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Are men with big noses more intelligent? Why not women? #Clickbait

Author: Nicky

Twelve PR Co-founder
Brain size, nose size and good size

 

In men, research suggests, big noses are associated with intelligence, but not in women. I wondered what your thoughts were on this.

Since the research was conducted in 2014, do you think it applies to women now too? Do women’s noses have more clout nowadays?

Now I’ve got quite a big nose, so I have some skin in this discussion.  However, the point I want to make isn’t about the size of noses, it’s about how it isn’t as easy as you think to do good PR. It’s not that you need a good nose for a story, or that you need to be nosy to succeed in PR.  My point is that, believe it or not, that you can’t just write anything you want to get attention.

I was sent an email this week that said: “How I made £4k in 14 days on LinkedIn.” Naturally this piqued my interest, so I read the rest of the email.  Here’s the copy:

One of my LinkedIn posts – which took just a few minutes to write – has generated around 250 comments and 25k views (I’ll link to it below)….

Now some people say numbers of comments and views are a vanity measure but they DO ensure your content is seen by more of your ideal clients. And the more content your ideal clients see from you, the more likely they are to buy.

Which is how I’ve generated £4k of sales directly from LinkedIn so far this month – without writing a single sales post/message.

And that kind of blows the whole ‘vanity’ argument out of the water, doesn’t it?”

I was invited, in the email, to take a look at the post on LinkedIn which garnered so much engagement, and lo and behold the headline was <<ARE AMBITIOUS WOMEN LESS ATTRACTIVE?>>

I hope the author of this won’t mind me saying that she has quite a small nose. But she is an incredibly well-respected journalist and writer, and runs superb business courses, some of which I have attended.  I recommend her courses wholeheartedly. My nose isn’t growing as I say this, it is absolutely true.

I have not the least problem with the nose size thing, and I’m delighted about the author making money, but  I do take exception to promoting the idea that catchy, click-bait headlines are a great way to achieve PR results.  Sometimes yes, but often no. Very much no.

We’ve sniffed out the zeitgeist, we know there’s dumbing down; short attention spans; clever beaks are out of fashion and no one likes corporate speak, but even so we still can’t just use irrelevant content or contentious subjects to win engagement or sales.

I think we have to be professional, measured and intelligent for our clients who run serious businesses, as part of projecting and protecting reputations on their behalf.

That’s my opinion, what do you think?

PS If you’d like to check out the nose size research, follow this link here

PPS If you’d like to read the original  £4k post, click here

PPS If you’d like some seriously effective PR email me nicky@twelvepr.co.uk or check out our website www.twelvepr.co.uk

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