Social Media Writing for Smart People » Josh Young http://www.ivanwalsh.com Get smart with better social media writing skills Sat, 05 Nov 2011 17:15:50 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 How The Huffington Post uses Real-time Testing to Write Better Headlines http://www.ivanwalsh.com/how-to/how-the-huffington-post-uses-real-time-testing-to-write-better-headlines/ http://www.ivanwalsh.com/how-to/how-the-huffington-post-uses-real-time-testing-to-write-better-headlines/#comments Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:10:00 +0000 Ivan http://www.ivanwalsh.com/?p=3357 Reblog this post [with Zemanta]Zachary M. Seward http://www.niemanlab.org writes that The Huffington Post applies A/B testing to some of its headlines. Readers are randomly shown one of two headlines for the same story. After five minutes, which is enough time for such a high-traffic site, the version with the most clicks becomes the wood that everyone sees. Put the [...]]]>

Zachary M. Seward http://www.niemanlab.org writes that The Huffington Post applies A/B testing to some of its headlines. Readers are randomly shown one of two headlines for the same story. After five minutes, which is enough time for such a high-traffic site, the version with the most clicks becomes the wood that everyone sees.

Put the Author’s name above a headline to get more clicks

Paul Berry, Chief Technology Officer at The Huffington Post, said Huffington Post editors have found that “placing the author’s name above a headline almost always leads to more clicks than omitting it.”

Also, The Huffington Post’s new social media editor, Josh Young, has also been soliciting better headlines from readers on Twitter. Interesting use of Crowd-sourcing?

Takeaway

The Huffington Post is considering separate East Coast and West Coast editions.

Why?

Take the Oscars, It’s old news to East Coast readers by noon, but fresh for the West Coasters logging on.

Read more here: http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/10/how-the-huffington-post-uses-real-time-testing-to-write-better-headlines/

Will real-time rating lead to “better” headlines or more popular ones?

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