You have probably seen a similar headline like this before….did it entice you to read any further? Or if this was a post on a social media site like Facebook, would you click through to read more? If so, I have done my job as a marketer successfully. If not, well I will dust myself off and destroy all evidence I even tried. The term “click bait” has been sensationalized in the last few years of the digital headlines space. More than likely you have clicked on or orchestrated a click bait headline.
Marketers and journalists constantly use the headline that works best for them and garners the most buzz. New York Times senior editor Mark Bulik responded to readers concerns in a recent article on click bait. Bulik candidly points out the main reason for a headline is to persuade people to read the article, but not sacrifice the integrity of the story while doing it (New York Times, 2017). As he explains further, traditional print media and now sophisticated digital media have never benefited from summarizing the story. Headlines are written to be a compelling way to hook people to read the articles (New York Times, 2017). Bulik believes this should not be considered click bait because it is still integral, unlike the fake news Facebook has battled for the past few years.
Facebook has continued to change the computer algorithm with its Newsfeed as the embattled social platform has repeatedly been blasted for fake news and misinformation being (Newshub, 2017). Did anyone else notice the fake story last weekend that Hugh Hefner had died? Facebook continues to try to stop readers from being tricked by headlines with ongoing efforts to only eliminate false news, but campaign propaganda with misinformation and spam links to sites with bad ad experiences (Statt, 2017). It is no secret Facebook, and many social platforms have built trust with their many fans and if not corrected can potentially drive people to other platforms.
Though Facebook continues its efforts to combat click bait, marketers continue to improve their headlines to adapt to changes in the digital landscape (Bulik, 2016). The changing landscape has made digital headlines a measurement tool for engagement on different articles. New York Times uses an analysis tool that allows them to present two separate headlines of the same exact article on various readers’ home page. The tool measures what headline gets more engagement and if it is significant (Bulik, 2016). I will give an example:
Which one would you click?
$2 Billion Worth of Free Media for Trump
or
Measuring Trump’s Media Dominance
If you pick the top headline, then you are in the majority. The first headline got three times engagement as the second (Bulik, 2016). Same article, but different headlines produced different results.
In the end, click bait works if it catches the desired audience attention and does not give too much away to your audience where they still find something new in the article. Click bait should not be looked at as a bad thing, but an optimization strategy to continue to receive clicks. So to finish that clickbait-ish headline at the top, it won’t fade until we stop clicking.
Bulik, M. (2016, June 13). Which headlines attract most readers? New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/13/insider/which-headlines-attract-most-readers.html
Newshub. (2017, January 7). Facebook defriends clickbait. Newshub. Retrieved from http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2017/06/facebook-defriends-clickbait.html
New York Times. (2017, July 21). How we define clickbait (Which we do our best to avoid). New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/reader-center/clickbait.html
Statt, N. (2017, May 17). Facebook is determined to completely kill clickbait. The Verge. Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/17/15654730/facebook-news-feed-update-kill-off-clickbait
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