JOE HARPER
Writer · Editor · Content Specialist
About Me
I've spent my career as a storyteller who helps people understand complicated things.
At Meta, I was the content designer behind the naming and launch of Facebook's Professional Mode (100M+ daily active users). I then transitioned to management, leading up to 10 content designers across Facebook's Creator Monetization, Feed, Notifications, and Reels products as well as our central Craft team.
Before Meta, I spent a decade as an editor at Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, Departures, and Centurion magazines, and freelanced for Michelin, Bloomberg, and Luxe. Writing for this many publications taught me to quickly land the voice and tone that fits a brand.
It's all the same job. I meet people where they are, figure out what they need to know, and say it clearly. And I do this with a caring, global mindset, which I learned from teaching English in Italy, South Korea, and Costa Rica.
Oh, and I briefly worked for a major Hollywood actor (ask me about that in person), but my calling as a writer was simply too overpowering.
Writing
[FOOD]
Performance Art Meets Culinary Excess at a Hyper-Glam Supper Club
[TRAVEL]
5 Great Places to See Art in the Hamptons
[TRAVEL]
Just Back: The New and the Old of Newport, Rhode Island
[TRAVEL]
Williamsburg, Brooklyn To Get a Green Hotel
Editing
I regularly oversaw editorial packages, from fielding pitches and managing freelance writers to handling budgets and editorial calendars. Here are just a few examples:
I had the privilege of tapping the world's top interior designers to learn how to bring color into spaces. This was part of an entire section I helped produce all about color in the Departures Spring 2019 Home + Design issue. I also assigned, edited, and oversaw the photo shoot for a story in the section about Gaetano Pesce (digital version here)
UX Portfolio
Please contact me directly for my UX Portfolio. Here's the story:
Joined Meta in 2020 to help bring more creators to the Facebook app. As a content designer, I migrated all Page users to the New Pages Experience and drove the zero-to-one launch of Professional Mode.
Professional Mode was a rapid success (100M+ daily active users within 18 months), so the Creators team expanded significantly. I became a manager to help build a team of content designers who can explain everything from monetization and copyright policy to fandom and distribution using the content framework I had established.
I embrace ambiguity, so I was also tapped regularly to lead other high-stakes projects. This included merging all video experiences under the Reels brand and supporting the redesign of Facebook's Feed and Notifications experiences, two highly optimized surfaces that required executive-level risk assessment for every pixel touched.
Contact
Content: josephaharper (at) gmail.com
Editorial: joeharper.writes (at) gmail.com
