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Aberrational
Behavior and the
Causal Effect of
Incentives
Freakonomics:
A Rogue Economist
Explores the Hidden
Side of Everything
“Once headed for a bland retirement within
newspapers, the headline is making a
striking comeback online … No longer the
exclusive province of copyeditors, it is now
the cornerstone of emailed political appeals,
the fulcrum of crowdsourcing capital on
Kickstarter, and arguably the basis of an
entire communications medium, the all-
headlines microblogging system Twitter.”
—RYAN GRIM
Print vs. Pixels Virality
Headlines Headings
PRINT VS. PIXELS PART 1
“BuzzFeed wasn’t just hiring brand names to
serve as lustrous hood ornaments connoting
credibility, the way Tina Brown and Arianna
Huffington have. The hires at BuzzFeed were
more like maypoles: young writers native to
the web who become pivot points for content
because they are bathed in both the ethos
and practice of social media.”
—DAVID CARR
Lean Backward Lean Forward
This is how we read
scan online.
Nielsen Norman Group (2006)
PRINT VS. PIXELS When reading online, we lean _______.
We don’t read online . We ____.
THE NATURE
OF VIRALITY
PART 2
“We basically found our guts were worthless.” —A senior member of Obama’s
2012 campaign email team
“Writing for social
media is an actual skill
that people can learn.
It’s not mechanical,
but it is reproducible.” —Ezra Klein
HEADLINES PART 3
HEADLINES PART 3
THE BIG PICTURE
“The headline is our one chance to reach
people who have a million other things that
they’re thinking about, and who didn’t wake
up in the morning wanting to care about
feminism or climate change or the policy
details of the election.”
—PETER KOECHLEY
HEADLINES PART 3
IN ACTION
“In a print newspaper, a headline is
surrounded by lots of other contextual clues
that tell you about the story: Is there a photo
with it? Do I recognize the byline? Is it blazed
across the top of Page 1 or buried on C22?
Online, headlines often pop up alone and
disembodied amid an endless stream of
other content.”
—BEN SMITH
“Imagine your headline not as it looks above
your article, but as it looks at the bottom of
an unrelated site, in someone’s Twitter or
Facebook streams, or in a search result …
Think of your headline as an emissary for
your post, written to travel around the
Internet, selling the material to potential
readers.”
—MATT THOMPSON
HEADLINES PART 3
BY THE NUMBERS
8/10 That’s how many people will read your headline.
2/10 That’s how many people will read the rest of your article.
25 That’s how many headlines Upworthy tests for every article.
1. Hey White Guys! I Got Your Back
2. Do You Know How Hard It Is Being a White Guy?
3. Being a White Guy Is Harder Than You Think
4. You Don’t Know What It’s Like Being a White Guy
5. White Guys Don’t Have All the Luck
6. If You Knew What It Was Like for White Guys, You’d Keep Complaining
7. Seriously, Who Is Watching Out for the White Guys
8. This White Guy Thing Is Pretty Rough
9. You Don’t Know What It’s Like Being a White Guy
10. Imagine You Were a White Guy. You Know How Hard That Is?
11. Why Are White Guys Always Being Picked On?
12. Seriously, White Guys Can’t Catch a Break
13. White Guys Have So Many Problems, if Only You’d See That
14. An Open Message on Behalf of All White Guys Everywhere
15. This Is What a White Guy Has to Deal With
16. Put Yourself in a White Guy’s Shoes. Comfy, Right?
17.The Life of White Guys Is Way Harder Than You Realize?
18. This Is Why You Should Feel Sorry for White Dudes
19. An Open Letter From White Dudes to America
20. A Public Service Announcement on Behalf of All White Dudes
21. White Dudes Have It Really Hard
22. Being a White Dude Is Harder Than Being Not a Woman or Not a Person of Color
23. Do You Know How Hard It Is Being a Woman? Try Being a White Dude
24. It’s Pretty Hard Out There for a Dude
25. Your Life Is Hard? Try Being (1) A Dude and 2. White
A headline that starts out as “10 C.E.O.s
Who Meditate” becomes “The Daily Habit of
These Outrageously Successful People” —
but only after 10 writers and editors bounce
ideas off each other for half an hour.
