How to come up with a good title, here are 5 key points to refer to

The first set of data : As of April 2017, the number of accounts on the " Toutiao " platform has exceeded 600,000;

The second set of data : In 2016, the number of WeChat public accounts in China exceeded 12 million, and this year the number will grow to 14.15 million, which means that the number will continue to increase.

There are already many people doing content operations now, and there will be even more people doing content operations in the future. How many will there be? For example , I used an APP to record my physiological conditions before. This APP is actually a tool . Its interface was very simple and its functions were very clear. I could clearly see my current status and stage.

After updating once, I found that the entire interface became a bit like Toutiao . After clicking on it, all the articles are in the style of Toutiao. They have little to do with women's menstrual period, but they will always attract you to read. If this prompt was not still there, I might think that I had clicked on Toutiao. UC is doing the same thing now, changing its interface to look like Toutiao.

Doesn’t this app know that making it like this will make people feel annoyed? I just want a tool.

Today's e-commerce companies are all following the same routine. Taobao has Taobao Headlines, which is located roughly in the middle of the homepage. When you click in, you will find that it becomes the same as Toutiao. JD.com also has a similar function.

Why is this happening? I saw a statement before, "Because the Internet is highly fragmented and the audience's attention is scattered, many people find that the original method of selling things directly is no longer viable, so they think of using some methods to gather the crowd first, and then find something to sell to this group of people." So what methods can be used to gather the crowd? Create content.

Of course, it is also possible to create a community or something, but I personally think it is much easier to create content. Whether you are an e-commerce company or a tool, having content can keep users attracted and make them spend more time with you. If you don’t do this, users will leave after using you or buying something. How can they buy more things from you? Therefore, content operation is very important.

So, what is the most important thing in content operation? First of all, the content itself is important, and secondly, pay attention to good packaging. On the Internet, the packaging of content is actually the title . There is a very popular word nowadays, CTO. What is CTO? Chief Technology Officer? Actually, he is the chief title officer. Only with a good title can your content be meaningful and likely to be clicked by users.

In fact, it is still the same problem as before. Time is fragmented now, and we have no time to discover your good points. We only have the title to attract people first.

If you don’t know how to come up with a title, try these tips

1. Give people a relatively unfamiliar feeling

First of all, you need to understand one thing: what kind of content and what kind of title do you want to click on the most? Think about the titles you have clicked on in the past. Do they have a common pattern? Will hunt for curiosity. But no matter how curious you are, you are still within the scope of your own interests.

Using my own example, I work in the field of technology information, so I am very interested in technology. So if a sports consulting title is given, no matter how interesting it is, I will not click on it, because I don’t care about this at all. The consultations I want to read must be technology-related, and I basically won’t read sports content. In other words , the title you come up with must be targeted and contain keywords that users are interested in.

I know that my content is for people who are interested in technology, so I will try my best to move in that direction. For example, Apple, Xiaomi, Samsung , and Meizu are actually very attractive when put in the title. But if users know what you are going to say at a glance through a title, customers won’t click on it. But if I know the content of the title at a glance, and I still click on it, am I not wasting my time? Therefore, the basic rule for writing a title is: it should be familiar to customers, but also highlight things that are unknown to users, giving people a relatively unfamiliar feeling. Between these two, you should find a title that you are more likely to click on.

For example, the title of these three books, "Sense of Participation". Everyone knows that the word "participation" is very familiar, but with the addition of the word "feeling", "sense of participation" becomes a bit unfamiliar and makes people curious. "The World is Flat". In fact, everyone knows that the world is not flat, it is a sphere. This title also makes people curious. The same goes for "User Power". These three books are all bestsellers, as you can tell from their titles. They give you a feeling that is both familiar and unfamiliar.

"Why did iPhone 7 cancel 64GB? It turns out Apple had this in mind"

This is an article I wrote when iPhone 7 was first released last year. It has been read over 10 million times on Sohu. Let me briefly analyze why this title can be considered a good one.

Everyone knows iPhone 7, which was Apple's next-generation mobile phone at the time. People who are interested in it will pay more attention to it. However, some people may not know that iPhone 7 cancelled 64G, or they may not know why 64G was cancelled. This title will make people feel curious.

