Capturing readers’ attention by referring to something greater than you

Unless your name is Houellebecq, readers are generally not interested in what you say. They have hundreds of emails waiting, Facebook friends are begging for their attention, and they must check their twitter mentions every ten seconds. So it’s of the utmost importance to get their attention right when they start reading.

Hence the Houellebecq ref. It’s a grand writer, a modern thinker, and it’s very fashionable to love him (sorry ’bout that). So that might just be the reason you kept on reading. ,,If this guy knows Houellebecq and is going to talk about him, I might as well pay attention”. I referred to something greater. And it worked.

This attention-getting strategy came to my mind when walking in the New York Halloween Parade. My friend Edial Dekker and I breached security so we could see all the smashing costumes from up close. Yet all of a sudden, we were in the middle of the spotlights. People shouted at us, took pictures, interviewed us. A group of beautiful Chinese girls opted for a group hug. Edial and I had only applied some weird make-up to our faces, and that was about it. No weird costume, no weeks of work. Yet we felt like rockstars.

Why? Because we’ve referred to something greater. We’ve painted our faces just like the Joker. That was enough to get everybody’s attention. We were now representing a hugely popular movie character. ,,I really like the actual Joker”, a slightly geeky guy told us. And every five minutes or so, people shouted the Joker’s most famous quote at us: ,,Why so serious?” (We weren’t really serious btw, we acted like lunatics).

Jokers on a roof in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Photo Allison Maggy (click for her website)

In a way, during that Halloween night, we profited from a multi-million dollar campaign of a Hollywood blockbuster. We had associated our appearance with the brand ‘Joker’, which was a guarantee for a great Halloween night.

How can you use that for your blog? Simple. By using examples that people like. I did it in this post with the band MGMT and in this presentation with LSD & the sixties. Or like Copyblogger did with this Quentin Tarantino Guide.

So, how are you gonna use it?

Some other posts you might be interested in:

• Ask a Blogger Part 1: How do I get attention?
• Getting readers to comment by writing an unfinished blog post
• Personal Blog Design: 10 Essential Elements