104 That’s how many drafts it took David Ogilvy to perfect his Rolls Royce copy.
500% That’s how much a headline can boost an article’s traffic.
NUMBERS X out of 10 people will read your headline.
X out of 10 will read your article.
Upworthy tests XX headlines per article.
HEADLINES PART 3
CASE STUDIES
Uma Thurman
Ice Cream
Chicken Nuggets
FREEENTERPRISE.COM
Entitlements: Face
the Truth or Face
the Consequences
FREEENTERPRISE.COM
10 Entitlement Truths
That Will Blow Your
Mind
895 views 26,627 views
THEPOSTGAME (YAHOO)
Deaf Seahawks
Running Back
Derrick Coleman
Stars in New
Campaign
FTW (USA TODAY)
Deaf Seahawks
Fullback Stars in
Commercial That Will
Give You Chills
201 shares 2 million shares
IOWA HOUSE DEMOCTATS
Zach Wahls
Speaks About
Family
MOVEON.ORG
Two Lesbians Had a
Baby and This Is
What They Got
2.8 million views 17.4 million views
THE NATION
The Hunted and the
Hated: An Inside
Look at the NYPD’s
Stop-and-Frisk
Policy
UPWORTHY
Meet the 17 Year Old
Who Blew the Lid Off
Racial Profiling With
His iPod
40,000 views 2.5 million views
DEALBOOK
Realities Behind
Prosecuting Big
Banks
• Andrew Ross Sorkin
• 970 words
• 82 comments
• Mark Gongloff
• 509 words
• 4,591 comments
• 2,300 likes
THE HUFFINGTON POST
Eric Holder Admits
Some Banks Are Just
Too Big to Prosecute
THE WASHINGTON POST
FBI’s Search for “Mo,”
Suspect in Bomb
Threats, Highlights
Use of Malware for
Surveillance
• Craig Timberg and Ellen
Nakashima, with Julie Tate
• 1,987 words
• 173 comments
• Casey Chan
• 193 words
• 577 comments
• 297,624 views
GIZMODO
FBI Can Secretly
Turn on Laptop
Cameras Without the
Indicator Light
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
How Companies
Learn Your Secrets
FORBES
How Target Figured
Out a Teen Girl Was
Pregnant Before Her
Father Did
• Charles Duhigg
• 6,800 words
• 60 likes
• Kashmir Hill
• 1,200 words
• 13,000 likes
“I was stunned. It was an amazing anecdote that
crystallized so much anxiety we feel about
corporate data collection, how much ‘they’ know
about us, and how they’ll use it … I couldn’t
believe it was buried nearly 5,000 words into the
story rather than being the lede or broken out on
its own.”
— Kashmir Hill
“The New York Times article is a delicious nine-
course dinner; mine is an equally tasty, bite-sized
snack for readers on the go. Most readers online
are looking for something quick and easy to
digest, so my version worked better for them.”
— Kashmir Hill
THE WASHINGTON POST
Business Coach Anne
Loehr Tries to Bridge
Diverse Generations:
X, Y, Baby Boomer
GAWKER
“Generational
Consultant” Holds
America’s Fakest
Job
• Ian Shapira
• 1,568 words
• 1 hour to interview; 30
minutes to drive; 2 hours
to attend a session; 4
hour to transcribe; 1 day
to write
• Hamilton Nolan
• 436 words
• 1 hour to write
“Nearly every day a Washington Post staffer not
only sends us links to its expensive reporting, but
even pulls out the most interesting quotes so as to
make it easier to pirate.”
— Gabriel Snyder
CASE STUDIES When you got it, _____ it.
Don’t serve up your summary. Serve up
your _____.
Pull out your meatiest ______.
HEADLINES PART 3
THE SCIENCE
“Geek
equivalents of
Cosmo covers.”
—Anil Dash
“Contemporary media culture prioritizes the
smart take, the sound bite, the takeaway —
and the list is the takeaway in its most
convenient form … You are, initially, sucked
in by the promise of a neatly quantified
serving of information or diversion. There will
be precisely 10 (or 14, or 33) items in this
text, and they will pertain to precisely this
stated topic. You know exactly what you’re
going to get with a listicle.”
—MARK O’CONNELL
“Promise me 11 things, I will at least read
three of them.”
