How to Grab the Attention of a Goldfish

HOW TO GRAB THE ATTENTION OF A GOLDFISH

Human beings now have shorter attention spans than goldfish.

Are you still with me?

Great. I\’ll keep this brief.

According to scientists, our tech-driven age has left humans with such a short attention span that even the humble goldfish can hold a thought for longer.

Microsoft surveyed 2,000 participants in Canada earlier this year to look at brain activity and discovered that the average human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds (since the year 2000 when the smartphone revolution began), to a paltry eight seconds.

Goldfish, meanwhile, are thought to have the attention span of nine seconds.

In terms of media and engaging your audience, you must now be smarter, faster and more high octane in the way you deliver your message.

Heavy social media users are now extraordinarily efficient at using short bursts of attention to identify what they do – or do not – want to engage with. This means you\’ve got to be quick, clever and catchy to get your message across.

To do this, you need:
– Snappy, persuasive headlines.
– Short, content-rich well-crafted copy.
– Attention-grabbing graphics.
– Relevant, powerful, brief videos.
– Excellent visuals, links and supporting materials (such as info-graphics).
– Humor also helps – so if you can, find the funny.

A human being can absorb a lot in eight seconds, so make them count.

Okay, I\’m done.