《It can record private life, Apple iOS9 hands-on experience》

Everyone knows that iOS9 is the operating system of Apple mobile phones, but no one knows how to record private life.

"Siri: From being teased quietly to helping you order takeout"

Everyone knows that Siri is often teased. For example, if you ask it if it has a boyfriend, you ask it to sing a song, read a poem or something, or do a B-BOX. But how to order takeout? You don’t know, so this is also relatively unfamiliar.

In general, these three titles actually have content rules, that is, there are information points that users are familiar with and information points that users are unfamiliar with. There is no need to click on something you are completely familiar with, and there is no interest in clicking on something you are completely unfamiliar with.

“It is said that this one is very popular recently, but it is of no use at all! ! ! 》

If you are an ordinary user, and you see this title, which appears among the vast number of consultations, as a person who has experienced many battles, you should not click on such a title. The biggest problem with this title is that it is deliberately mysterious. We have no idea what it is talking about and the content is very vague.

In fact, the content of this article was a hot topic last year, which was about touching the belly button with the back of the hand to prove that one has a good figure. It was a hot topic at the time, and we followed up quickly. This was the first title our operations guy came up with. If people saw this title a few years ago, they might have taken a look at it, but now that they have seen it many times, they will think: Instead of taking the risk of reading a title that I have no idea what the content is about and is likely to waste my time, it is better to choose a title that is more focused and can quickly determine whether the content is useful. In short, don't be mysterious and just focus on the key points.

2. Application of Arabic numerals in titles

Now there are three titles.

A. How to come up with a good title

B. "How to come up with a good title? Here are four key points for reference"

C. "How to come up with a good title? Here are 4 key points for reference"

Title A is relatively vague, but the following two titles, with numbers and words, appear more specific and real. They feel more likely to contain valuable information and can provide users with more useful information. Compared with B and C, because B uses Chinese and C uses Arabic numerals, the rhythm appears more lively, more prominent and attractive.

If possible, try to use something different in the title, such as Arabic numerals , but what if sometimes there is no way and there are not so many numbers to use? Then you can use more exclamation marks and exclamation points . In short, the form is different. So you can also see that many article titles on Toutiao have exclamation marks, question marks, and even ellipsis.

So, we have Arabic numerals and questions, but the title still looks too peaceful. I still don’t want to click on it among so many queries. Why is that? Maybe I have talked about that sense of dynamism a little bit, but it still feels too peaceful, without any twists and turns, so let's take a look at the example below.

3. Create a sense of rhythm

《Apple releases IOS9.3.2, just a minor update》

There is something wrong with this title. It says it is just a minor update, a regular update. When you click on it, you will see that this thing has been updated. I can even tell by looking at my phone that Apple may have pushed it and is now updating the system.

《Apple releases iOS 9.3.2, a small update that brings big troubles》

Not only does it have a contrast between small and large, but it also has a very strong transition word, "but", which gives it a greater sense of rhythm.

"Windows 10 is free to upgrade, are you willing to try it?" 》

"Would you like to try it?" is actually not bad, with some interaction, but it's still too bland. It would be better to add some emotion and make Microsoft more human.

"Microsoft is worried, why is Windows 10 free but no one upgrades?"

Wouldn’t you want to find out why?

Did Smartisan release T3 today? No.

In fact, everyone knows this, but if you add a "but soon" at the end, it will feel better. In short, when writing a title, you should pay attention to creating a sense of rhythm. Whether it is using contrast or strong transition words, it is much better than a straightforward narrative.

4. Use fewer nouns and adjectives, and verbs are king

Nouns can never compare to the impact and visual effect brought by verbs. Even if the name has many verbs, it is a verb, and it is very likely that adjectives will be added, which makes people feel tired when reading it.

For example:

5 upcoming smartphones that will blow your mind

It's too plain. Not only is it plain, but it's also hard to pronounce. It's tiring to read. Faced with such a title, we might as well change it, or even remove the "的" to make it more refreshing.

