Top 5 Reasons List-Style Content Will Work for You

The rise of websites like Buzzfeed, which mainly feature content in easy to read, engaging, visually appealing lists has made the lives of journalists a bit easier. Although some would argue that list-style isn’t ‘real’ journalism, the fact of the matter is that people want short text and pictures. This can help you when you are writing a press release or blog crunch, because they can copy paste that information.

Let’s take for an example, you are writing a press release about a festival being held downtown. Begin with the 5W content (who, what, when, where, and why) and then follow with:

Top 5 Reasons to Visit The Blueberry Festival

1. Free Admission! The best things to do are free.
2. The best food trucks in the Tri-County area! From enchiladas to shepherd’s pie, our food truck vendors will have your culinary needs met.
3. Live Music all-day and part of the night. We have all kinds of music to suit every listener with rock and roll, bluegrass, and jazz.
4. Arts and Crafts galore! Take care of Christmas and birthdays early with our large (over 200) number of vendors.
5. The Annual Blueberry Smash! Watch contestants of all ages try to win the annual blueberry pie eating contest. Want to win the $1000 prize , enter today at www.blueberryfest.com

This type of list makes a journalist’s life easy because it not only handles the critical information, like the 5W, but it also gives the press release personality without having to do a lot of research.

Better yet, list style posts accomplish the mandate that so many reporters are now given by their editors and publishers – earn clicks and shares. Readers, too, want list posts because they’re easy to digest and, maybe even best of all, they know when the post will be over. If it’s a top 5 list, then they feel comfortable that clicking and beginning to read your piece won’t result in ten wasted minutes when they probably should be working on their TPS reports!

A couple more tips for top 10 lists:

• If writing for an online publication, include pictures or gifs to make your submission stand out
• Use an odd number. Some studies have shown that people prefer odd numbered lists. (Though Top 10 lists are still an old favorite!)
• Try ranked lists. This is often a good conversation starter, with people arguing about what you should have listed as #1

Have you ever had huge success with a list post? Link it here in the comments!

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