How would David Ogilvy, the pioneer in short-form communication, handle Facebook posts, Twitter, blogs and the mass eroding attention spans of Millennials who have grown up in a digital world?
The advertising executive was the master of appealing to the core of an audience with the briefest messages possible. Many of his principles are still regularly used by advertising executives today. In Ogilvy’s time, people were more patient. But nowadays, people complain about a two-second delay when a video is loading on their mobile device. Writing on the Internet has changed to adapt to the hyper-attention-deficit generation, but few professionals are well-adapted to this paradigm shift.
Why is this important? As students we write emails, Facebook and blog posts, and many other short-form communications. We want an audience, a click, or just to get our message across in an environment where people are trained to filter out your message unless it is instantly valuable or intriguing.
People only read 28 percent of the words on a web page. I cringe every time I see lengthy word vomit advertising a club event spammed across all of my Facebook groups all at once. Even if the content is great and the information is highly relevant, if the presentation doesn’t grab the reader within five seconds, we are trained to ignore it.
How Do We Write for a Digital Environment?
It’s All About Headlines
Take a look at the front page of massively popular websites like Mashable, the Huffington Post and BuzzFeed. They are the masters of engaging headlines and their business is tied to getting you to click and digest the content on their websites.
Here are some tips for engaging headlines:
- Appeal to curiosity – Build a knowledge gap with your headline. Example: “Five Powerful Qualities We Mistake for Weakness.”
- Highlight the value to the reader – Answer the most relevant questions to your reader. Example: “The Key to Landing Your Summer Internship.”
- Appeal to emotion – Example: “My Mind-Blowing Experience at the Digital Innovation Conference 2013”
You get the idea. If you get stuck creating a headline, browse your favorite magazine or website and steal the most engaging headlines.
Be Concise!
Do not use 100 words when 10 will do. You’re not meeting a word count requirement for an essay and your audience isn’t being paid or forced to read it. Always communicate with the fewest words.
Organization
Your message needs to be visually pleasing and well-organized, especially if you are writing a lengthy piece. People won’t like to Easter egg hunt for the meaning of your message. Even if it’s brief, help them out with a clear layout:
Subject
Topic sentence
• Evidence 1
• Evidence 2
• Evidence 3
Recommendation, opinion or call to action
All of my work emails follow this format. VPs and CEOs do not have a lot of time to waste. If you want them to consider your suggestions, you need them to read your message.
Other Tips
- Use pictures, graphics or images to your advantage – We remember pictures much more often than words
- Use links in your message – It is like footnoting on the internet because you are giving proper attribution while increasing your own credibility.
- Know your audience – Don’t write posts or messages that will offend people