Getting Attention in a Noisy World

Maybe you’ve read that you have only three seconds to get someone’s attention online?

While it is true our attention spans are shrinking when it comes to search, the three-second rule is a misconception based on social media advertising practices.

THE ORIGIN OF THE THREE-SECOND RULE

In looking into this, I discovered the three-second rule is not based on scientific research, but instead comes from the methods Facebook uses to bill advertisers using video.

In short, if someone looks at a sponsored video for at least three seconds on Facebook, this is counted as an impression. Advertisers pay for a certain number of impressions, so this view counts towards the fee the advertiser is charged.

A 2015 research study showed our attention span is 8 seconds.

Regardless, three seconds has become the bar content producers have started using when designing content to capture people’s attention.

IT’S NOT A RULE, BUT ATTENTION IS STILL SHORT

While the three-second rule is not a fact, today’s audiences are distracted. There are lessons that can be learned from thinking about attention and what captures it before they scroll away.

Maybe you’ve noticed, this distraction is not limited to people scrolling online. People are distracted in real life, too.

WHAT GRABS ATTENTION

Getting someone’s attention may feel stressful, but we do it all the time.

In-person, this seems obvious. We can simply say hello.

The simple act of saying hello is an act of acknowledging the person you are talking to.

In a virtual space, we often forget this step. Or we somehow think that if we only have three seconds, we have to push the most important information forward first. We don’t realize this alienates our audience.

HOW TO ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR AUDIENCE

But how do you acknowledge an unknown audience in a virtual space?

The simplest way is to indicate that you are talking about something they care about.

Last week I attended two talks at the Transmediale Marshall McLuhan lecture in the Canadian Embassy. McLuhan is known as the father of media theory.

Don’t worry if you don’t know the event or the theorist.

I’m mentioning the lecture because as probably the least knowledgeable person in the room about this subject matter, both speakers drew me into their talks. And that is impressive.

They acknowledged me, and the others in the room, through their introductions.

I’ll give an example of Mél Hogan’s talk, which was about research into synthetic DNA based alternatives to storing big data.

She started her talk by telling us a story of sitting in her parent’s living room, watching the television with her mom, and seeing a report about the massive power consumption associated with large data centers.

Her mother was finally impressed (or relieved) that Mél’s research was mentioned on mainstream media.

In essence, she introduced the subject which is scientific and technical in a way that was very relatable.

She told a story.

That story acknowledged two audiences. One that may not know much about the subject she was about to share. And one that includes researchers who work on subjects that very few people understand.

She went on to share information about the little talked about the impact of the massive amount of data being stored because of the facilities which require massive amounts of both water and power.

Here, she linked her story to a topic that most of the audience cares about, the climate crisis.

MEET THEM WHERE THEY ARE

What Mél Hogan did was she met her audience, me, where I was at in terms of my level of knowledge of her subject, which was minimal, and my area of interest, which is in reducing my carbon footprint.

Meet your audience where they are by acknowledging your audience’s:
1. Level of Knowledge
2. Area of Interest

How does this look outside of a lecture?

Think about these questions when preparing your introduction:

• Why will they be on your blog, clicking on your video, listening to your podcast, attending your event?

• How much do they already know about what you are sharing?

• What interest brought them there?

• And how does your topic connect to their area of interest?

Then design your introduction to start from an idea/story/concept that addresses your audience’s level of knowledge and area of interest.

BUILD YOUR POINT OF CONNECTION

Acknowledging your audience is the first step in getting someone’s attention in a noisy world.

In a video, you might this of this as the hook.

I prefer to call it the point of connection.

The point of connection is the jumping-off point for your story. It is an invitation to the story you want to share.

It takes a little more effort to find this point of connection but once you do find it, it will allow you to break through the noise of irrelevant information and start to share your story.