Why we like surprises

With fewer people getting their news from hard copies of newspapers and many more either reading them online or using online news sites, it means we can follow more easily the sort of stories that are being read, shared and followed up.

The BBC News Online website is a great example of this. With its tabs for most popular, read and video/audio anyone can see what the audience are interested in. You could argue of course that because they are labelled as “most popular” that it is self-perpetuating as we click on to see what other people have found so fascinating.

The reason I mention this is because so many companies really don’t understand what makes a story. Yes you could say that many of these “most popular” are trivial but that isn’t always the case. Sometimes they are stories that are shocking – good and bad. Other times they are simply news stories and I put the emphasis on “news” as in they are stories which are new and haven’t been heard before.

That is what the audience want. Tell me something I don’t know either because it has just happened or because it is unexpected or unusual. I recently read a story about an 80 year old woman who punched a robber in the mouth. I am not advocating violence, merely saying that it is certainly something you don’t read every day. :)

Of course it is hard when you are trying to get publicity for your organisation and you are struggling to find a new or unusual angle. Perhaps then that is not the time to send out a press release.

Why not wait until you have something better or something more topical which will fit in with other stories which are either in the most popular or at least in the news. For example if the media is running stories about the number of people now going back to work after taking early retirement maybe you have some good examples and staff happy to talk about their experiences.

Think about what people want to read rather than what you want to tell them and it will make you the most popular with the journalists too.