#nlbr

This blog has been created to share information that I've discovered by reading Ann Handley's Everybody Writes. You’ll find some of my favourite quotes, useful tips, as well as some links to relevant articles as found in the book. It’s a great book, you should check it out. 

Here are three lessons that I learned from this book:

Lesson 1: 'A good lede invites you to the party and a good kicker makes you wish you could stay longer'

Interpretation: Taking from a background in Journalism, Ann gives her readers some food for thought on the interplay between the first and last sentences of a piece, the opening and closing, or the lede (lead) and kicker. The opening line is important to hook the readers attention but nothing is more disappointing than a poor finale.

Ann goes on to give some more tips:

a. Put the reader in your story

b. Describe a problem your reader can relate to

c. Set a stage

d. Ask a question

e. Tell a story or relay a personal anecdote

f. Recast the biggest takeaway of the piece

Lesson 2: 'Part 5 of Everybody Writes offers guidelines on how to act like a publisher by adapting some best practices from journalism'

Interpretation: The concept of a 'brand journalist' is quite interesting. Ann describes this type of journalist as one within an organization who create content and has the following job description:

a. Generates brand awareness

b. Produces industry news

c. Creates thought leadership

d. Generates leads

Lesson 3: 'The ideal length for blog posts, podcasts, social posts, etc. is...'

Interpretation:

a. Blog posts (1,50 words)

b. Email subjects (50 characters or less)

c. Line of text (12 words or less)

d. Paragraph (4 lines of text)

e. YouTube video (3-3.5 minutes)

f. Podcast (22 minutes)

g. Title tags (55 characters)

h. Meta description (155 characters or less)

i. Facebook post (100-140 characters)

j. Tweets (120-130 characters)