Tongue-in-cheek headline aside, Bluewater recently tackled the topic of click baiting, a plague upon social media unleashed by sites like Upworthy, Buzzfeed, Viral Nova and many others. Click baiting is the practice of using emotionally charged headlines to pique readers’ curiosity and make it virtually impossible for them to resist clicking through to read more. While on the surface it might seem like a clever tactic, it’s now becoming the norm – to the point where legitimate news sites are click baiting headlines as well, just because it works. Unfortunately, the content that you find on click baited articles is not always quality. Often, it will leave you scratching your head as the dramatic headline hardly matches the weak content within. In the end the phenomenon becomes farcical, and yet genuinely good content is being overlooked because it doesn’t entice readers with a now-cliched, click baited title.
What does this say about the state of content we find on social media today? Read on for Bluewater’s analysis.
And for a laugh, play with the Upworthy Generator to create your own masterful click bait, as profiled in Adweek. At first you’ll be intrigued. Then you’ll be blown away.
