were eye-popping, to put it in the Police Minister’s words. More shocking stats came to light regarding the rate of teenage pregnancy in the country. In my opinion, that was to be expected in light of disruptions to learning as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. More women were murdered, during the month to celebrate women. The police have their work cut out for them, even though from the look of things, they have no clue where to start.

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