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Easy Guide to Writing Social Media Headlines "That People Click"

10/17/2019

2 Comments

 

Writing Headlines That People Click ​ "Things You Need To Know"

How to write headlines that people click

Great Headlines Are Fundamental... 
*With Social Media a Great Headline Isn't Enough

Out of all the posts you write and then you go back and polish them up and update the posts, and the frustration of knowing out of 80% who ready your headline only 20% of the people will actually read the article according to CopyBlogger.

More About Headlines in a bit... Let's think about where your Audiences Live Online and When!
Headlines and Images Change Depending On What Social Platform
*Social Media Content Distribution 
You spent all this time writing some amazing content and you are ready to post it.  Wait... Schedule it! Yes Schedule It. When? Where? What Headline? What Images? Brand or Personal Brand Identity comes into play!

Your post on Twitter alone can be lost in a sea of tweets. 8,692 Tweets sent every second. Yes every second!
Tweets sent every second - Social Selling
At the time this post was written, 8,692 Tweets were sent in 1 second!
Go with the facts. Know your social media analytics.

By having different hashtags and headlines and posting at specific times and days  on Twitter you can increase your impressions and visits by huge amounts.  As a rule we have found and you may find as well stay clear of Wednesdays and Sundays rock!  For my Audience is 10:00am CST.

Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and all Social Media Platforms MUST BE Analyzed this way as well. 

Your target audience lives on different social media platforms at different times with different motivators.  Get to know them and know them well and only then can you start to reap the harvest of your content distribution efforts.
Increase Twitter Engagement 10 fold  
My analytics have proved this!
How to increase Social Selling twitter engagement 10 fold
@rickyrea Twitter analytics
Social Selling Best Time to Post on Twitter
@rickyrea twitter analytics | Stay away from Wednesday and Sunday is always best. 10:00 am is best time of the day.
Headline Difference Between Social Media Platforms
Twitter Headline Example: "Join Our Winter iPad Giveaway!"
Pinterest Headline Example: "Join Our Winter iPad Giveaway to Store Your Your Holiday Recipes!"
Facebook Headline Example: "Join Our Winter iPad Giveaway for Your Healthy Home!"

1. Want People to Share your Posts? ​The Headline is the Most Critical Element!

We know people scan headlines quickly ( they have too, there billions of them) and the attention span is very short. Believe it or not people have the attention span similar to a goldfish! About 9 seconds... That's it!

Important Facts
People always ask me how I was honored as being in the top 1% endorsed for advertising out of 200 million people on social media at that time. Then how I was asked to be a Sales Advisor for LinkedIn, which I accepted.  It is looking at analytics and testing and testing and more testing.  Doing this since March 2009 at a high level you can imagine the intel and knowledge I garnered from this online sea of sharks fighting to be on top of the food chain. 

Please don't take my word for it let's look at outside influential facts!
  • REPORT: 44% of Google News Visitors Scan Headlines, Don't Click through!         "Outsell says that for “News Right Now”, which I’m presuming are the most current news items, 57 percent of users now go to digital sources, up from 33 percent a few years ago. They’re also likelier to turn to an news aggregator (31 percent) than a newspaper site (8 percent) or other site (18 percent). This is in line with what Erick Schonfeld recently wrote about media bundles dying at the expense of smart aggregators."   Case in point: Great Headlines and Imperative!
  • STUDY: The first 11 Characters of a headline are what people consume most​

2. 90% of Advertising Dollars is the Headline

The post headline (title) may be the ONLY INTERACTION you will have with your audience.

The right headline will dramatically increase your CTR. It is also the start of a positive relationship.

Nail your first impression! Your post content must meet the headline proposition. Be factual and fulfill your readers with great content and not good content.  Do Not Skimp, Do Not Over Promise and Under Deliver!

​This will dramatically increase the time users stay on your website!
"T
he first 10 seconds of the page visit are critical for users' decision to stay or leave." 

3. Great Headlines Can Get You Thousands of Shares!

With over 2 million posts daily how many shares do you get?  

What percentage of those 2 million posts get over 100 shares?

Only about 11% according to SocialPilot.

You can be in the top 1% that gets 1,000's of shares from your posts.
(with Training and Practice)
How?

​Start with Writing Stunning Headlines!

4. The F-Pattern
  • REPORT: The Best Antidotes to the F-Shaped Pattern
  • Do the work for the user. Don't force them to read and read to find the high points.
  • Most important points in the first 2 paragraphs.
  • Use headlines and subheadlines.
  • Group small amounts of relevant content.
  • BOLD important words and headlines.
  • Format links in an understanding way.  Do Not hyperlink "Click Here".
  • Use bullets to make unstandable and clear lists.
  • Cut unnecessary content.
F-Pattern Eye Tracking, how people scan content.
5. Only 1% Of Organic Posts Receive Engagement
Yes, 99% of all organic posts receive No User Engagement according to SocialFlow!

By golly, if that that statistic does not make one you really think how darn important an headline really is, the following facts will.

With great factual relevant content you will keep the user (reader) on your page longer. Users stay on your webpage around 10 seconds.  The first 2 lines of content must grab them!
Social Selling - How long to people stay on a website
It's clear from the chart that the first 10 seconds of the page visit are critical
Post updates disappear from your feeds in minutes. 

What do you think the life of a Tweet is or a Facebook post is?
According to Wiselytics it's 24 minutes for a Tweet and 90 minutes for a Facebook post.
Because of this it is good to send the same update more than once to cover different time zones.  
It is a MUST to have an attractive headline to grab the attention of readers do to the amount of posts generated every minute!
Some publishers have really figured this out! They GET MILLIONS OF PAGEVIEWS​ from how they write headlines. Mostly from social media. Most of which is from other people's content that was good but with a poor headline. 
Think how learning writing headlines Will Help You With Your Social Selling Efforts!
 If you think about it, "Great Headline Writing" have built huge companies like, BuzzFeed, ViralNova and UpWorthy.  Study their posts and all the engagements they get. 

