With the abundance of content available on the Internet, attention has become the limiting factor for the consumption of information. As Thomas Davenport and JC Beck put it in their book The Attention Economy, Understanding the New Currency of Business, "Items come into our awareness, we attend to a particular item, and then we decide whether to act."
People have become so accustomed to this content overload that they are extremely selective when it comes to deciding what pieces of content they will choose to read and engage with. In fact, 55% of website visitors only spend about 15 seconds actively engaging with a webpage.
And social media is not necessarily the answer, as studies show that there is no correlation between the amount of times an article is shared and the amount of time that the average reader will give to that content.
*GASP* Social media not the answer!? How can this be?? Is there even anything beyond the virtual network of 2,000 of my closest aquaintances? If I have a significant life event and don't post it on Facebook, did it really happen?
But I digress.
If you want your content to be noticed, you need to provide it with certain intangible qualities that will help it stand out from the deluge of pieces just like it. Kevin Kelly, founder of Wired Magazine, identifies these intangibles as:
1. Immediacy: quick delivery of information
2. Personalization: tailored just for you!
3. Interpretation: user support and guidance (think CTAs!)
4. Authenticity: no knock-offs
5. Accessibility: wherever, whenever
6. Embodiment: the medium through which you publish your information
7. Patronage: social good
8. Findability: your content will never be read if no one can find it (work on your SEO!!!)
In the name of attention econ and your valuable time, I'll leave it at this: you can’t control the dwindling attention of the Internet masses. But what you can control is your content, and how you optimize it. Create great, well-targeted content with good SEO, and you’ll not only grab people’s attention; you’ll have them asking for more!
Want to learn how to personalize your pages for each visitor?
