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Although I have to say that this years offering from The Apprentice and its competitors leaves a little to be desired and it seems like the contestants were chosen more for their entertainment value than business acumen now, I have been watching this years series religiously.
We’ve gone as far as weekly sweepstakes in the office to make the show even more exciting. But sitting down to watch yet another episode focused upon the candidates selling ability, I had the idea to write a blog post on how The Apprentice still grabs an audience and keeps them hooked, even after seven years running and a similar tasks week on week!
Don’t worry that this blog post isn’t for you, as you aren’t planning to film a big-budget reality TV show anytime soon. The advice I’m giving is for you to apply to your blog to ensure you attract and retain and interested audience, just like Lord Sugar.
Although The Apprentice is all about the tasks each week that whittle the weak from the strong, you are never allowed to forget where the show is heading. You are lead through the series with the ending, when applying this to your blog, it may be an idea to produce the end before the rest so you know what your audience is heading for and that its worth their effort and concentration. Keep your purpose clear and concise. Although everyone enjoys watching each candidate lose their mind with an unruly bunch of egomaniacs, attempting to exert their authority during their turn in project manager office, we are all in it to see who gets the job, well nowadays whose idea Lord Sugar likes best.
Although based on an intellectual and highly competitive subject, that you would hope would attract the brightest minds, the show is not complex. It’s a simple ‘make more money= you win’ vs. ‘make less money= you lose’ concept. Something, which we can all understand and take an interest in. Think about this when tackling your next blog post, far from writing a dumbed down simple blog post about nothing more complicated than tying your shoelace. Try keeping the same message but modifying its delivery, change the more polysyllabic words to keep your message clear and simple. Don’t leave questions unanswered, make it easy for your readers to understand and get involved.
Like Alan Sugar your blog needs to have a character, you can do this through the language that you use or the issues that you tackle, or maybe by starting off your blog with an anecdote about yourself so readers can identify with you and become engaged. Within The Apprentice, you know the characters that you’ll find. There’s Alan, the scary boss man who takes no nonsense and calls the shots, there’s suspicious spies in the form of Nick and Karen (I do miss you Margaret) then within the candidates there’s pretty much all of the archetypical personality types (and almost all of the seven dwarfs). There’s the angry one, bossy one, the ditzy one, the arrogant one (there may be more than one of those) and the quiet one, that usually gets through the first couple of weeks but is fired later for not doing much. With the familiar characters at hand, the audience can easily relate to them and the show, knowing what to expect and becoming pleasantly surprised when someone breaks from their pre-destined character traits.
I’m sure if The Apprentice was more like Big Brother, and we watched them 24/7 in that amazing house, cooking dinner getting changed and sleeping, the show would be as boring as Big Brother. It’s the clever and ruthless editing that gives the show its up-beat and fast pace. With this in mind, you need to make sure that you don’t get too emotionally attached to your latest blog post, and edit it mercilessly. More than just removing typos and grammatical errors, make sure that you only use content if it is completely necessary. Chop all the fluff, and get rid of your adjectives, use short words too, as no one will stay to read on if they have to get a dictionary out for every other word.
At the end of The Apprentice, you can’t help but stay tuned to discover what crazy tasks the teams will be doing next week, and watching it carefully, you know all the best bits will be in that 30 second clip. You’ll get all the comedy, drama, fights, tantrums and tears from next week’s episode summed up in half a minute. You know that those bits are good, and there may be even more, and of course you’re hooked to find out who gets fired. This paired with adverts between the episodes with snippets of even more best bits to build your curiosity, you have no choice but to watch the next episode. I’m not saying buy some airtime and create a flawless campaign to advertise your next blog post, but you do have other services at your disposal, that aren’t quite so costly. Tweet some insights, or hint at some useful conclusions you have come to within your latest blog post. Wet the reader’s appetite and then publish the blog when you have enough anticipation. Keep this going every time you post, and you should get a loyal and content hungry fan-base ready to absorb your content whenever you post it.
While I know you probably aren’t making the next multimillion pound reality TV show for BBC1, you can’t help but draw out unique and useful ways that leave The Apprentice at the top of the leader board when it comes to grabbing audiences attention and keeping it. If it works for Lord Sugar who’s saying it can’t work for you?