All the Social Media engagement you get from good headline writing greatly helps  SEO efforts as well on the websites where the content was written.  
Social Selling - Write Headlines that get clicks
Notice over 10,000 shares and 3,600 comments. Yes, about a bike path!
What goes into writing good headlines? Testing TESTING and TESTING!
Social Selling Write 25 Headlines. It Makes a difference! - UpWorthy
Writing 25 Headlines and testing makes a HUGE difference.
 Upworthy writes 25 Headlines per post in their editorial process before picking a headline. This helps determine the image to use with the article.  See the results below.

Case in point, early in my career I worked at a new car Mercedes Benz, Saab, Subaru and Toyota dealership.  When I was managing I wrote car ad after car ad and found how I wrote the ad made a huge difference.  So much so I did the same thing back then.   

It worked so well it led me to the media world as I landed on the cover of Dealer News Magazine for the top dealer for marketing and merchandising.   

Then eventually "The Top 1% Endorsed for Advertising" on LinkedIn. 

Soon after LinkedIn asked me to be on their "Sales Advisory" board, which I accepted.
Why is this import to share? 
    When it comes to Social Selling it starts with an awesome headline!
         Practice, and learn from the pros, it is worth BILLIONS! 
Writing better social selling headlines. UpWorthy
2 different UpWorthy headlines one gets 59x better results.
Same content, 2 different headlines with different headlines, see the results.  Need I say more...

1 Viral Social Selling Headlines Common Words
Look to research, companies like Buffer have done extensive research on the most common words in viral headlines. 
Most common words in common headlines
Most uncommon words in viral headlines
Conversational tone always works best if you want people to read your content. Have a conversation with your audience!
Two-word phrases in viral headlines
Most common 2 word phrases in social selling viral headlines
Example:
  • "Here is a Short Video on How Terrible This Snow Storm Hurts People"
What, Which, When, Why and Sometimes Who
The four W’s are life savers in many creative exercises like writing. In the case of question headlines, the reason for their effectiveness in a post title is possibly because they evoke our curiosity.

​When you are curious, and what to learn more, what do you do?
Examples:
  •   "What character from "Seinfeld" Are you?
  •   "9 Horrifying Reasons Why "Halloween" is the Worst!" 
How To - How To Do Headlines Right!
Instructions and Education, just think of how many times you search on how to do something. 

Yes, "How To" is that huge.  WikiHow built a huge business off that alone.

Just think if you put a "How To" effort into your publish strategy.  

Your readers are looking for answers to their needs and wants all the time.

Deliver it to them!
Most Popular 3 Word Phrases in Viral Headlines for Social Selling
Example:

"How to Make a Simple Easy Meal { Everyone Will Love }"

2.  Human Behavior Plays a Role On What People Click
Daniel Kahneman's book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” mentions BuzzFeed's two modes of thought on why people click headlines.
  • 1 is subconscious, emotional, instinctive and fast. Most of our time is spent thinking in this mode of thought.
  • ​2 is slower, deliberative, conscious, effortful and logical. It’s called into play only if there is complex information that requires processing and effort.
two modes of thought when clicking on viral social selling headlines
Sharing fast and slow: The psychological connection between how we think and how we spread news on social media.
All this is very cool as we are in a very relaxed state...

This is why News Sites if done right need to have content on most all social media sites.  ONLY IF THEY WRITE HEADLINES THAT PEOPLE CLICK and READ!
When we are browsing social media we are in a subconscious state according to Sonya Song. (This is System 1.)

A good example of this is how I helped and still helping River Cities Speedway with their media.   RCS is a old school cool dirt track in Grand Forks North Dakota that was rebuilt in the 1930's and was dedicated by President Franklin Roosevelt. 

Like many dirt race tracks in the world that only run a handful of seasonal events it's hard to get national and global media attention.  RCS had a few World of Outlaw Late Model and Sprint Car World Records and was in the Legendary State of North Dakota.

Working with RCS I came up with "The World Famous Legendary Bullring" and named twitter @BestDirtTrack prior to RCS ever being named the "Best Dirt Track"

Why?
System 1, passive social media headline engagement!
Example:

"Photo Finish See Who Won at The World Famous Legendary Bullring" 

The end result River Cities Speedway was voted the "Raciest 410 Sprint Car Track" and has won "Promoter of the Year" and in the racing world is known all over the world. All from using what you are learning about in this post.

A typical year using these methods RCS social media and website reaches millions of internet users and with only about 17 Friday nights of racing.  
How does BuzzFeed relate to this?

BuzzFeed has mastered the art of Slow and Fast Thinking.
get fast and slow thinkers to click your social media social selling headlines
Most of BuzzFeed's stories use uppercase letter headlines, attractive pictures and are written in very simple language.

​Like auto racing BuzzFeed is very heavy in visualization with imagery and invests heavily in investigative reporters that get behind the scene stories and or are the original source of a groundbreaking Pulitzer Prize Winning Story. 

​What does this tell you, get out there, do research like this article, use data and facts and write good content that is easy to read.  Use images for easy understanding that is conversational.   

​Readers should feel they want to read more of what you have to say or learn more from you!
Rick Rea Social Sales and Social Selling Expert
Rick Rea
Written by:
Rick Rea
Contact:
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2 Comments
Bruce Senti link
10/28/2019 11:23:57 am

Very strong stuff. I will be using much of this info immediately.

Reply
Rick R. link
10/28/2019 11:48:59 am

Thanks Bruce, I appreciate your feedback!

Reply



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