—CHOIRE SICHA
13 Animals That Are Really Bummed
on Obamacare’s Third Birthday
Headline Source
7 Important Tax Facts About
Medical and Dental Expenses
75 Facts About the 75th
Secretary of the Treasury
The 10 Most Unintentionally Hilarious
Propaganda Videos
The Top 5 Signs You Probably Have
Pancreatic Cancer
Can You Spot the Difference?
The Debt Ceiling
Explained in 3 Videos
and 1 Chart
The Debt Ceiling
Explained in Three
Videos and One Chart
How Social Networks
Change the World in 5
Ways
5 Ways Social Networks
Are Changing the World
King of Thrones:
America’s Best
Restroom Is in
Minneapolis
King Of Thrones:
America’s Best
Restroom Is In
Minneapolis
When “60 Minutes”
Checks Its Journalistic
Skepticism at the Door
When ‘60 Minutes’
Checks Its Journalistic
Skepticism at the Door
Boom, Roasted: Here’s
Why You Don’t Ask a
Feminist to Hawk Your
Sexist Product
BOOM, ROASTED:
Here’s Why You Don’t
Ask a Feminist to Hawk
Your Sexist Product
SCIENCE “List” + “article” = ________.
Numbers: “7” or “seven”?
Where do numbers go?
Should you capitalize each word?
Double quotes, or single quotes?
Italics, or capital letters?
Google cuts off your headline after
__ characters.
Swiss Cheese
Embarrassment
How to Win Friends and Influence People
How to Win Friends and Influence Bloggers
The Secret of Making People Like You
The Secret of Getting People to Respond to Your Emails
How a “Fool Stunt” Made Me a Star Salesman
How a Silly Tweet Made Me a Celebrity
Give Me 5 Days and I’ll Give You a Magnetic Personality. Let Me
Prove It—Free
Give Me 1 Week and I’ll Make You Influential on Twitter. Let Me
Prove It—Free
Only One of These Safety Features Can Help You Avoid an
Accident
Only One of These Tips Help You Avoid Running Your Credit
Do You Have Any Idea How Much Fat Is in This Chocolate
Pudding? None!
Do You Have Any Idea How Quickly I Paid Off My Debt? In Just 6
Weeks!
Do You Recognize the 7 Early Warning Signs of High Blood
Pressure?
Do You Recognize the 7 Early Warning Signs of a Failing
Marriage?
GREAT
It’s Always Fun
When a Sitting
Congressman
Sits on a Science
Committee and
Doesn’t
Understand
Basic Human
Biology
Sounds indignant but
even-tempered
BAD
Meet Todd Akin.
He’s a Horrible
Human Being.
Share This So
Everyone Knows
Sounds hostile
GOOD
A Congressman
on a Science
Committee
Doesn’t
Understand How
Science Works
Sounds preachy
BAD
Who Controls 90%
of Everything
Americans Watch,
Hear, and Read?
GOOD
The Real Reason
They Still Play “Mrs.
Robinson” on the
Internet
SCIENCE Add one slice of _____ cheese.
Embrace ________.
Avoid ____________ language.
HEADLINES PART 3
THE ART
Cats
Linda Fiorentino
You Will Not
Believe What Mitt
Romney Wants
to Do to You
Just right: I can’t help
but click.
Mitt Romney
Says Something
Bad, Again
Too vague: I don’t want
to click.
Mitt Romney
Says, “I Want the
Middle Class to
Be Tied to the
Roof of My Car”
Too specific; I don’t
need to click.
Adorable
Chimpanzee
Does Something
Rather
Unexpected
Just right: I can’t help
but click.
This Is an
Amazing Video
Too vague: I don’t want
to click.
Chimpanzee
Sniffs Own Butt,
Passes Out From
Doing So
Too specific; I don’t
need to click.
“Headlines now are a strange cross between
imperative and inviting. The tone is soothing,
seductive and at least a little bit demanding,
like every character ever played by Linda
Fiorentino.”
