The impression of a blog title can mean a reader clicks the
link or moves on to the next. You only get one chance to hook that potential
reader for that post. That makes titling one of the most important tasks a
writer can have.
A title should showcase the topic of the blog post, but it
is also a reflection of the writer and their platform. You want your titles to
stand out among the thousands being posted to Twitter every day. This is even
more important with the new limit placed on post approvals. You want your post
to be chosen, so here are three tips to get tribemates to say, “Oo that one”,
and click approve.
Be Original.
Whether your blog post is an article, a story or post from
one of the many daily/weekly themes but that doesn't mean your title has to be
like the hundreds of others out there. Tuesday Tails #30 posted by 50 other
bloggers looks like spam. This can not only cause your post overlooked, but can
lose you possible followers.
These group postings are great because they have a following
of their own where you might be discovered. You can be a part of these fun
theme days and give your post title its own spin. Example: Gladiator's Pen Presents a
Tuesday Tails Post. Or Insert story name for Tuesday Tails. Super Sexy Six for
Sunday. Stand out from the crowd.
Never use I or My
It's *your* blog post, not your tribemates. If I tweet a
post that says I Went to Comic Con. Your tribemate’s Twitter followers may
believe I refers to that person and not you. Same with using My, it can cause
mistaken identity.
It’s your brand, *you* want to be recognized when someone
sees your title. Instead of I put your name, your blog's name, or make it more
thrilling with a completely original tempter like... A Gladiator Loose at Comic
Con. You'll find you get more attention and more hits when potential readers
see who or what. People, places, and things give readers somethingconnect to.
Hashtag It
Hashtags are a powerful twitter tool. A hashtag is simply this sign # with a word or
set of words behind it. For example #HALF is the hashtag for my book HALF.
Someone can search for all posts with a topic they’re interested in by using
that cool lil doo-dad.
You can grab a few of those searchers by useing common tags such
as #amwriting, #flashfiction #romance #cooking #phogotraphy etc. Or make up one
that suits your blog/content/etc... as I
did for #HALF. One hashtag can add bonus views and potential subscribers/
followers.
You may not want to put them on your actual blog title.
There are some folk that do, in my opinion it's unprofessional to pull up a
blog page and see the top of it riddled with hashtags. But, you can edit your
blog title in Triberr and add the hashtags here. Then your approved post will go
out to the Twitterverse with an extra punch.
To edit your post title in Triberr, go to
My Posts, find the post, click on the little wrench in the corner and a
box will open to edit your title. Just make sure you click update when you’re
finished so it will make the changes.
Put your mark on that blog title and grab readers’ attention
then sit back and watch the pageviews and followers grow. But only for a moment
then you need to get busy on that next post ;o)
Interested in joining a tribe of warrior writers? Then
Gladiators of the Pen is the tribe for you. We are a group of writers in all
genre and would love to welcome you to join in our strive to get our posts to
the ends of the Empire… er… all over Twitter. :o) All you have to do is be a
member of Triberr, you can join if you haven’t already. (it’s FREE!) Then join click here and request to join
Gladiators of the Pen.
Using I or my can still be effective, though; One of my most popular blog posts was entitled "Taking my pants off" - for obvious reasons!
ReplyDeleteVery good point! :)
DeleteHeather, I like your blog post title, but if it showed up on my Triberr stream, I would have changed it to Heather Dudley is taking her pants off. Since I was still keeping mine on.
DeleteGreat post! Thanks for sharing. It's hard sometimes to write with Twitter in mind when blogging, but it certainly does help exposure to join with Triberr.
ReplyDeleteHi Elisa,
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that you're thinking in terms of how the post will look like when your tribemates are tweeting it. I think thats awesome.
Points about a great headline are on the money. I want to take issue with "I" and "my" tho....I know exactly what you mean. I've seen it happen. You are totally right that some people may interpret it wrong.
What I dont understand is how they can take it to mean "you" if the tweet sais "via @someone_else". I know "via" is Twitter's nomenclature, but it's also a word in the English language.
Via = by way of. How hard is that? It's plain English, no?
So I say use "I" and "my" all you want. Let's raise the bar and expose those who are not reading all the 140 characters to see "via" at the end, or are simply not understanding the meaning of the word "via".
Let's make it Darwinian. Or something like that :-)
Sorry for the rant :-)
Dino
Founder of Triberr
Awesome point. It shows who's really paying attention to our tweets. Using I or My can weed out the slackers lol :D Thanks so much for stopping by!
DeleteHi Elise, great post. I never realised I could change the post title in triberr either. Very useful to do so and use the #tags. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteSuzy