It should make sense to people wherever it lands - Facebook, Twitter, Google, RSS. Remember, the headline is possibly the only part of your story that travels to all corners of the internet. You should also consider how people will be able to understand your headline out of context, without an image next to it (similarly, you should be thoughtful about how your photo matches with your headline when they are together - the wrong pairing can be trouble). For example, if I had titled this piece, “Eric Athas of the NPR ETT on headlines,” people would be unfamiliar with my name and confused by “ETT.”Īlso avoid words that almost only appear in headlines (“5 headline ideas you can mull to bolster your stories”). Keep it simple - avoid names and acronyms that aren’t universally recognized. So when you’re writing your headline, make sure people can easily understand it. You have a second or two to make your point. The screen is small and the experience is fast. When someone sees your headline, there’s a pretty good chance they’re looking at it on their mobile device while skimming Facebook. We don’t want people to feel tricked or disappointed, right?Īnd again - if it’s a good story, the headline will reflect it. We want to create a positive experience for people - from spotting the headline to clicking to reading/watching/listening to sharing to returning. To make them feel obligated to view the story. Like if I had titled this piece, The Five Tricks That Will Make You Think Differently About Writing.īut the purpose of a good headline isn’t only to get people to click (or at least it shouldn’t be for public media). You might think it’s better to be mysterious with details to make people click. When people come across it, they’re going to make a snap decision: Do I care about this? Be specific - include enough detail so they can connect to the story and make a decision. Pretend an elevator door is shutting and you want to tell someone on the other side about a story. You’ll need to get the most interesting point across fast, which means you can’t be vague about it. ( Here’s a one-page PDF version if you want to save and print this list.) Headlines should be specific We compiled five tips below. The next time you’re brainstorming ideas, give this list a scan. In this post, we focus on the characteristics all great headlines share.
#Indeed headline examples how to
That’s because the best headlines aren’t necessarily the ones that make people click - they’re the ones that promise great stories and then fulfill that promise.Īnd here’s the trick: The process of writing headlines can make your story ideas better. Give this post a read for techniques on how to brainstorm headline ideas (for example, write many different headline ideas and write them at the beginning of the workflow). Even the greatest headline writer in the world will fail with a boring or confusing story. More than anything, you need an interesting story.
0 kommentar(er)