—CHOIRE SICHA
Bold
Fun
Contrarian
Be Bold
You’re Doing It Wrong: Poached Eggs
This Awesome Ad, Set to the Beastie Boys, Is How to Get Girls
to Become Engineers
Why the FBI Director Is Wrong About Encryption
All the Problems at Bloomberg Come Down to One Stat
Bill Gates Makes Over $1 Million Every Day Doing Almost
Nothing
Be Fun
Why Infographics Are Terrible, in One Terrible Infographic
Demand Media’s Bold New Strategy for eHow: Suck Less
What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage
22 Dogs Who Are Just Really Excited to Be Dogs
Headless Body in Topless Bar
Be Contrarian
Think Like a Woman and Make More Money
Congress Deserves a Big Fat Raise
Coverage You Can’t Buy: Why the Disastrous Healthcare.gov
Rollout Could Be Good for Obamacare
Don’t Say Goodbye When You Leave a Party. Just Ghost
Why Tom Brady Is the Most Overrated Quarterback
in NFL History
Personal
Immediate
Exaggerated
Make It Personal
Don’t Ask Hillary Clinton About Abortion if You Can’t
Handle Her Answer
Things Every Grown Man Should Have
19 People Who Are Having a Way Worse Day Than You
What Recruiters Look at During the 6 Seconds They
Spend on Your Resume
9 Questions About Syria You Were Too Embarrassed to Ask
All You Need to Know About Sequestration
Everything You Need to Know About the Jerry Sandusky Trial
These 13 Questions Will Tell You Everything You Need to Know
About Yourself
Everything You Need to Know About iOS 8
Make It Immediate
Here Is What Happens When You Cast Lindsay Lohan
in Your Movie
Stop Everything and Watch This Basset Hound Run in Slow
Motion
The 15 Best Countries for You to Move to Right Now
10 Things You Need to Know Before the Opening Bell
POPULAR SCIENCE
Meet the Climate
Change Denier
Who Became the
Voice of Hurricane
Sandy on
Wikipedia
GAWKER
This Guy Is the
Reason Hurricane
Sandy’s Wikipedia
Page Didn’t Mention
Climate Change
Until Today
Make It Exaggerated
The Impossible Choice That Had Elon Musk on the Verge
of a Nervous Breakdown
The Most Sensational Murder Trial You’ve Never Heard of Started
100 Years Ago
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
The Pope Just Published One of the Most Powerful Critiques of
Modern Capitalism That You Will Ever Read
This Is the Greatest Hoodie Ever Made
BUZZFEED
29 Surreal Places
in America You
Need to Visit
Before You Die
VIRAL NOVA
Step One Foot in
Any of These 29
Places and Your
Life Will Never Be
The Same. Wow
A Boy Makes Anti-Muslim Comments in Front of an American
Soldier. The Soldier’s Reply: Priceless
See Why We Have an Absolutely Ridiculous Standard of Beauty
in Just 37 Seconds
Dustin Hoffman Breaks Down Crying Explaining Something That
Every Woman Sadly Already Experienced
9 Out of 10 Americans Are Completely Wrong About This Mind-
Blowing Fact
This Amazing Kid Died. What He Left Behind Is Wondtacular
THIS AMAZING KID DIED.
WHAT HE LEFT BEHIND IS WONDTACULAR
Use Power Words
WEAK WORDS
11 Tips to Writing
POWER WORDS
11 Smart Tips to
Brilliant Writing
WEAK WORDS
Don’t Do This With
Your Marketing
Efforts
POWER WORDS
The Most
Dangerous Threat to
Your Online
Marketing Efforts
WEAK WORDS
5 Beliefs That
Make It Harder to
Write
POWER WORDS
5 Crippling Beliefs
That Keep Writers
Penniless and Mired
in Mediocrity
WEAK WORDS
5 Grammatical Tips
Everyone Needs to
Learn
POWER WORDS
5 Grammatical
Errors That Make
You Look Dumb
WEAK WORDS
How to Sell Your
Home in a Day
POWER WORDS
How You Can
Effortlessly Sell
Your Home in Less
Than 24 Hours
Get Specific
GENERAL
How to Use
Android SDK
SPECIFIC
The Beginner’s
Guide to Android
SDK
GENERAL
Telecommunication
s Best Practices for
the 21st-Century
Enterprise
SPECIFIC
7 Simple Ways
Enterprises Can
Cut Telecom Costs
GENERAL
How to Sell Social
Media
SPECIFIC
15 Case Studies to
Get Your Client on
Board With Social
Media
GENERAL
How to Make
Google Laugh:
SEO Your
Headlines
SPECIFIC
How to Optimize
Your Headlines for
Google and
Humans
GENERAL
How to Get Better
at Organizing Your
Day
SPECIFIC
The 5-Minute Guide
to Organizing Your
Day for More Focus
and Productivity
Write for the Outsider
INSIDER
Bob Bowman
Shares 9 Secrets
to Coaching World-
Class Athletes
OUTSIDER
Michael Phelps’s
Longtime Coach
Shares 9 Secrets
to Training World-
Class Athletes
INSIDER
Judge Aaron
Persky, Who Ruled
Against Brock
Turner, Was Just
Removed From His
Next Trial
OUTSIDER
The Judge Who
Presided Over the
Ex-Stanford
Swimmer’s Case
Was Just Removed
From His Next Trial
THE ART Create an ____.
