Speaker 1: 0:08

if there were like a top five things that I want everybody to know that comes across my content, this would be in the top five. Audience attention spans aren't shrinking and I see a lot of talk about how audience attention spans are shrinking and that's the reason for us not being able to get more views on content or us not being able to pay attention to certain series or movies on Netflix. I've struggled with this personally for 10 plus years. I feel like I finally have a deeper understanding of why, after spending so much time around social media, after trying to get into watching movies and becoming a better content consumer, being very mindful of that In this episode, I just want to share my thoughts on this, because I don't see anybody else talking about this besides myself and making this argument that audience attention spans aren't shrinking. We talk about audience attention spans and just attention spans in general, like they are that of a goldfish or maybe even shorter. We can only pay attention to three second video clips. I don't believe it and I spend, as you know, all day on this stuff.

Speaker 1: 1:18

I spend time with short form content, long form content, written content. Audio content. Short form content long form content, written content, audio content, content on TikTok, content on Instagram, youtube all these places. People spend time where they want to spend time and people consume all sorts of types of content. They binge six hour history episodes about things from 500 or a thousand years ago from Dan Carlin his Hardcore History podcast. They watch entire seasons of shows in one city. Or, like myself, I don't watch too many TV shows, but I watched the McMahon or Mr McMahon Netflix series on Vince McMahon and the whole WWE drama and story of how that whole thing came to be and found it fascinating. But why did I watch that when I really can't find myself paying attention to most TV shows or movies? These days, we're supposed to believe that we can't sit through a 30-second Instagram reel or a five-minute YouTube video or something like that. I believe it comes down to the environment. Now, my background worked with a lot of therapists that are well regarded, come from Ivy League universities, and I've consumed a lot of their content and I think that's kind of how I formulated this idea. What I've learned through working with therapists, with consuming therapist content, psychologists, all different types of mental health backgrounds, psychological backgrounds is that everything makes sense when you look at the environment. It's placed in your upbringing, how you are. It all makes sense in the environment because humans are very adaptable to the environment they're placed in. It's no different for social media and the content that we consume, the content that we create.

Speaker 1: 3:10

Social media platforms are like a digital casino environment. They're designed specifically to pull your attention in 80,000 different directions at once, hoping that they can pull you long enough and keep pulling you and stringing you along so that you stay on the platform. Hoping that they can pull you long enough and keep pulling you and stringing you along so that you stay on the platform so that they can increase their ad revenue. Instagram doesn't care about all of the content on there, necessarily like what type of content on there. They care about the people that are spending time on there and advertisers spending money on their platform so that there's high quality viewers on the platform, so that advertisers want to advertise on Instagram. And it's basically the same idea across YouTube, tiktok, these platforms.

Speaker 1: 3:56

Now, the consumers are not really there for the deep dives on social media for the most part. Sometimes they are Depends on the environment. On TikTok, you can find people that are there for deep dives because you can also play videos at 2x speed YouTube. Obviously there's room for deep dives, but something like maybe Instagram you're really there for like the quick hits of dopamine and to be pulled in different directions at once. I've spoken a lot about how social media is interruption-based marketing. People aren't going on there intentionally with the idea of like I want to watch this thing about this thing on like, instagram, youtube. It's different. There's more intent, there's more purpose behind why they go on the platform and seek things out. Not to say that you know you can go on YouTube and want to be pulled, but sometimes on YouTube you usually want to be pulled in like one direction and stay there for 10, 15 minutes, sometimes much longer. There's a YouTube channel called Defunctland that does these super deep dives on these obscure topics that you would find no interest in otherwise. Right, might be a ride that was only open for a couple of years ago in Disney. That wasn't very popular, and then they'll do a two hour episode or something on it and I've watched the whole thing.

Speaker 1: 5:14

So when you think about the environment that is created, it's not that like we can't thrive in the environment. It's our brains adapting to the environment that we're placed in. Instagram again, specifically, is not an environment where we go for the deep dives. We go there for just quick pulls and so to say we can't pay attention to something outside of that, I think, is doing us an incredible disservice, because we can. We prove it to ourselves time and time again when we go deep on content on YouTube or have long conversations with friends, is like.

Speaker 1: 5:53

I think social media is a flawed platform. To begin with, because it only gives you a glimpse. It's not a two-way conversation, it's a one-way and you put out your content, someone comments something that might have nothing to do with what you posted about, and now there's a whole new argument or discussion being had that is off topic of your initial topic. Right? So knowing that it's flawed in a normal, like two-way conversation, like it is, I think once we move forward with that idea or realization, we're not looking at social media like it is a replacement for anything. It's a supplement to something, but it's not a replacement for something. Right?

Speaker 1: 6:37

Content creators sometimes get wrapped up in when they're creating content in the beginning, like I need this piece to explain everything about the topic you don't really like that does. Sometimes more information might overwhelm someone with new context going in and too much information might make someone just completely check out. So sometimes it's better to leave things out and keep it just very concise on social media, because information will move faster, but it leaves room for holes and people to fill in gaps that maybe you didn't intend for them to fill in. That is a problem with social media. So think about how. You don't go to the mall to save money, right? You don't go to the bar if you try to stay sober. You don't go on social media for long form content, and I'm referring to more Instagram, maybe even Pinterest Threads X.

