What is it that captures your valuable attention and precious time?

Sorting through the inquiries, offers and educational materials online has become an overwhelming task and getting that attention has become a frenzy of sensational headlines and cute animal videos.

As Wikitionary defines it and as online marketers call it:

Clickbait sends many of us chasing those cute animals or emotional stories and before we know it, an hour has gone by with nothing to show for it. I confess, a video of kittens doing silly things is better than a coffee break.

Clickbait is designed to sell ads first and be meaningful second — and we know it. It’s a fad, a trend to get us to “click through” and be exposed to something we might buy [eyeballs on the page = “impressions”].

In researching this post, I came across an article from Forbes online: A New Weapon In Upworthy’s Unlikely War On Clickbait.

Upworthy is one site that really got it right when it comes to getting our attention. Upworthy’s authors curate video content so that your attention to the video is timed to certain minutes and seconds, which keeps your attention and keeps you engaged. Their formula to share videos with a cause enabled them to galvanize groups that support emotionally charged causes — and it worked. In November 2013, they got over 18 million unique visitors to their site.

One issue many have with this approach is that it wears us down because it’s part of the overall noise coming to our inboxes.

Interestingly Upworthy agrees and is now advocating a new metric — attention minutes — offering a more realistic measurement of engagement [if people stay on the page]. “Attention minutes is a fine-grained, conservative measure of how long people are engaging with the content on our pages.” If you’ve read this far, you’re engaged.

My purpose for this post is to have my business stay top of mind, share information I believe is important and educate you on what is changing in social marketing.

By curating social news, I help guide you to where your precious attention is best spent and the time spent will serve to better your business. I turn down the noise and give you substance.

Yes, there is a formula to sustained success and engagement and it doesn’t come from hype or social bombardment.

Less is more

Your sales, marketing, and business development will thrive under these circumstances:

1. Commitment
2. Consistency
3. Clarity

Commitment — by this I mean be commitment to client satisfaction. Allow your clients and potential clients the time it takes to decide what they need and when they’re ready to use your product or service — never use a gimmick.

Consistency — create a regular, monthly flow of information that educates, informs and entertains. Pick one day a week to focus on staying in touch with your community. Less than six months for any marketing campaign will not yield results.

Clarity — use your social outlets to help your community know what you have to offer and when they may need it — you may think what you do or sell is obvious but I promise, it isn’t.

Go ahead, put the three Cs to work by scheduling an hour a week to your calendar to purposefully connect with your community. Social media is free so make it meaningful by letting your audience know what you do and how you can help.

Remember, email marketing is the most intimate, measurable and affordable way to engage your customers. Intimate because they have chosen to allow you into their inbox — essentially saying “I’m interested in what you have to say”.

If you don’t know where to start, email or call me 203. 610-1934. I want you to succeed.

One of Upworthy’s most shared videos

Bic Pens for Women

Watch what Ellen has to say at 1:20 and see
if you think it’s outrageous. Go ahead, take the bait.
Enjoy the fun (4:08)