Be b___, f__, and c_________.
Make it p_______, i________, and e__________.
Use _____ words.
Get ________.
Write for the ________.
How Today’s Media Would
Have Covered Columbus’s
Discovery of the New World
How Today’s Media
Would Have Covered
the Birth of Jesus
If Classic Books Had
Internet Headlines
19 Banned Books if
They Were Made
Appropriate
http://www.themillions.com/2014/01/read-me-please-
book-titles-rewritten-to-get-more-clicks.html
20th-Century Headlines
Rewritten to Get More Clicks
1905
How a Shocking New Theory,
Discovered by a Dad,
Proves Scientists Are Wrong
About Everything
1916
“Physicist Dad” Turns His
Attention to Gravity, and You
Won’t Believe What He Finds
[PICS]
1928
This One Weird Mold
Kills All Germs
1945
These 9 Nazi Atrocities
Will Make You Lose Faith
in Humanity
1948
5 Insane Plans
for Feeding West Berlin
You Won’t Believe Are Real
1969
This Is the Most Important
Photo of an Astronaut
You’ll See All Day
1989
You Won’t Believe
What These People
Did to the Berlin Wall [VIDEO]
If Upworthy Existed
Throughout History
If Video Games Had
Upworthy Headlines
How Websites Today
Would Report the
Monica Lewinsky
Scandal
HEADLINES PART 3
YES, BUT…
“Millions of readers are lured by
sensational headlines, only to be
disappointed to find a superficial
dispatch with no new information,
dashed off by a harried journalist tasked
with producing three stories a day.”
—STEVEN LEVY
“Upworthy posts don’t go viral because
people click—Upworthy posts go viral
because people share. ‘Clickbait’ … is a
totally viable … way to get a bunch of
initial views. But it doesn’t create viral
content. By far the most important factor
in getting people to share a post is the
actual quality of the content … To share,
they have to love what they see.”
—UPWORTHY INSIDER
“There is hyperbole and the occasional
withholding comment, and then there is
the pulling at your bleeding heartstrings
with the subtlety of a monster truck.”
—LEXI NISITA
“What special virtue is there in letting
great videos, articles, and images fall
into the Internet’s abyss simply because
nobody thought of the right combination
of words to unlock their audience?
What’s more, when readers find
themselves hating a headline picked by
a testing audience and shared by 10
million people, whose tastes are we
really objecting to — Upworthy’s or
ours?”
—ELI PARISER
Assuming my boss didn’t mind the
tabloidization of our corporate brand, I
too could crank out clickbait.
“Could you make a list of cute animals
that gets five million views? It’s actually
really hard.”
—JONAH PERETTI
“The kind of mindless Internet advocacy
Upworthy’s been accused of promoting
has inspired a new word: clicktivism.
Clicktivists ... conflate feeling good …
with doing good. They watch a video of a
kid sharing his lunch with another kid,
forward it to their social networks or sign
a petition, congratulate themselves on
their political involvement, close the
browser window, and diminish the
definition of service for everyone.”
—KATY WALDMAN
“Awareness creates the conditions for
change. We are priming people for
action.”