Speaker 1: 7:27

It's not that our brains are melting. It's that we have to pay attention to the environment where we're placing our content and using the right tool, in this case, the format that we're trying to reach people. This is why we're seeing Instagram reels that are like one or two seconds long do really good when they just have text on there. It's not that audience attention spans can only handle that. It's that the environment of Instagram is being pulled in 80,000 different directions. So if you get pulled in the direction of like I can consume this thing, then you'll see an increase in views, because Instagram weighs how much someone has consumed of something. So if they watched a whole two or three second reel because that's how long it took them to read the text that you wrote, whether or not they agreed or enjoyed that content, they're signaling to Instagram I like this content, I want more of that, and so Instagram will push out more of that. And then, on the creator side, you're seeing a huge increase in views and engagement because Instagram is pushing it out, because more people are consuming that.

Speaker 1: 8:29

Now there's a case to be made for the quality of viewer. And if you only put out two or three second reels and you're trying to grow a specific type of audience whether maybe you're an author or a speaker or you want a more high quality person viewing what you're doing how you meet someone initially, I believe, sets the tone for how you continue to work together or, you know, present your content. So if you're only doing two or three second reels and then you want somebody to go listen to your six hour podcast, generally speaking, the type of viewer that's gonna be interested in a two or three second reel that just has text and is following a trend might not be interested in, like, a six hour podcast If you had a 30 second clip or a 40 second clip or heaven forbid, a C second clip getting really long on social media. The person that watches that a high chance that they would be easier to go from a 60 second clip to even as crazy as it sounds a six hour podcast with the right transition, because if they can stay interested in a topic long enough for that, then it would be obvious that they would probably be interested in a little bit longer. And most people don't listen to some six hour podcast all at once. Right, they take breaks, they spread it out.

Speaker 1: 9:42

I think social media is a fantastic tool. I think it's flawed and I think the more we can accept its flaws and become more aware of its flaws, the more we can realize what kind of tool it is for us to connect with the audience that we're trying to connect to. I think social media is fantastic to tease your longer form content, to share bite-sized wisdom without trying to give everything. To build relationships with people, because it's a fantastic tool for discovery and getting introduced to people you've never met. I've made some incredible relationships, life-changing relationships, through social media. It's not because people couldn't pay attention, it's because where people are spending their time and there's more content now than ever, so people are spending their time and there's more content now than ever so you know, it's just more chances for someone to become distracted or whatever, which means that's a better opportunity for us to put the stuff that we really want to put out there for people to see and not worry so much about the numbers but worry on the quality of relationship that we're building.

Speaker 1: 10:43

Social media is fantastic for showcasing your personality. You don't need to be some influencer type, you just need to be yourself, because social media is built in the environment it's built in. Only having your audience on social media is scary because what we've talked about this whole episode it's very unstable because of the goals of the platform to increase their ad revenue, to keep people on the platform, and they don't have the creator in mind, because it's built on user-generated content of people posting dog videos, of news, of all these things. Right To think, oh, this platform is here for me because I'm a creator? No, not really. It's there for people's interests. If you're not leading your audience to a platform off of social media, ie your email list, you're doing yourself a huge disservice, because social media is just the appetizer.

Speaker 1: 11:36

That's where you tease your longer content to lead them to somewhere else, to share your bite-sized wisdom, showcase your personality, to build the relationships. But that's not the main course, right? That's where it's flawed Thinking that social media is the main course. The main course is in the conversations you have inside your community or through emails. You know longer conversations through live events that you do through face-to-face interactions. How old school is that? You never know right?

Speaker 1: 12:05

Or your podcast, where there's a chance to go deeper, because the average talking head style social media video is around 75 to 150 words and that's it. And then you put it out to the world. People comment on it their opinion or how they disagree or they agree, and they move on to the next piece of content opinion or how they disagree or they agree and they move on to the next piece of content. That is not a real relationship. But your podcast can form more of a parasocial relationship, which, again, you can do that in snippets on social media, but not at the length, because relationships are not at the speed of chat, gpt. They take time. They take time to build and long form content like what you're listening to right now is one of the ways that you and I are building a relationship because if you listen this far, you're understanding more of my opinion.

Speaker 1: 12:51

I couldn't put this like. I'm putting it to you now on social media, on Instagram, you could get a snippet of it, but how you're hearing me talk, all these little nuances helps you form a relationship with me better. Talk, all these little nuances, helps you form a relationship with me better, and when we have a real interaction, it's like I'm leaving you a long voicemail. You know what I mean. You're a creator. You're using social media. Keep moving people off of social media to an email list, to your podcast, to somewhere else other than just social media, and you'll develop deeper relationships with people. Don't just see social media as the place where you're going deep. I'll talk to you in the next one.