Five smartphones that will blow your mind are coming soon

Without the word "的", it is less confusing to read, and the focus changes from "smartphone" to "coming soon", which makes it more dynamic and vivid. However, it is still very confusing and too tiring to read. What should we do? Let's split it up. Let's split it up into,

《Open your mind! These five smartphones are coming soon

Each of these three titles is more dynamic and easier to read than the last. Of course, verbs are not absolutely better than nouns. Occasionally, a title mainly based on nouns can appear quite special. The most important thing is that if your content is really centered around hot topics, sometimes using some nouns can also have good effects.

I used to have a leader who would write an article titled "XXXXX 9 Highlights and 5 Regrets" every time Apple held a press conference; if Apple held an autumn press conference, he would write "9 Highlights and 5 Regrets of Apple's Autumn Press Conference" and if it was a spring press conference, he would write "5 Highlights and 7 Regrets of Apple's Spring Press Conference" or sometimes he would write "5 Highlights and 7 Regrets of iPhone 7 Press Conference" and so on. This title is very good, because not only does it have a strong contrast, but people naturally want to see you complain about Apple. Every time he uses this routine, it has the effect of a traffic harvester.

In short, you should analyze specific situations specifically. If there is no particularly good way to deal with it, such as 9 highlights and 5 regrets, then it is definitely a good idea to use more verbs.

5. Throw some small bugs

When writing titles, we can use our understanding of knowledge and content and deliberately use statements that sound like errors but are actually completely fine. In this way, some users will think that the editor has written the wrong content again, and I want to click in and criticize the editor.

Before the Samsung Note is launched, we would like to write a prediction titled:

This may be Samsung's most expensive Galaxy phone

At that time, this article had a good number of readers and comments on multiple platforms. Because Samsung Note7 had not been released at that time, this article wrote that the domestic version of Note7 might be more than 7,000 yuan, because once it exceeds 7,000 yuan, it will be the most expensive model in this series. But users thought that we didn’t know that Samsung also has a W series that will be more expensive, more than 10,000 yuan, so many people clicked on this article and started to educate us, that is, has no one heard of Samsung W2016? Editor, don’t you know that the W series costs more than 10,000? The feeling comes out that they will all come out to criticize you. But there are still some users who stand up for you, for example, they are talking about the Galaxy series, didn’t they read the title carefully? As a result, the number of discussions on this article increased. Therefore, in actual operation, you can also think about what you know particularly well and are familiar with, such as small bugs, but they are not actually bugs, which will be very exciting for users to see.

These are almost the routines mentioned above. Now there are some self-media platforms that support double titles, and we can use such tools. In fact, every time you give the same article two titles, summarize them frequently and you will find out which title can actually stand the test of the market.

We recently wrote a review article for Samsung S8 and gave it two titles. The first one was "After using the Chinese version of Samsung S8 for a week, I must tell you these things." This title is obviously better than "Review of the Chinese version of Samsung S8, it is currently the best Android phone." Why? Because the latter one is too ordinary and says everything too clearly, users will know at a glance that your article is about praising Samsung S8. But with the first title, they will wonder whether you want to talk about its advantages or disadvantages? You must have something very important to share with me, and you have used Samsung for a week before, which makes it very practical. The first title is much better than the second one, and it’s not so empty. In short, when you are coming up with a title, you might as well try it . In the past, once a title was decided and sent out, there was no comparison. Now, we can use some small tools for comparison.

The purpose of a title is to present as much information and emotion as possible within the word limit. The more informative the title, the more likely it is to attract users to click.

Users are either moved by the content itself or curious about your emotions.

Of course, all of this is based on the fact that you have a clear understanding of the content. To express clearly, the most important thing is that we ourselves must have clear ideas. We must know which content is of interest to users, which content customers already know, but which content users may be interested in. Then express these things clearly in the title. This is the basis of a good title. Next, we will continue to improve by using the tips we mentioned earlier on using numbers, punctuation marks, and verbs.

And most importantly, a good content is actually easier to package into a good title. It is quite difficult to package boring content into a mature hot spot just by relying on the title. Even if your title looks exciting, it may affect the subsequent recommendations after the user clicks on it . Before you come up with a good title, you must think about the entire content first. Once you have thought about the content, a good title will often come out.