—PETER KOECHLEY
HEADLINES PART 3
SEO
Slowing Terminal Sales
at Bloomberg
The Wall Street Journal
All the Problems at
Bloomberg Come Down
to One Stat
Double Down Scoops:
How John Heilemann
and Mark Halperin
Learn Secrets
The New Republic
The Pivotal, Behind-the-
Scenes Story of How
the Game Change Guys
Get Sources to Talk
HEADLINES PART 3
QUESTIONS
What’s the likelihood
this headline will
appear in the sidebar
of most-popular
articles?
Would I share this
article if I saw only its
headline?
If others are writing
about this subject, is
my headline different
enough to stand out?
Should You Write the
Headline First or Last?
“You may know some of the elements you’re
going to include, you may know how you
want it to begin and end, and you may know
a dozen other big ideas that have to be in
[your story]. But until you can come up with a
headline, chances are you are going to end
up like me, with all the hard work behind you
and this small sign before you, demon-
strating as clear as a Bahamian bay that the
greater purpose was never framed and
fixed.”
—MIKE LONG
QUESTIONS Can I envision this headline in the sidebar
of ____ _______ articles?
Would I ____ this article or post it on ________ based on the headline alone?
If others are writing about this subject, is my headline _________ enough to stand out?
HEADLINES PART 3
TESTING TOOLS
HEADLINES PART 3
YOU TRY IT!
YOU TRY IT! Your organization’s blog
Your favorite website
A current event
HEADINGS PART 4
Subheadings Lists
Bullet Points Tables
“The most important effect of any heading is
to create white space on the page, making
for a relaxed visual environment in which
information can be scanned.”
—ROY PETER CLARK
“By using headings, I make the material
easier to write and to understand. Instead of
writing one long memo, I treat it like a
handful of mini-memos on several smaller
topics.”
—MIKE LONG
HEADLINES PART 4
SUBHEADINGS
Signal Transitions
Any website worth its pixels offers wayfinding
tactics.
Create White Space
Long paragraphs constitute eye sores.
BAD “She’s not promoting it, but she can be found
on Twitter at @digitalori.”
C’mon, Lori. Don’t be coy—you know you
want more followers. I know you want more
followers. Shout it from the rooftops!
“Follow Richard Levick on Twitter and circle
him on Google+, where he comments daily on
the issues impacting corporate brands.”
GOOD Lori
“She’s not promoting it, but she can be found
on Twitter at @digitalori.”
C’mon, Lori. Don’t be coy—you know you want
more followers. I know you want more
followers. Shout it from the rooftops!
Richard
“Follow Richard Levick on Twitter and circle
him on Google+, where he comments daily on
the issues impacting corporate brands.”
Effective? Yes. Yet it could be stronger.
Turn a Scanner Back Into a Reader With Subheads
Keep Your Reader in Track With Benefits
Subhead Techniques
Win the Battle Against the Scanners
HEADLINES PART 4
LISTS
1. I will learn to love lists.
They bring order to my thoughts and deprive
ambiguity of oxygen.
2. I will learn to love lists.
They facilitate scanning and make my content
snackable.
HEADLINES PART 4
BULLET POINTS
• Bullets bolster brevity.
• Bullets cut to the chase.
Avoid clutter.
Be consistent.
Acclimate yourself to fragments.
HEADLINES PART 4
TABLES
Table Paragraphs
Just the essentials Full of filler
Variety is vigor Blocks are boring
The Middle East Friendship Chart
HEADINGS ___headings
_____
______ points
______
HEADINGS PART 4
YES, BUT…
Our brand is too important to be
sacrificed to the ever-changing whims of
mouse movers and thumb clickers.
“That people ruthlessly scan content,
both online and off, is just a fact of
writing life. It’s better to accept reality,
and resolve to suck the scanners in.”
—BRIAN CLARK
Bullet points and lists result in abrupt
and terse writing. They hamper my
natural fluidity.
“We’re not telling you to keep your copy
short. We’re telling you to keep your
copy readable.”
—ROBERT BRUCE
As you try these strategies, you
may find that one headline type
works well for a while, and then
begins to show diminishing returns.
The key is to keep finding new
ways to engage your audience.
Experiment with what you write —
and be ruthless with how you test.
HOW TO WRITE FOR
SOCIAL MEDIA
WEB WRITING 2.0
