Categories: Articles

Twitter Is The Ultimate Tease… Does Your Content Tease?

If you want traffic you have to be a sensationalist.

If you’re not making National Enquirer tinged headlines or content, your traffic is suffering.

How does that make you any better or different than mass media?

These are the types of Blog posts that get clicked on (and commented on):

– 25 ways to create an A-list Blog.

– The five things people on Twitter will never tell you.

– How Social Media wins during this financial crisis.

– What Paris Hilton knows about Personal Branding (that you don’t).

– 5 things you should always do on MySpace.

(all of these were made up).

Being provocative and bold is what sells newspapers (and it also sells magazines, TV show, advertising, etc…). Most Bloggers, Podcasters and individuals trying to build some kind of presence in any and all of the online social networks know how to write (and be) provocative or sensationalist, because human beings react to visceral and raw statements (like the ones above)… and that’s how it is in a sea of Blog posts populating your Google Reader. Take a quick look through your own feeds and decide for yourself…

What makes you click?

Better yet, hop over to Twitter. Twitter is quickly becoming the destination for sensationalism. It’s being used to highlight the "look at me" culture and the very nature of the conversation on Twitter leans towards encouraging people to click on "you" to learn more, read more, see more, hear more, etc… A good tweet will get you more followers and will also get them clicking on to read your Blog or subscribe to your Podcast.

Let’s be honest: Twitter is the ultimate content tease.

It’s the "how-to’s", the "best of", it’s the "lists" and it’s the headlines that are over the top, surprising and crazy that get the most attention, reader reaction and distribution. Those headlines above were made up. But let’s look at the first one:

What would you be more likely to click on?:

"25 ways to have a winning Blog" or "Blogging is an important tool to build traffic, community and your business".

We’re all busy. We’re looking for quick fixes and with the tons of content being piled on to each and every one of us everyday, the only way to stay on top or to get some recognition is to be a little sensationalist. We all know that a more provocative headline (or tweet) gets more attention and more clicks. In the end, more attention and more clicks is the same as more people buying and increasing your distribution, which is – exactly – the same model that mass media uses to build audience and, in turn, get those ad revenues up.

Do you still – really – see a big difference between how Bloggers and mass media are trying to get your attention?

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.