How to write a good opening that kills people: 3 new media writing tips I learned from TED

As a new media marketer , your weapon is articles, that is, content. But content production is not easy, because just because you write it doesn’t mean others have to read it. The decisive factor that attracts readers to read an article is the beginning .

If an article is a gun, the beginning is the first bullet. Whether it can hit the target at once can affect the entire situation. A bland opening like this has no appeal:

I think writing is a very important skill for new media people, and the beginning is especially important. Today I will talk about how to write a good beginning of an article.

If it’s written like this, you definitely wouldn’t want to read this article: The beginning is already bland enough, so what valuable can this author write?

So you see, the first bullet missed the target, so the importance of the beginning to the article is self-evident. So how do you write a good beginning of an article? I think I need to find a good template to refer to, so I found 50+ popular TED speech videos to watch and learn how excellent speakers attract the audience at the beginning. While reading, I found that a good beginning can make the reader/viewer feel like this:

Why is this so? Because only if you arouse the readers' emotions at the beginning can they read the article following this emotion. In terms of mobilizing readers' emotions, I have summarized 3 methods, and now I will share them in combination with several of my favorite TED speech videos.

Relevance Principle: People only care about things that are relevant to them

Imagine that you are a reader. When you click on an article, what is your mentality? In addition to reading entertainment gossip articles with a gossipy heart, my general mentality is this: What does this article have to do with me? Never mind, I won't watch it. I believe that "whether it has anything to do with me" is an important criterion for most people.

This is the relevance principle: most people only care about things that are relevant to them . For example, I often need to do some small design work recently, so if I see a tutorial article using PPT to make pictures, I will read it; my friend wants to learn makeup recently, so if she sees an article about makeup steps for beginners, she will also read it.

You might be thinking, doesn’t the title tell others what the article is about? But the current prevalence of clickbait titles is unstoppable. Many people are attracted by titles. If the beginning does not tell them that this is about you, they will be disappointed. So we need to use the following two methods to let readers know from the beginning that this article is related to them.

1. Interaction: Make people feel involved

Create relevance through interactive means, which means asking questions, saying hello, etc. to your readers/audience . Using words like "you" more often will bring you closer.

This method is mentioned in "7 Ways to Talk to People" and "Why Learning Kills Creativity?" 》《Do you have procrastination problem? ” and “How body language shapes ourselves” in TED talks. For example, in "Body Language Shapes Yourself", the speaker directly threw out suggestions at the beginning, asking everyone to check their movements to see how many people are curling up or hunching their backs, or crossing their legs.

When she said this, the audience subconsciously looked at their posture and straightened up. This is a great way to interact, as people begin to reflect on their actions and look forward to the speaker's explanation of them. When you successfully engage your readers/viewers, they will buy into your logic and look forward to what comes next.

2. Storytelling: Use your own examples to inspire resonance

Storytelling does not mean that you can tell any story. What you need to tell are representative stories that will happen to most people , so that people will feel: "Yes, this is about me."

This method is used in "Techniques to Boost Self-Confidence", "How to Resist ISIS Terrorist Organization in a Non-Violent Way", "How to Change a School's Dirty and Messy Condition", and "Do You Procrastinate?" 》 and other TED talks. For example, in "Do You Procrastinate? ”, the speaker talked about his procrastination process in writing his graduation thesis: he made a plan at the beginning, but only started writing in the last three days.

Almost all procrastinators have had this experience: they make a perfect phased plan at the beginning, but always start to work at the last minute. So when the speaker tells this story, the audience will think, "Yes, that's me," and will naturally want to know whether the speaker has successfully gotten rid of procrastination.

Curiosity Principle: Curiosity is the best driving force

When you become interested in an article because it is related to yourself, you may not necessarily finish reading it, because this "relevance" cannot generate a strong desire in you. But if the article gives you a suspense at the beginning, you will most likely read to the end because you want to know the answer.

This is the curiosity principle: when people are curious, they want to satisfy it like people with obsessive compulsive disorder . For example, when I read a suspense novel, I often have this doubt at the beginning: What happened? How could this happen? Then my curiosity would keep driving me to look a little further until I got the answer.

To put it simply, the "curiosity principle" is to use suspenseful stories to whet the reader's appetite. Generally speaking, the reader's appetite is whetted because two kinds of doubts arise.

1. Question 1: What is the outcome of this incident?

People usually have this confusion because you mentioned something very interesting but without an ending. Once the doubt is created, their attention will be focused on your content because they want to know the ending.

For example, in "How to Get Good Ideas? 》at the beginning of a short video showing the falling process of dominoes. People will want to know what will happen to the dominoes during the falling process and where the end of the string of dominoes is.

2. Question 2: How could this be?

People will have this kind of doubt usually because you mentioned something that conflicts with people's cognition, that is, something that is unreasonable. They will keep watching because they want to know: Why is this happening?

For example, in "How to control your free time? In the article, the speaker claims to be a master of time management, but admits that she is often late and flustered, which is inconsistent with people’s assumption that she must be very good at managing her time.

Reliability principle: reliable things are the most convincing

Once your curiosity is aroused, you will hope that this article will give you the answer. But if what is written in this article makes you feel unreliable, you may give up halfway through reading it.

This is the principle of reliability: only things that are true can make people believe and be willing to accept them , and once readers accept them, they will continue reading. For example, when I read an article about new media, the author told me at the beginning that new media practitioners will use certain tools or methods to conduct data statistics. I will subconsciously refute: That’s nonsense, I don’t have that. Then I don’t want to read this article anymore. But if the author changes his wording and says that he has done statistics and found that 60% of new media practitioners use some kind of data statistics logic, then I might believe it and continue reading.

Therefore, the core of reliability is authenticity . If people feel that this really happened and there are real examples, then they will accept it and insist on reading the entire article. When you make a call to action at the end, such as asking everyone to forward, like, scan the QR code and follow, everything will follow naturally. Let me recommend two methods to provide credibility.

1. Storytelling: Use stories to increase reliability

The "storytelling" here is different from the "storytelling" in the relevance principle part. Here it means that you add authenticity to the content by telling stories of people who have experienced it firsthand .

This "eyewitness" can be yourself. If you make people feel that you have experienced it personally, then the methods you talk about must be effective. For example, in "How to Resist ISIS Terrorism in a Non-Violent Way", the speaker begins by saying that she grew up in war-torn Afghanistan, so the audience will feel that she has a unique understanding of war.

This "eyewitness" can also be someone else, making people feel that there is a successful case/counterexample, so it must be reliable. For example, in "How to control your free time? In the interview, the speaker told the story of a successful woman she interviewed who solved the problem of water leakage in her home, leading to her point of view that "you don't have time to do something because you don't want to do it."

2. Column data: Use data to increase authority

Data can increase authority , why? Because when you list numbers and tables, it looks like you have done scientific research, and people will naturally believe it.

For example, in "How to control your free time? In the book, the speaker mentioned that she observed some busy women for 1001 days and kept a time record, which makes people feel that her conclusions must be supported by data and therefore reliable.

Of these three principles, the relevance principle is the most important, the curiosity principle is the most powerful, and the reliability principle is the most reassuring. A good creator can not only flexibly apply any of these three principles, but also combine these three principles to create a good beginning that kills people.