Last but not least, let’s talk about social media and the role headlines play here.
This is going to be a little more subtle. It has more to do with how your other headlines display or how you can incorporate strong content and calls to action into your social media content.
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Everything I’ve shared with you so far about writing killer headlines extends to social media as well.
A good headline is a good headline whether you use it on a sales page, on the front of a magazine, in a billboard ad, or on your Facebook page.
Keep in mind that each social media platform is different and aside from that many niches use these platforms in different ways.
Why Attention Grabbing Social Media Headlines Are Important
There’s information overload with everything going on and it’s getting hard to grab your potential reader, customer, and subscriber’s attention.
Which is where the killer headlines come into play. Social media is great, but it won’t do much for you unless you can accomplish one of two things.
You either want people to read and click through to your own site, or you want them to share your posts. Ideally, you want them to do both.
The first thing you need is for them to notice you, which is where the headlines come in.
Let’s dig in a little deeper and look at the use of headlines in five popular social media platforms.
While there are plenty others, this will give you a pretty good idea of where you’d use your killer headline writing skills when it comes to social media.
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1. Headlines On Facebook
There are a few different ways headlines come into play with Facebook. The first is when you share a blog post or other type of external content there.
You want the headline that shows up to be a killer headline. Use what we talked about in the post about blog post titles.
When you’re sharing images or videos, you usually want to share some text as well, particularly if you’re including a link back to your site and your main goal is to get the click-through.
Think of that text as your headline. It may not be in big bold type, but it serves the same purpose.
Last but not least you need strong headlines when you’re running Facebook ads.
Look at other successful FB ads and learn what you can from them about what works when it comes to this particular type of headline and copy.
2. Headlines On Twitter
This one is going to be simple. Your tweet is your headline.
Be clear about the purpose of your tweet before you publish it.
It could be to get the click back to your site. It could be to be retweeted and gain exposure, or it could be to start a conversation with one or more of your followers. Choose wisely and compose accordingly.
3. Headlines on Pinterest
Pinterest is an interesting duck. It’s a very visual platform. While it may not work for every niche, The headline in most cases will be the text you add to your image through image editing software.
Look at what’s working in your niche, find your own style and post away. If you have an active community on Pinterest you can get quite a bit of traffic back to your site when using beautiful images combined with strong headlines.
4. Headlines On YouTube
YouTube headlines or video titles are very similar to crafting killer blog post titles. You need to balance the needs of your audience with the needs of the search engines.
Make the titles fun and interesting while also including your main keyword.
Depending on your niche, “how to” or “review” type videos with those words in the titles may work well or you.
As with the other social media platforms, do your research for your niche and then just give it a try.
5. Headlines On Reddit
The headline here is the link text that will be displayed on the site and on the category pages.
Don’t be afraid to go way out of the box with your headlines. Get creative.
Start by looking at what makes it to the front page and the main page of your particular subcategory. Watch it for a few days and figure out what content and what type of headline will work for you here. Then give it a try.
Don’t get frustrated if you don’t get a lot of traction at first.
Try again until you figure it out. This is very different from traditional killer headlines but well worth it. You might just get some off the wall, creative ideas you can use to shake up your blog and email readers from time to time.
Your target audience may gravitate more to one or two of them than others, in which case you want to focus your efforts there.
Take a look at how your prospects interact on these social media platforms. Spy on your competition and take note of what seems to be working well for them. Get to work and practice what you’ve learned.
See what works for you and what doesn’t. Then keep doing more of what works for you and your audience.
Conclusion
There you have it. While writing killer headlines may not be something that comes naturally to you, or it may not even be something you’ve thought about much, I hope you’ve learned a lot.
You’ll start making progress simply by thinking about what I shared with you in this report, and by paying attention to the headlines you’re out there creating on a daily basis.
Start thinking about how you can improve your headlines.
Keep practicing, and you can’t help but become better at writing killer headlines yourself. That’s just plain good for business across the board.
Put them to good use. Revisit them often and apply as many of them as often as possible. Happy writing!
Here are more tips on how to write killer headlines:
- Let’s Talk About Killer Headlines
- How To Write Killer Blog Post Titles That Convert
- How To Write Killer Headlines For Sales and Opt-In Pages
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