How To Craft a Headline That’s Irresistible for Social Media {Bonus Episode}
Discover the power of irresistible headlines and hooks that can transform your business. Gain invaluable insights from an acclaimed expert who specializes in boosting leads and credibility through video, podcasts, and on-camera skills. With accolades for exceptional video work, and a remarkable career spanning Us Weekly, TV news production, and video marketing at Netflix and PopSugar, this authority shares secrets for crafting the best social media headlines. Uncover why the first 2 seconds are crucial and explore a wealth of headline ideas. Don't miss this mini solo episode packed with actionable tips!
In this special mini solo episode, I discuss:
How you can learn how to make the best headlines for your social media content
Why the first 2 seconds are the most important
Ideas for headlines
How to Make High-Quality Video To Grow Your Revenue: Free Download
Follow host Kim Rittberg on Instagram!
Kim Rittberg (00:00):
Headlines and hooks. If you run a business, you've probably heard those phrases on social media, and if you haven't, don't worry. That's why you're here. I wanted to talk to you today about making amazing headlines for your social media content and how it can really catapult your business once you can do that, right. As you know, I've been in media and marketing for 15 years before launching my own business. I was a TV news producer for a decade. I launched around the video unit for us weekly, basically turning a conference room into a live TV studio, which is what every business owner needs to do today. I also worked in pop sugar and Netflix and video marketing, and now I help business owners and professionals grow their income leads and credibility with video and podcasts. I love teaching business owners how to do this, how to stand out without burnout.
(00:47):
Basically, I'm a business owner too, and I don't have the time to make all the content I need to make. So I love teaching people how to make it better quality and do it smarter, doing more with less. The thing I really, really wanted to bring to you guys today in this super lovely little bonus episode is the importance of headlines. I cannot stress enough if your first one or two seconds of a video isn't super amazing, super grabby, it doesn't even matter what's after that, you only have one to two seconds to get someone's attention. When I was a vice president of video content at Pop Sugar, I would explain to my boss, who was like a senior vice president, my idea for a branded content video. I'd start the idea and he would cut me off and say, what's the hook? Basically, you don't have a good hook.
(01:32):
No one's going to watch it. And similarly, when I started out in TV news, we had these big pitch meetings where 50 people would sit in the newsroom and the executive producer, this older man would make you on the spot in front of 50 people. Pitch your idea. I was 25, it was my first job. I was so stressed out. You really had to sell this idea, no matter your idea. You had to make it sizzle as incredible as a voiceover in a trailer. Basically, the voiceover artist from Inside Edition would be like, you've never seen a cat do this, and it's such a good sell. I'm like, what is that cat doing? That's a great sell. So basically it just reminds you of the need to have a great headline and a hook is basically that, but it's sort of the first one to two seconds of what are you seeing in the video.
(02:19):
So it could be incredible video content or could just be an amazing text on screen headline. Basically, the hook is the first one to two seconds. So my biggest tip is whatever content you're thinking about doing and when you're thinking about content, I hope already have some buckets. Buckets of content being, what are the three things you talk about? So for me, I'm an entrepreneur and I'm a mom, so those are two buckets I talk about. But my main two buckets is video and on camera. Basically I teach people how to make great video and I teach you how to be confident on camera. So I have a lot of how-tos and tips on that, and then I also show some of my life with my kids and then show some of the struggles
(02:58):
And wins of being a business owner. So within the buckets of what you talk about, let's say you're a real estate agent, you are probably doing tours of homes, that's fine. But then maybe you're talking about the financial markets. Maybe you live in an area where you hike a lot and that's a part of your life, the beautiful area, and that's one of your things. And maybe another one is neighborhood tours and you're, you do tours of your own neighborhood. So instead of saying, here's a new bar I wanted to show you guys, think about the first one to two seconds of that video. Maybe you can amp it up by saying the best bar that you've never heard of. That's a better headline than, here's a new bar. Check it out. You have to kind of think about can you make it superlative? Meaning can you make it bigger, better, faster, cooler, or there's the listical idea so you can batch things in numbers.
(03:53):
So again, let's say you're bringing someone in your neighborhood. How about five secret spots you need to visit in your town? And that's much more interesting than, here's some places I really like. Do you understand how it sort of wraps it up in a bow? And so let's say you make soaps a great headline for ingredients. I soaps. Instead of check out what's in my soaps, it's the secret ingredient that makes soaps smell so good. I'm like, Ooh, what is that secret ingredient? Anything that really piques people's curiosity is just a great way to do it. One tip I would recommend, first of all, consume more content. I think the more content you consume, you can kind of understand, but really go to your outlets that you love the most and really put on your journalist hat. Study the headline structure of the media outlets you like.
(04:43):
I think Buzzfeed basically originally like 10 years ago or so, really own that listical format. Really own that click bait headline. No, I'm not going to tell you to do click, click bait. Click bait means you're not delivering what you promise. Always deliver what you promise, but really make the headline so gravity that someone has to click on it. Remember, we are in the attention economy. Everyone has a really short attention span and you're really competing with a lot of people for that attention. So you want to make sure that the headline of your video, no matter what you say in the video, the headline has to be amazing. So let's say you are a health coach and you're talking about food. You have a recommendation on an ingredient that you recommend. Maybe it's chia, maybe it's just some great thing. Actually a client. You know what? A student of mine, Lauren, she, Lauren Kramer, great health coach, I think it's Get Well with Lauren, is her Instagram. She had a great one where she had the idea of what's really in your food? And it was like a label check that really made me want to know. It's like, what's really in your food? I thought, oh, what is in my food? Because I think a lot of
(05:56):
Us are that if your foods have more than whatever, five ingredients or 10 ingredients, it's just too many. But I like the idea of really popping in that headline. And let's say you're recommending one ingredient that people should be eating. It could be the one ingredient to improve your health today, or one ingredient to add to your meal plan today. Something like that. So basically people understand that in this 30 seconds, in this 45 seconds, I'm going to walk away with something tangible. And remember, your message can't be too complicated. If it's too many ideas in it, it's too overwhelming for people. Alright? I want it to keep this short and sweet so you could get a little nugget of information. I am really excited to see your videos. Tag me when you use this advice, grab my free download. It's linked down the show notes.
(06:44):
You can check it out@kimrit.com. It's how to make high quality video that grows your revenue. It's 10 tips to make awesome video and it also is a bonus How to be Better on camera. You can check that out@kimrit.com. And I also have a video bootcamp coming up very, very soon. It's seven weeks of basically going from overwhelmed business owner to calm, cool, and collected content creator. I teach you everything. I give you a lot of accountability, a lot of encouragement. You're going to feel so good. It's such a huge transformation. You can learn about that on kimberg.com. And just click the courses and coaching tab and let me know if this was useful. Tag me so I can see your headlines and also so I can cheer you on.