How To Get More Clicks Part 1
Social media is all about engaging people. Many people who use social media seem to believe that it’s about the number of followers that you have, and certainly it’s quite intimidating to go to a Twitter profile and note that the business or individual has 63,000 followers and only follows about 63 people.
However, business users are becoming more aware that it’s not enough to have a large following; your followers who for “one time only” engage with your site by clicking “Follow” or “Like” and then do nothing more. We’ve all done that! Most of us have pages in our Facebook page feed that we’ve “Liked” because a friend has asked us to. Even if we’re not remotely interested in what that page is offering.
Whilst “Like” and “Follower” numbers look impressive, they’re no use to a business if the fans are not engaging with the posts. What we all want is for the fans to click on links and share the information. Ultimately, we want social media to bring us—and our clients—new business.
Click-through rates on social media posts are still something of a mystery and, some might say, there’s a touch of the ‘dark arts’ about how it all works. Why did that picture of a white-sand beach with “Have a wonderful weekend” on it get three times as many Likes and Shares as the more relevant post on web design or content writing? After all, Peppermint’s fans should be people with more of an interest in marketing, branding and design. I’m sure you’ve had a similar experience.
The answer is probably because it’s quick and easy to share images and positive messages with our friends and business associates. There’s no need to click on the link or read the whole post to make sure we’re not sharing something we later would prefer not to be associated with. A simple image is a no-brainer share!
Social media consultant Kim Garst suggests that your headlines are the key to getting more engagement. Indeed, QuickSprout, SEO and online marketing consultants suggest that even tweaking a headline by one word can result in 46% more click-throughs. In terms of social media, especially Twitter, the whole tweet may be your headline and in the case of Facebook, it’s the opening of the post.
The four key points of headline writing are:
• Your headline should be unique
• Your headline should be ultra-specific
• Your headline should convey a sense of urgency
• Your headline should be useful.
It’s unlikely that you’ll get all four into a headline, but you should aim for one to two if you want to create a headline that compels your clients/customers to read on.
OK, so that’s the theory. In Part 2 of this blog post, Peppermint will look at the theory in practise and provide examples of headline that get fans clicking.