3 Reasons to Hate List Posts and 5 Reasons to Use Them Anyway

As long as people can come up with a list of reasons, ways, benefits, solutions, secrets, tactics, strategies, warning signs, or even people, there will be list posts.

Like this one. Which is actually two list posts in one. Boom.

When researching this post, I found dozens of articles about why people hate list posts. Even list posts about why people hate list posts. Which should tell you something.

But we continue to see list posts every single day. In my LinkedIn Pulse email this morning, there were six articles. Four of them were list posts.

Love them or hate them, people continue to write them and share them. Let’s start with why many people claim to hate list posts.

Lists typically involve bite-size chunks of information and high-level details, not in-depth information and analysis. If you really want to get up to your elbows in a topic – if you want to eat the full-size Snickers – you’re probably not going to read a list post.

Of course, content snobs, simplicity is what people love about list posts.

The average list post is a compilation of regurgitated information from content that already exists. Sure, there may an interesting new nugget and a personal, original spin on a topic, but for the most part, it’s just yesterday’s lunch.

Of course, content snobs, the personal, original spin and new nuggets are what people love about list posts.

Ever since God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, people have been creating and sharing content in a list format. We’ve just evolved from carrying and reading stone tablets to publishing and sharing online.

Of course, content snobs, there’s a reason why people continue to spit out list posts like a Pez dispenser.

List posts work. Period.

Even though we may claim to hate them, list posts are shared more frequently than any type of content other than infographics, according to research from BuzzSumo.

Despite the emergence of photo and video platforms, podcasting, and dozens of flavor-of-the-week social channels, the ubiquitous list post has stood the test of time and continues to perform well.

Here are five reasons why list posts work.

A list post makes a very specific promise. There are no surprises. We have a pretty good idea of how the story ends and what we’ll get out of it. As long as you deliver on the promise of your list’s headline and meet the reader’s expectation, you’ll be in good shape.

This is even helpful for people who choose not to read your posts because you’ve made it clear that it’s not relevant or valuable to them. They may not read, but at least you haven’t wasted their time by trying to trick them into reading. And they may just read one of your posts down the road.

People read content because they want information that will help them solve a problem or make a more educated decision. A list post provides more than one piece of information that can help someone, which creates the perception of higher value. Which is why list posts are shared so much.

That little three-pound organ nestled between the ears is a miracle of nature that can do amazing things. But there are times when we don’t want the brain to do too much heavy lifting.

List posts are well-organized in a simple format. They’re easy to skim. Information is already categorized for us. Information is easy to process and absorb without taxing the noggin.

Every reader, if they really wanted to, could come up with something to add to your list. Every reader, for damn sure, has an opinion on at least one item on your list. List posts provide people with more things to agree or disagree with. And if there’s one thing about opinions, it’s that we want as many people as possible to hear them.

It’s called engagement. And list posts knock engagement out of the park.

If you have a list post of 10 things, I bet at least five can be expanded to their own standalone blog posts with more in-depth analysis. Just like anything else, too many list posts can be overkill, so you need to find the right balance with deeper content.

The Bottom Line

I approach list posts like I approach any other content. I read and enjoy list posts that are relevant to me and have compelling headlines. I don’t read the ones that are irrelevant and painfully generic. If I do get sucked into reading a lousy list post, it won’t be easy to get me to read something from that author or publisher again.

But that has nothing to with the fact that it’s a list post. It has to do with content that sucks.

Be careful about dismissing list posts from your content arsenal just because you’re sick of them. You see them all the time because they’re working.

Look for new ways to get the attention of your audience. Be original. But until the numbers say otherwise, you can do a lot worse than sharing a good old list post.