I'll Be Brief Part 1

I will be Brief Part 1

Click Bait with Integrity

I will be brief. 

We live in a subject line world. The click is now the thing, sometimes negatively called “click bait.”

I think that's a good thing. 

It's a powerful evolution of the "less is more" theory for making the case, getting people's attention and training ourselves to write short and concise emails.  

Not just emails.  How about pitches to arts reporters, radio program directors and the media at large.

Everyone is too busy.  Attention spans are at an all-time low. Blah Blah Blah...

It's not just about being short and concise when you pitch to the media.  It's more about being interesting, inviting, alluring, mysterious and even humorous finding an inventive way to say,

Please read this email.

Please come to my concert.

Please buy my CD.

Instead of

Please read this email.

Please come to my concert.

Please buy my CD.

When you pitch to the media, writing short is more challenging than writing long. But writing short can also be more fun and creative. You can produce click bait with integrity, as it will reward the clicker with something substantial: you and your story.

Twitter is good training for pitching to the media -- not by finding absurd ways to abbreviate so you can get to 144 or 288, but in how you learn to write to get the immediate attention of your recipients.

Here are some subject lines that received immediate attention.

This can wait until Monday. (sent on a Friday)

Yanick Nezet-Seguin mentioned you today.

Leonard Bernstein once told a student, "When you conduct, I can't tell that you're a woman."

First there was the tasing, then the theft of the Stradivarius, the recovery…and now, The Movie.

With these subject lines, the clicker received something they could use.

Speaking of click bait: do you know the four words that will increase your chances of getting an Arts Reporter to rerun your call?

Interested? Intrigued? Can't wait to click to get the answer?