A presentation to the Excellence in Journalism convention, 2015: How to use the right headline (subject line, Facebook post, Tweet, etc.) to connect great content with the largest relevant audience. (Revised and updated from previous editions.) [Bonus presentation at the end: What is Rivet Radio?]

1. Charlie Meyerson
@Meyerson
linkedin.com/in/cmeyerson
Charlie@RivetNewsRadio.com
708-TEQ-NEWS

2. Who am I ... and why am I here?
I worked
here for
13 years:

3. Who am I ... and why am I here?
I worked
here for
13 years:

4. Who am I ... and why am I here?
But
before
and after
that, I
worked
in radio
news for
more
than 20
years:

5. Who am I ... and why am I here?
But
before
and after
that, I
worked
in radio
news for
more
than 20
years:

6. ... And why is radio relevant to audience
development in the age of the Internet and
social media?
Because ...

7. Radio’s been fighting the urge to
click away since the early 20th
Century
For radio
(and, later, TV),
the competition has almost
always been a click away.
http://www.fredsuniquefurniture.com

8. Now, for everyone ...
... Whether you’re peddling shoes
or news, the competition is just a
click away.
How do you gain, keep and grow
an audience?

9. Email is the key.

10. Show of hands:
• How many of you check Facebook, Twitter
and email regularly?
• How many check all three at least once a day?
• How many of you, when you check them,
scroll all the way back to the last item
you checked ...
• On Twitter?
• On Facebook?
• On email?

11. Assuming people use email ...
(and if they’ve given you their email
addresses, they’re confirming not only that
they do, but that they’re willing to hear
from you and that they’re the sort of
people who look at email once in a while)
... How do you get people to open it?

12. It’s the writing.

13. Writing for digital media
... isn’t different from writing in
general. What’s always been
interesting, what’s always been
can’t-put-it-down, is still
interesting, can’t-put-it-down.

14. Writing for digital media
The difference is ...
... now we know what works and
what doesn’t.
And email is the key to learning.

15. The right email at the right time, with the
right content and the right subject line:
... often achieved Tribune Co. editorial
newsletter-leading 60 percent
clickthrough rates – 60 clicks per 100
subscribers.
And it went to tens of thousands
of subscribers.
How?

16. It’s the writing ...
... and watching how that
writing works for the audience.

17. It turns out ...
Writing for the Web has a lot in
common with writing for
broadcasting – writing for the ear.

18. Secrets to getting people not to tune out
-- for radio and, it turns out, just about
anything on the Web:
Omit needless words.
-- Will Strunk, The Elements of Style, 1918
Twitter. Texting.
Tiny smartphone screens, 2015.
Need we say more?

19. Secrets to getting people not to tune out
-- for radio and, it turns out, just about
anything on the Web:
• Select the most interesting word
or phrase.
• Make that the first element of
your story (and, in email and on
the Web, your headline or subject
line), and let your writing flow
from there.

20. But what are the most interesting words?
• Develop a sense of the wider
world’s priorities by checking sites
like Google Trends:
google.com/trends/
• And develop a sense of your
audience’s priorities by monitoring
clicks.

21. By your clicks shall ye know them
The People Formerly Known As the
Audience* are telling you what they want.
In doing so, they’re telling you how to get
them interested in content they may think
they’re not interested in.
* Jay Rosen, 2006: http://archive.pressthink.org/2006/06/27/ppl_frmr.html

22. The joy of email
• Summon your most devoted users at will
• Your biggest fans share their interests
• Lingers in in-box, unlike the rivers of
Twitter and Facebook
• Fixed, unlike Web site front pages – and
so, easier to gauge elements’ popularity
• Heat maps make patterns easy to spot

23. But ...
... Ya gotta get ’em in
the door.
So ...

24. Would you do this?

25. No, but many companies do just
that.
... by failing to use Subject and From fields
wisely.

26. Use your Subject and From fields wisely
Interesting words first Don’t repeat
Subject from day to
day
Don’t echo From
fields in Subject

27. Compare these to those in the previous
screens.
Which would you click?
Note how few words you get here.
If the future is mobile, now more than ever,
every word – every syllable – counts.
Strunk & White: Omit needless words.

28. Anatomy of an email turd
Consider what we see, word for word ...

29. “Unbeatabl...” what?

30. “Oh, that’s what a circular is ...”

32. So ...
What are the odds you’ll open the next email
you get from these guys, if it’s labeled and
subject-lined the same way?

33. What’s your audience
interested in?

34. Watch your clicks.
• Little-clicked items amid more-clicked
items.

35. Are you out of sync?
More-clicked items among little-clicked items.

36. Headlines that work
Two kinds of headlines:
• Search-engine-optimized headlines
(headlines for robots*).
Good for story-level placement.
• “Curiosity gap”-optimized headlines
(headlines for people*).
Good for front-page and email placement,
for print publications ... and for social
media (Twitter, Facebook).
*Andy Crestodina: orbitmedia.com/blog/write-for-robots-write-for-people/

37. ‘Curiosity gap’
The difference between what you
know and what you want to know
Like The Onion, the editorial team at Upworthy begins with dozens of
headlines and works on them until they create what Mr. [Eli] Pariser
called “a curiosity gap” — a need to know more that prompts the
impulse to click on something.
-- David Carr, The New York Times
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/09/two-guys-made-a-web-site-and-this-is-what-they-got/

38. SEO-friendly headline techniques
• Place the story's most relevant word
or phrase as close as possible to the
start of the headline.
• Simple, direct headlines (with familiar
names).
• “How-to” or “Why” headlines.
• Accentuate the positive. Say what did
happen, not what’s unchanged or stable.

39. Elements of Style: Use definite,
specific, concrete language
• Regardless of headline or writing style ...
Consider words’ “point value.”
Created by New York Post veterans: http://
www.amazon.com/University-Games-1520-Man-
Bites/dp/B000087BDT

40. ‘Curiosity gap’ headlines
• Assume most people aren’t interested.
Write headlines to engage people who think they’re
not interested, and your core audience will still be
there for you. (Dare them not to be interested.)
• Play down location.
(Except for famous locations.)
• Play down names.
(Except for famous names.)

41. ... And one to avoid:
• ACRONYMS.
The crack cocaine of B2B writing.
Avoid them.
Unless your metrics say otherwise.
(And they probably won’t.)
Image:
h)p://www.business2community.com/marke:ng/42-­‐b2b-­‐marke:ng-­‐acronyms-­‐and-­‐abbrevia:ons-­‐0192246

42. What works?
• Simple, direct headlines (with generic
nouns for unfamiliar names).
The most-clicked Internet headline (or
most-read newspaper headline) ever
might be ...

43. Most-clicked headline ever?
-- Credit for headline: Paul Muth

44. ... or maybe more so:
With a puppy.

45. ‘Curiosity gap’ headlines
• Questions: ‘Who was Deep Throat?’
• Ellipses, teases: ‘Nation’s fattest
city is ...’
• Pull-quotes: ‘Suck it up, wussies.’
• BuzzFeed style: ‘You won’t
believe ...’ (But be careful with those.
Make sure we won’t believe.)

46. The power of YOU
• Works with SEO-friendly headlines.
• Works with “curiosity gap” headlines.
http://www.theonion.com/
articles/secondperson-
narrative-enthralling-you,
30380/

47. The case for sentence case
... vs. Title Case for headlines:
• Concrete nouns drive traffic.*
• The most concrete concrete nouns are Proper
Nouns.
• So why not make Proper Nouns easier to find?
* Strunk and White: “Use definite, specific, concrete language.”
A demonstration ...

48. Find proper nouns:

49. Find proper nouns:

50. Find proper nouns:

51. ... But does this work?
Yes, it does.
A major professional organization -- a site
that previously hadn’t strung together two
successive months of record traffic --
achieved record pageviews ...
• for the next 5 straight months.
• for 10 of the following 12 months.

52. Recap
• Don’t take your audience for granted. Write your
headlines and subject lines for people who (think
they) aren’t interested.
Your core audience will stick around.
• Study your metrics: Email heatmaps, Google
Analytics on your website -- anything that gives
you visual cues to ways you’re synced (or not) to
your audience’s priorities.
• Apply those insights to headlines, subject lines,
social media.
• Omit needless words.
• Put your most compelling words at the start.

54. What is Rivet?
(Pandora or Flipboard or Zite for radio news)

55. A free app
(If Pandora and Flipboard had a baby…)

56. A free app
(Tinder for radio news…)

57. You pick your news

58. You follow your interests

59. You search for stories you want

60. You share individual stories

61. Traffic on your terms

62. … and it’s free.

63. Charlie Meyerson
@Meyerson
linkedin.com/in/cmeyerson
Charlie@RivetNewsRadio.com
708-TEQ-NEWS