I appreciate snarkiness as much as the next guy. Probably more. Recently, I’ve grown weary of it though. Forced snarkiness, that is. Easy, natural snarkiness is still among the finest crafts I know. Unfortunately, not every one (including me) can practice it proficiently.
Go to almost any blog and scan the comments. You’ll likely experience forced snarkiness.
Go to any forum and I guarantee you’ll read forced snarkiness.
The biggest abuse of forced snarkiness is found in headline writing. Blog post headlines. Sales page headlines. Email subject lines. Everybody is trying to create a line that will cause people to read more.
I love marketing. I read about it, study it and practice it. It has been the focus of my career for over 30 years – admittedly, most of that in the offline world. Swipe files, studying The Star or National Enquirer, going back to old direct mail success stories – all these tools are old hat for most people with extensive marketing experience. Of course, the Internet has changed all that. We’re now flooded with snarky headlines left and right. Poor copywriters regularly toss out some snarky headline that has nothing to do with the copy. Rather than encourage people to read the content, it hacks people off. People grow leery and never trust that writer (or company) again.
“Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you!”
If snarkiness can happen (get ready, here’s an Internet term) – organically, then I’m all for it. That is, if snarkiness fits – maintains congruency with the context or content – then proceed. But I see many instances where that’s not the case. (I began pasting examples, but there were SO MANY that I decided I’d leave you to your own devices. I don’t need to provide evidence. We all know this is true.)
Sometimes – just about once a week – I’m engaged by somebody who complains that they’re not taken seriously in their business enterprise. Hard to do when your digital footprint is 100% snarkiness.
Pot Calls Kettle, “BLACK.”
That’s snarky. It’s also fitting because I am Mr. Pot. I really do appreciate snarkiness. Smarmy is my middle name. Well, not really. My middle name is HOLLIS. But “Pot Calls Kettle, “BLACK” is a better headline than anything that includes HOLLIS.
The point is this…you know it’s bad when somebody as smarmy as me finds it overdone. My Google Reader is full of hundreds of blog posts every day. I scan them and suspect that too much attention is given to make the headlines be something outrageous or smarmy.
I’m all about making a headline capture the attention and imagination of the reader/browser. But can we at least make the headline have some relevance to the post? Am I the only one who finds the writer unworthy of my trust if they lure me in with a headline that has no connection with their copy?
Okay, I’ll build a bridge and get over it.
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