According to a new study at Columbia University and the French National Institute, 59 percent of links shared on social media have never actually been clicked: In other words, most people appear to be more willing to share news without ever reading it.
On June 4, the satirical news site the Science Post published a block of “lorem ipsum” text under a frightening headline: “Study: 70% of Facebook users only read the headline of science stories before commenting.” Nearly 46,000 people shared the post, some of them quite earnestly — an inadvertent example, perhaps, of life imitating comedy.
Headlines are one of the most important parts of your blog. Most of your audience will determine whether or not your content is actually worth giving their attention to (and read), based on your headline alone. It’s the main visual that’s shown when shared on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. So how can you learn how to write better headlines for social media?
Influential Words
Can one word have the power to influence the way you feel about clicking a link or a button. Yes. One single word can change the entire meaning, mood and motivation for your audience. For example, take “join” and “sign up” – they differentiate from each other by encouraging fellowship (join) or enlisting (sign up).
Some of the most persuasive words in the English language include:
- You
- Free
- Because
- Instantly
- New
- Suddenly
- Now
- Announcing
- Introducing
- Improvement
- Amazing
- Sensational
- Remarkable
- Revolutionary
- Startling
- Miracle
- Magic
- Offer
- Quick
- Easy
- Wanted
- Challenge
- Compare
- Bargain
- Hurry
How to Write Better Headlines for Social Media
Coming up with headlines is one of the parts many people struggle with on social media. To help you with the dreaded “blank stare,” we’ve provided some short and sweet one-liners to help you get the juices flowing.
- __#__ Expert Ways to ____
- __#__Easy Reasons why____
- Why I ____ (and maybe you should too)
- ____Like a ____
- Why __#__ People are ____
- A Simple Way to ____ That Works for ____
- __#__ Startling Ways to ____ Like ____
- The Biggest Lie In ____
- __#__Shocking Mistakes Killing Your ____
- Don’t Try Another ____ Until You ____
- Discover the ____ Secret
- Instantly Stop ____
- Little Known Ways to ____
- ____ May be Causing You to Lose Out On ____
- Get Rid of ____ Once and For All
Whip Up a Spicy Update with Post Café
Having trouble coming up with Facebook status updates? Let the experts at Post Café do that for you! We make it easy for you by offering a variety of status update suggestions to choose from or get inspired to write your own!
Post Café is the easiest way for small businesses to be professional and active within social media; we write all the articles, post it to your social account for you and give you the credit right on the article! Find out more today!
