As with all style guides, rules are made to be broken. That said, these are the rules most ThinkUp insights should follow.
- Yes: Adam Pash’s road to 150,000 friends
- No: Adam Pash’s road to 150,000 friends.
- Yes: It’s a new 7-day high
- No: It’s a New 7-day High
- Make it personal: Whenever possible, include specific information from the insight in the headline — in particular, the names of friends/followers, interesting numbers, etc.
- Yes: A big retweet for %other_user
- No: You deliver a big retweet
- Be brief: Insights are short as is — don’t try to shoehorn the entire insight in the headline. The headline should draw interest — it’s the appetizer; the body is the main course.
- Simple sentence examples:
- it’s a new 30-day high!
- %other_user lends a hand
- %total links you %liked
- you’ve got a new verified follower!
- %other_user thinks you’re likeable
Fragments should likewise be brief, often with an implied subject/verb along the lines of “it’s” or “you’ve got”.
- Examples:
- a friendly boost for %other_user
- a congrats-worthy %post
- your %total-month-old profile
- an old favorite from %other_user
- Yes: %other_user thinks you’re likeable
- No : %other_user thinks your %posts are likeable
- you => %user
- your => %user’s
- you’re => %user is
- you’ve => %user has
- you’ll => %user will
Always keep an eye out for instances where the second-to-third-person translation will not work. E.g.:
- you do a good job => %user do a good job
- Yes:
- Headline: It’s been a big week in tweets
- Body: %username tweeted over 40 times last week. That’s 12 more than the prior week.
- No:
- Headline: %username had 12 tweets over the past week
- Body: That’s 1 more tweet than the prior week.
- Yes: %user resonated with women
- No: %user got the most reaction from women