In addition to having a really useful tool that we're going to have you use and gain some insight from, it turns out BuzzSumo does a ton of research. And one of the interesting studies they've done very recently was they took a look at a 100 million different headlines. And they tried to figure out, okay, If we look at the content that gets shared, of all the 100 million different headlines, supposedly the headline is the most important element of your post. More people will read your headline than will read the last paragraph. That's just the way it is. In fact, some estimates are something like four times more people will scan your headline than will ever read your body copy. So which headlines got shared, what were the common elements? And they did that study, it's a fascinating study. There's [INAUDIBLE] here, you may want to go read it. Because among the things that you'll find are which headline phrases drive the most engagement on Facebook. What are the worst-performing headline phrases on Facebook? That's worth knowing just so you can avoid them. There's also, what are the most effective headlines? What are the terms that start the headline? What are the optimum number of words or characters that are used in the headline? That's all really, really, really useful information. But again, there's a link, you can go read it. There are a lot of people who just dive in at this point. But here's the caveat, an expert in this field, Ann Handley, was shown the results of the study. And she went, man. I love research that quantifies content marketing success, she said. But at the same time, I will be gutted if businesses take this information and conclude that the best headline to use forever and always is something like, ten ways that will make you a better headline writer, brackets. And you won't believe what happens next, end bracket. And that's why I'm going to tell you about the research, I'm going to give you a link to it, but I am not presenting it here, am I, why? It's a little formulaic, and let's put it this way. If the formula is out there in print, and it is, where a lot of people can see it, do you really really, really, really want to be the 4,347th person to use the formula in your next headline? because that's what's going on, that's what's happening. So look over the data, look over the research, see if there are some insights that you can glean from it, and then put it aside. Because at the end of the day, one of the things that we've discovered again, and again, and again, is that creativity and breaking the rules is also one of the rules. It works, so it's always good to know what the rules are before you break them. But think about it, one of the best headlines that we've ever written for a client had a key phrase at the beginning that happened to be the brand name. It had a key phrase in the middle. And then the punchline to the headline, the thing that I think really made it work, didn't surface anywhere else in the research. It was je ne sais se quoi, right? That's what the French would say. And so think about that for a second, brand name, key benefit, and surprise me. If there is a formula, that comes close to it for writing a compelling headline. So this isn't about killing creativity. This is not about, we're all going to be replaced by robots someday. This is about learning what works, learning what your audience responds to. And then testing, testing, testing, finding your sweet spot that is unique to you, that is authentic to your brand, and going with that, as well. It's a mix, okay? Now interestingly enough, again because BuzzSumo has access to a ton of data. They also took a look at B-to-B headlines. Now again, you may have already heard my lecture on B-to-B. There are a lot of people that think, we're B-to-B, were very different. And there are elements of B-to-B that do differ from business-to-consumer. So the business-to-business people are sort of right on the margin. But at the end of the day, it's all H-to-H, it's all human-to-human. And guess what, B-to-B headlines, and they took a look here, instead of Facebook, they took a look at LinkedIn, which is considered the best B-to-B social media platform out there. And they looked at what headlines were most engaging on that platform. And surprise, surprise, there were a lot of similarities to the patterns. There were a little differences, some. But not as dramatic as you might think. And that's a key lesson, you need to engage people. And influencers, by the way, have figured that out. And they don't put people in buckets. And they don't constrain what they do because, well, I do one thing for B-to-C and another thing for B-to-B because there's a different letter there at the end. What they do is what works for people. And if you crack that code, you are going to be a lot more successful in your influencer marketing. And your strategies are going to be far more effective if you, again, relate to people.
