After Obama’s inauguration speech last week, a lot of attention was paid to his speechwriter, Jon Favreau. Listening to Obama and reading about how he and Favreau wrote the speech got me thinking about how we use language when writing for the web. I spent some time analysing Obama’s oratory and reading about the subject.
Of course there are other mediums for communicating online, but the written word is by far and away the most important. I’ve focused on advice for social media, but a lot of this stuff holds true for all kinds of copywriting, from title tags to proposals.
Here are five points that I came up with that I hope will help you when you write for the web and, in particular, social media.
1. Headline Act
In Obama’s victory speech, he ‘teaches’ his audience what to want to hear next, both with his language and with the syntax of his speech. We learn to expect what’s coming, and to feel rewarded when it happens. For example, as David Crystal expertly explains on DC Blog, Obama opened his speech with an ‘if’ clause:
“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America…”
When we hear an ‘if’ clause, we know it has to be resolved at some point. Obama daringly drew out the sentence, holding off on the punchline for a record breaking 41 words. By keeping his audience with him (using a few tricks you can read more about on DC Blog), the satisfaction felt on completion of the clause is significant.
By rewarding your audience in this way you’re getting them on your side.
Online, headlines operate in much the same way:
- They get people to listen/click through. Like Obama’s ‘if’ clause, write a headline that is not resolved there and then.
- They set the audience up for what they’re going to hear/read. Write a headline that ‘teaches’ your audience what to expect. For example, “The 5 Geekiest Sci-Fi Movies at Sundance 2009”.
Delivering on the promises you make in your headlines is crucial to the audience’s enjoyment. If your content isn’t all that, but you still want people to pay attention, the skill lies in making them chose to click through, and then delivering on whatever it was they hoped to find.
2. Conversation: “Oh yes we can! Oh no you can’t!”
For me, the beauty of Obama’s slogan ‘Yes, we can’ is the implication that someone, somewhere has just said, ‘no, you can’t’. A conversation is in progress. The natural reaction is to want to be a part of it.
This is particularly true online. There are countless ways to communicate and the most successful (forums, blogs, social media sites) are those that invite conversation. It’s the equivalent of turning up first at a party and having to awkwardly chat with the nervous host for 10 minutes, instead of arriving half an hour later when there is a lively discussion about who would play a Mac and a PC in a movie already in progress. Getting a conversation into your content can be done in a number of ways, depending what kind you’re after:
- say something controversial in the headline or early in the content
- get a friend to say something controversial in the comments
- make a fairly obvious mistake; someone will correct you.
3. Content Is President (oh, come on)
Obama’s speeches are well researched and often include numerous references to well known themes or specifics. USA Today has helpfully listed a few of these that appeared in his inauguration speech:
“his [Obama’s] reference to ‘our better history’ was reminiscent of Lincoln’s reference to ‘our better angels’ in his first inaugural address. Obama mentioned ‘the full measure of happiness;’ Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address talked about ‘the last full measure of devotion.'”
It’s not hard to make the leap to how this translates online; you know the rules and so do I. In-jokes nearly always work because they make your audience feel clever and very much part of the ‘gang’. As with most things though, go overboard and you run the risk of looking stupid.
4. Inclusive Language: “What’s in it for me?”
David Meerman Scott has done a wonderful analysis of the language in Obama’s inaugural speech, looking at the internal (me, I, my) and inclusive (our, we, us) language and comparing the ratios to Bush’s first inaugural speech. The results are predictable and demonstrate one of the reasons why Obama is a better speech maker: he answers the all-important question, “What’s in it for me?”
By including his audience so completely (he also avoids any gender specific language), Obama is having a direct conversation about a shared past, present or future. Ok, so your blog post about title tags might not be quite so life-changing, but if you make it obvious that it’s essential to our industry, you’re halfway there.
5. Know Thine Audience
The political crowd is one of the most difficult out there. They are hardwired to mistrust you and have a hundred different reasons why you or your policies have personally ruined their life. They’ll string you along until it suits them and then drop you like the out-of-date/manipulative/lying/philandering stone that you are. Sound familiar? The online crowd is a very similar beast. Savvy. They’re fickle, smart and don’t like to be manipulated or patronised. Obama masterfully accommodates for the traits of his audience, and you should do the same. As Crystal again exemplifies, Obama’s victory speech was filled with rhetorical tricks. These fitted the occasion perfectly as the crowd was enthused with victory and more than willing to play along. It’s a bit like going to a pantomime; you know the deal and you’re in the mood.
Obama’s inauguration speech, however, was different. Gone was the clever, heady rhetoric that built to a mob-like climax and sought to pull or push the willing audience in a certain direction. In its place was thoughtful, steady speech filled with actionable bullet points:
“We will build… We will restore… We will harness… We will transform…”
There’s some really interesting stuff about this around the ‘net. You want to start with the difference between hypotaxis (climactic argument) and parataxis (bullet points) and go from there.
Your content should offer the same. Although rhetoric lies at the very heart of persuasion, don’t be tempted to manipulate your crowd unless you’re in the right place to do so. Instead, offer them useful points they can easily access at any point in the future. Your audience isn’t stupid and making the mistake of treating them like they are will inevitably lead to disaster.
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I really enjoyed researching and writing this post and would love to hear any tips or tricks you’ve picked up from unusual places.
