PR pros get attention with tipsheets
When PR pros at the U.S. Green Building Council needed to round up resources in their Green Apple Day of Service, they didn’t write stories telling volunteers to get donations.… Read the full article
Story types
6 tips for writing lists
People look at 70% of lists they encounter online
Think of your bulleted lists as the celebrities of your blog posts, webpages and other pieces.
Lists “are to the web reader’s eye what Brad Pitt is to the paparazzi,” say Kara Pernice, Kathryn Whitenton and Jakob Nielsen, the authors of How People Read on the Web.… Read the full article
Quotes on list writing
What writers and others say
“Love them or hate them, informational posts presented in list format are easily digestible, and allow for an efficient transfer of your value proposition to the reader.”
— Brian Clark, founder, Copyblogger
“In the spirit of Ethan’s neurosis, we made a drywall list of keyboard buttons we would like to see: PLEASE, THANK YOU, FUCK OFF, DIE, OOPS … MY MISTAKE, DO SOMETHING COOL AND SURPRISE ME.”
― Douglas Coupland, author, in Microserfs
“Nearly everyone loves reading top 10 lists.
… Read the full articleThree types of list stories
Choose from definitive, listicle and framework lists
Not all list stories are created equal. BuzzFeed’s Jack Shepherd lists three types of lists for Nieman Lab:
- Listicles.
Top 10 reasons to write listicles
They’re the most shared type of content
From the beginning to the end, our lives are a series of lists. We start as an entry on a short list of baby names and end trying to fill a bucket list of experiences.… Read the full article
7 tips for tipsheets
How to write how-to articles
When the folks at Topolobampo, Chicago’s cathedral to Mexican cuisine, wanted to sell more syrah, they didn’t put signs on the tables saying “Buy wine!” Instead, they provided nifty little tabletop tipsheets on how to pair wine with Mexican food.… Read the full article
Why tipsheets?
Service stories get read, shared, used and acted upon
How-to information is the No. 2 type of content that gets retweeted, according to research by Dan Zarrella (PDF), viral marketing scientist for HubSpot.… Read the full article
Hit list
Lists top the list of blog posts that get shared
If David Letterman taught us one thing during his tenure as host of Late Night, it’s that people love lists.… Read the full article
Write by number
Stop reinventing the wheel, use story templates
I once asked fiber artist Jason Pollen how he could be creative under the constraints of designing textiles on assignment for clients like Chanel and Donna Karan.… Read the full article
Check it twice
How to write a good list
“I love lists,” writes Adam Savage. “Always have. When I was 14, I wrote down every dirty word I knew on file cards and placed them in alphabetical order.”
There are lots of things to list — organizational accomplishments, steps for getting the job done, dirty words.… Read the full article