Create Content with an Emotional Hook (posted June 28, 2016)
Image by Deandrobot
You have two to three seconds to get your readers’ attention. The easiest way to do that is to create content with an emotional hook. The goal is to engage them, keep them reading to the end, and compel them to share the message with others. When this happen on a regular basis, your brand awareness expands.
There are a number of ways to engage people emotionally. It can be done through positive emotions generated with humor, fun, and curiosity – or with negative emotions addressing their fears, anxieties, or pain. One of the easiest tools to use is story-telling.
Stories that cause readers to feel something creates a powerful bond between the story-teller and
…show more content…
It tends to get more likes and shares. When you make people laugh, make them feel good, entertain them, or create a happy “aha” moment, they want to share it with others. Humor, amusement, joy, a sense of belonging, surprise, affection, and excitement are all very engaging emotions.
Curiosity
Curiosity is a great emotion to target. When content that makes people say, “Wow! I didn’t know that, I need to know more” – Or – "What is that all about?" I can almost guarantee that it will be shared.
Hope, Awe, and Inspiration
People often take their lead from things they read. The written word is incredibly powerful. When your postings help others to make big changes in their thinking and in the way they choose to live their lives, you are doing a very good thing.
When you give them hope and help them believe they can be better – they want to share those feelings with others. It is like a drop of water in the pond – it causes many ripples beyond where it initially falls.
Negativity (Anger, Fear, Controversy)
People seem to enjoy sharing something that gets their dander up (or pisses them off). When a posting hooks into anger, it gives the reader a chance to vent. Angry content is right up there with happy content when it comes to
…show more content…
It can also be useful if you want to start a debate about an important topic or get people to rally behind a cause. Just make sure you don’t make your audience angry with you.
Fear is also used a lot in content marketing. Triggering fear and playing to readers’ anxieties can move them to share your message with others. Just be careful. Postings that generate fear can easily go viral. You do not want to send trouble out into the world unnecessarily.
If you feel compelled to use fear, use it in the right way – never as a scare tactic, which can backfire on you it’s if seen as cheap and manipulative. It should never be about scaring your readers; it should be about giving them tools and tips for overcoming their fears – written with a positive spin.
Bottom line is that a case can be made for tapping into negative emotions, as well as positive ones. Negativity is not as powerful as positivity when it comes to sharing; but, sometimes a very sad or frightening piece of content will go viral, because it triggers strong emotions of empathy or concern.
Choosing Which Emotions to
One of his strongest qualities is adding a message that connects with many types of readers but at the same time focuses on one idea. These messages may not...
Fear is a powerful emotion. Wikipedia.com describes fear as “an emotion induced by threat perceived by living entities, which causes a change in brain and organ function and ultimately change behavior, such as running away, hiding or freezing from traumatic events.”Most people tend to avoid fearful situations, not realizing that something positive may come out of the event or experience. Victor Villaseñor focuses on the topic of fear in his novel titled Burro Genius. Villaseñor demonstrates to readers how growing up he was extremely fearful of any situation. Victor also tells his readers how he turned his fear into motivation into motivation to keep going and reach his ultimate goal of becoming a published author.
As people age they will often still recall a good childhood story. A well told, meaningful story can go a long way when attempting to argue a point or convey information. In the essays, ''The Myth of The Latin Women: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria" by Judith Ortiz Cofer, "Gains and Losses" by Richard Rodriquez, and "Piecing It All Together" by bell hooks, the authors connect to the reader and create a better audience through their writing. Through the portrayal of a story the authors help the reader understand their point of view, they transfer information to the reader with better ease, and keep the reader engaged the authors argue a point or convey information more efficiently.
Fear is an everyday emotion that the human race must face, and it can bring out the best and worst of us, but its how we choose to deal with it that truly defines us.
Many experts show how emotional appeal is used In “Beware Online “Filter Bubbles”” by Eli Pariser, he states that “your filter bubble depends on who you are, and it depends on what you do” (Pariser). The author is explaining to the audience that google is showing the users the results that they know their audience wants
One of the most complex emotions in existence, fear is the primary emotion that triggers any kind of change, as it is capable of linking with any existing emotion to create entirely different lives upon lives. For any change that happens, fear is always present to turn the tide whichever way it pleases.
Fear motivates many people to act upon matters, right or wrong. This emotion has been important in many events in both works of literature, and in the real world. It has forced military geniuses into retreat, and influenced them to plan another method of attack. Fear can be both a positive and a negative acting force in one’s life, a quality that can motivate one to success as well as to downfall.
