Evaluating the Value of Positive and Negative Content

When it comes to your choosing the topics about which to write, there may be times when the content that you post has a negative undertone although it is informational and holds a lot of value.

The impact of positive versus negative content

Well, the most important thing about your content is that it is well written and compelling (and valuable to your target audience). After you have taken care of accomplishing that, it will be time to decide on whether you want your content to take on a positive or a negative tone. Each type of content has merit and value in a different way and it is worth evaluating each one so that you can decide which proportions of positive and negative content works best for your particular business. 

Positive and negative content both try to elicit some sort of response from the reader.

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The motivation behind the decision

You may think that content with a positive spin is more effective with your readers and achieves the result that you are after more readily than negative content will ever achieve. However, that may not necessarily be the case. In fact, on many occasions, negative content may elicit much more of a response than you anticipate. One thing that you can count on is that content with a positive spin gives you a predictable response from your readers. Your positive-tone content will cause your readers to react in a certain manner because you will have some control over what you are offering those readers. The incentive is placed slightly out of reach until your reader gives you what you need.

Motivating your readers properly 

When it comes to the different types of motivation, the reaction that your readers have to negative and positive depend largely on the types of people your readers are. Interestingly, some people flourish from positive motivation while others thrive if you light a fire under them. Even though that experience is painful overall, it still produces some result that you are trying to achieve. However, with negative motivation, fear is often the biggest motivator. You instill a fear that there will be a consequence if the person doesn’t do what you request. 

The incentive should always be there

Whichever type of motivation you use, there should always be an incentive for the other person. Otherwise, that person will most likely question why he or she is bothering to do what you want him or her to do. It is very important to remember that the motivation that you present to the other person must be tied to the person’s emotions. In fact, that is such a critical piece to the puzzle that without that element, you won’t be able to get anywhere with the other person. Human beings react to emotional connections. If you are not able to establish an emotional tie with the other person and relate to that person as two human beings, you will not get anywhere at all.

Surprisingly, negative motivation sometimes works but you need to understand when to use it 

If you write content with a negative spin, as discussed previously, you can still achieve an extremely positive result. One good thing that negatively motivated content achieves is that it airs the negativity first and get the unpleasant part out of the way (hopefully, quickly). After that, it should be smooth sailing. Also interestingly, as nice as a positive motivation feels, it is generally the negative experience that is the most memorable. Again, that is just human nature and human behavior.

Which feelings occur as a result of positively motivated communications?

Using positive motivation brings to the forefront a whole bunch of emotions. Some of those may be joy, hope, delight, happiness, fascination, excitement, pleasure, and amusement. Those feelings are wonderfully positive and you can certainly use them to your advantage as well as to benefit your business. On the other hand, you can also achieve results from negatively motivated content. In fact, you can use those positive responses as jumping off points to elicit responses from your readers.

Making the big decision

If you are wondering which side you should focus on, positive or negative, the answer is that you should use a combination. However, you should use it carefully and constructively. You can use the negative concept as a tool to keep the reader aware of what not to do in order to clearly understand what to do to achieve the best possible results for their business.

Conclusion

If you present your content effectively, you will definitely achieve the results that you are looking for. Positive content is very important but that doesn’t mean that you should shy away from a negative spin if it makes sense in the context. Of course, it goes without saying that you will need to be motivated before you can motivate anyone else. It is most definitely an art form and you can learn how to present it properly so that it can work for you.

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