I used to think a good headline should dominate search results for what it is about without necessarily being SEO I’ve now started developing this idea that they should be “good listener” terms with search/alert results surfacing most salient recent ideas.
-
-
Unbranding does not necessarily mean you’re producing a commodity. It simply means you’re not signaling uniqueness or differentiation overtly, because assets traditionally devoted to branding losing leverage, becoming wasted on branding, and better used for other things.
Show this thread -
The higher the noise and arms race dynamics in the public environment, the louder branded things have to scream to get noticed, and the more resources they hog in the project. At some point the tail of branding strategy wags the dog of project purpose.
Show this thread -
Brand enough to indicate contents and have some fun, but don’t let brand optimization consume the rest of the project. And don’t mistake structural elements like headlines (which serve many purposes) for functionally fixed branding-monopolized elements.
Show this thread -
I kinda like how classical music and haute cuisine do this well. ‘Prelude in G minor” is an awful viral brand name, but serves a useful informative/search/search bycatch function. “Braised greens and sautéed mushrooms” tells you about the flavor/texture profile.
Show this thread -
If, as a writer, you find yourself spending more time on a clever headline than 2000 words of text... is that really what you enjoy about writing? Some people have the wrong reaction and retreat to numbers. “Book 1” or “Opus 1” or “Issue #1”. That’s just pretentious.
Show this thread -
In retail there’s a trend towards packaging for e-commerce: plain, functional brown boxes with labels etc but no shelf-spaces dominating screaming design. I feel a bit sad the era of great packaging art is ending but it’s the right direction. Ditto for information.
Show this thread -
There’s a broader megatrend developing here. When public spaces get flooded with noise that’s 90% branding 10% content, use packaging to fit into higher SNR streams by giving up some individuality for socialization in a more quality, slightly more private context.
Show this thread -
Extreme version of strategy would be to declare the platform brand and use store unbranding/subbranding models. For example, I could just headline a post “Ribbonfarm: The Syrian Conflict” instead of trying to come up with a clever title like “After Aleppo Armageddon”
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.
Heh search bycatch is a good term... you want high serendipity bycatch