SHOCKING! You won't believe what this mom discovered! Headlines at the saturation point.

Since when did a "click" become a measure of success? For me, social media started as a way to stalk my children, and has evolved. I enjoy it, I learn from the content, and I confess I can never get enough of returning soldiers and rescued dogs. But something has changed. In the fierce competition for "clicks" many content writers have succumbed to writing spurious headlines to capture the attention of overloaded readers.

What was once the purview of clickbait scams such as "Ellen LIED!" has become common practice, even among reputable publications and marketers. 

When I write the subject line for a client's e-Blast or create social media content, I am not writing to capture attention. I'm writing to impart the message my client wants to impart, in my client's voice. Sometimes it's catchy, sometimes it's not. When (if?) the target audience clicks through, what they get is the information they expect, presented with clarity and integrity. I do not bury the punchline in the last few lines of prose/seconds of video--a stale treat for the reader who stuck it out until the end. I hope readers keep reading because they are interested, not because I'm dangling the promise of a narrative surprise.

In an age of measurement and the competition for interest, the number of viewers who "click" and the seconds they stay on a page are solid metrics. But that data has value only in the context of truth, not tricks.

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