Fear influences people to make irrational decisions and take extreme measures. Often times, these actions are done to protect one’s reputation. Fear causes people to lie and manipulate to those they care about in order to escape what they are scared of most. Fear of failure has caused higher levels of anxiety, and has made society put blame on each other, rather than owning up to their mistakes. Fear can also cause one to forget one’s true identity and lose one’s values. There are two options that one can take when being faced with a fear: run away from the fear, or go through it and learn a valuable lesson in the end that will make you a stronger person. Fear is a harmful emotion that everyone has to go through in order to succeed.
Human's fears should not be taken lightly. Fear could do anything to one's minds, though without fear, man can be as savage as animals. In the book Lord of the Flies, William Golding presented fear of the unknown to be a powerful force in a man's mind. Fear of the unknown is a powerful force, which can turn to either insight or hysteria. The kids feared of not being rescued off of the island, so they made signal fires on top of the mountain. Then, there and gone, Roger's fear of the old rules he abided to. Also, there were the fears of the beast which confused and isolated the kids from the top of the mountain.
But still, people fear things that would not even harm them, such as insects or heights. These fears just cause problems for people and can even cause harm in a person’s life. One way in which fear is harmful is that it clouds people’s judgement. Fear can influence a person’s judgement, causing them to not think clearly about certain things. In the article “Why Are Millennials Wary of Freedom” by Clay Routledge, the author explains why millennials are so willing to give up their freedom of speech. According to the article, the millennials’ “fear causes [them] to privilege psychological security over liberty” (Routledge). Their fear of getting offended by other people’s speech leads to their judgement being clouded. That is why they would rather have the government regulate what they say than keep their freedom of speech. For this reason, fear is a harmful emotion. The article also mentioned that many millennials “agreed it was acceptable for student groups to use violence to prevent a person from speaking” (Routledge). The millennials’ fear of getting offended by another person’s views is so great that they are willing to encroach on a person’s freedom of speech by
“There is nothing to fear but fear itself” (Roosevelt). “Fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that cause a racing heart, fast breathing and energized muscles, among other things, also known as the fight-or-flight response” (Layton). Fear affects the brain and can help people or make them in a worse situation than they were in the first place. Fear most motivates/influences people during times of crisis by clouding judgement and becoming a weapon of power.
Stories told can sometimes bring up emotions. When the narrator tells the story about the film little flower seller, and Luo uttered the Praise “that a sincere heart can make a stone blossom… was the flower girl’s heart lacking in sincerity.”(p43) The sorceresses shows that even the more emotionless person can have emotions, and stories can bring it out. Also stories can bring out a persons individualism.
As humans we are emotional, empathetic people and I think this article captured that aspect as a whole. Writing instructors usually say something along the lines of start the essay of with a hook and capture your reader. "The Harvard Business Review" explained how important it is to draw your reader to the writing itself with a personal connection. "When you want to motivate, persuade, or be remembered, start with a human struggle and eventual triumph. It will capture people's hearts-by first attracting their brains." Not just in movies and writing, but in the business world as well empathy is a valued aspect in marketing products. "Make your people empathize with the pain the customer experienced and they will also feel the pleasure of its resolution." Having salesman be more empathetic helps cater to the many problems customers are having with a product or service. We all have watched movies that are just complete emotional rollercoasters, and I feel this article has done a wonderful job in
The ability to experience and express emotions can be a long process. Everyone starts experiencing emotions pretty much from the day of birth; as a person grows up with their family every single day they become more experienced and have more emotions that can help create and form their lifestyle. The decisions a person makes is always influenced by the emotions they have at the current time and the emotions they have experienced before. Experiencing emotions are easier than expressing them. Emotions may be easier to express at a younger age, but as anyone grows older it becomes more difficult. Both experiencing and expressing emotions are different for everyone. The ability to express emotions can be influenced by a person 's culture, personality,
Have you ever wondered why people have certain reactions? I chose chapter eight on emotions for my reflection paper because emotions are something that everyone has and feels, yet cannot always explain or react to in the way you would expect. Personally, I have never been great at responding to emotions in a way that I would not regret in the future. Thus, naturally being drawn to this chapter as a way to expand my knowledge on how to react to things more positively. I also wanted to learn why I feel a certain way after events that would not affect most people and be reassured about my feelings. Opposite to that, it is nice to see that, while not always productive, others have the same reaction habits. Overall, emotions are a complicated