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Stop scrolling

Watch someone flick through TikTok reels and you’ll see a repeating pattern:

Lame! -> Flick
Lame! -> Flick
Lame! -> Flick
Oh, what’s that!? -> Stop scrolling !!

Only to discover – usually in a matter of 2-3 seconds – that it’s still kind of lame. So: flick again to continue the loop:

Lame! -> Flick
Lame! -> Flick
Oh, what’s that!? -> Stop scrolling !!

And this time, it’s actually kind of interesting. And before they’ve even noticed it, they’ve watched the reel for 40 seconds.

It’s a very simple principle:

  1. Get their attention
  2. Spark their interest
  3. Only then dive deeper

With presentations it’s much the same, albeit on a very different time scale.

Someone starts their PowerPoint, you think: “Lame!” and tune out to switch your attention to planning your evening.

Another one starts their PowerPoint, you think: “Lame!” and tune out to switch your attention to improving your tennis swing.

Another one starts their presentation, you think: “Oh, what’s that!?” but they land on a generic agenda slide and you go “No, still kind of lame!”

It’s the same principle:

  1. Get their attention
  2. Spark their interest
  3. Only then dive deeper

Your audience’s tolerance to dive deep – and therefore your impact – is limited before you’ve established attention and interest.

Keep lighting the path!

What a like means

When people click the like button on a post, it can mean very different things. For example:

I like that piece.
I like that person.
I want to help them get more visibility.
I want the message to get more visibility.
I need to redo the favor because they liked my post, too.
I want them to see that I clicked like.
I want others to see that I like the post.
Everyone seems to like it so I should like it, too.

What would you add? Which of those apply to your liking habits?

Who you want to become

Social media doesn’t feed you based on who you want to become but based on who you are (according to their data).

And yet, the stuff you consume influences who you become.

Therefore, a good question to ask is whether what social media is feeding you is helping you.

Then, act accordingly.

Fear of missing o…

A couple of things that FOMO, the fear of missing out, helps us with:

What if the world is going crazy about a tennis player who wants to travel to Australia but is refused entry to the country and we don’t know about it.

What if a new word puzzle sets the world in addiction mode and we’re the last to hear about it.

What if a friend has just commented on my picture on Instagram.

What if another friend has just posted an update on her morning routine.

What if someone just sent me a snap.

We better don’t take the risk of missing out on that. So, let’s just quickly check our phone to catch up on things, shall we?

Rather than speak with the person sitting right next to us. Make a personal connection. Embark on a conversation about a topic that’s so much more exciting than we thought as it turns out the person sitting next to us is a real expert in that field.

Fear of missing out is a major component of the fuel that social media brews to hook us up. They brew it so masterfully that they convince us to miss out on a lot of other opportunities without the same level of fear – such as the things that happen offline in the space we’re at right in that moment.

When I enter a workshop room, it’s not uncommon that I have a dozen brilliant people sitting in front of me and not one is talking to the other but all are staring on their phone.

The offline world is not at all good in brewing the same addictive fuel of missing out. Apparently, we fear so much more what we miss out on online that we overlook what we miss out on offline.

It takes conscious effort to act on this.

Speaking up on their behalf

When Simon Sinek or Brené Brown tweet a sentence, it gets them 1000 likes and 100 retweets in a matter of minutes.

When you (or I) tweet the same sentence, it doesn’t work that way.

So, why do people love these words when Sinek or Brown say them but not when you do?

Because you’re a stranger while Sinek and Brown are not. In fact, for many in their audience they are heroes. And as such, they speak up on behalf of their audience. They say out loud their audience’s thoughts.

The appeal of their tweets is not that their audience agrees with the celebrity but the other way around. For the audience, it feels like their hero agrees with them.

And this is why it matters whether you’re a stranger or not. Because nobody cares for when a stranger agrees with them. They don’t know you and so you haven’t earned the right to speak on their behalf.

It’s been the same for the celebrity when she wasn’t famous, yet.

The safest way to earn the right to speak on their behalf is consistency. Show up consistently, speak the truth consistently, capturing your audience’s thoughts consistently. And have a little patience.

Quick in, quick out

The goal of almost all media is to suck you in as quickly as possible and once you’re in to keep you in as long as possible.

Here’s another hilarious post. Oh, and don’t you wanna watch this crazy video? Here are five super useful tips to get rich quick. Wait, don’t go, your friend just commented on this post over here and you should really chime in.

It’s easy to see how that’s in the media’s best interest.

For example, if their interest is to show more ads. Or to keep their audience from spending the time on someone else’s channel.

A different approach is “quick in, quick out”. Get right to the point, deliver it clearly and concisely, and then let them go again.

Sure, they might head over to other people’s channels. Not all of them will come back. But the right ones will. Those who will be frustrated by the slow media, the time sucking media. Those who appreciate that someone values their time.

If you treat this part of your audience well, it will not only be in their best interest but also yours.

(PS: My podcast is 2 minutes per episode. That’s quicker than it takes most other podcasts to even get through the intro.)

Hey, here’s more of what you like

A huge building block to the appeal of social media – and ultimately to their success – is their brilliance in surfacing more of the things we enjoy.

You enjoyed this cooking video? Here are five other awesome recipes to check out. You love Led Zeppelin? Check out these 7 incredible drum riffs from John Bonham.

But also:

You believe X? Here are ten more reasons to believe it.
You hate this guy? Here are 13 other reasons to hate him even more.

The dark side is strong in social media and there’s no easy fix for it.

More of the same leads to more of the same. Whether it’s good or bad. Whether it’s useful or destructive. It gets amplified.

The thing to be aware of is that the control of the stream is with the media. They conclude that you are someone who loves Led Zeppelin and hates this guy. So they show you more of that stuff.

Not because it’s in your best interest. But because it’s in their best interest. It keeps you on their platform so they can show you more ads. And keep you from visiting someone else’s platform.

Most importantly, they don’t feed you based on who you want to be, but based on who you are. Or, more precisely, based on who you are according to their data (which, to be fair, could be a rather accurate representation).

Actually, TikTok has just announced some counteraction “to protect against viewing too much of a content category that may be fine as a single video but problematic if viewed in clusters”.

But ultimately, you should probably not let the media determine your priorities in the first place. Ultimately, you should take control of the pieces you’re going to consume. (And no, this is not a problem that’s only affecting the youth.)

A good place to start is to become aware of the mechanisms by asking “Why are they surfacing this?”

And then to practise saying “no” – either by leaving or by consciously searching for something of your choosing.

But in the end, I feel like an even better approach would be to question whether aimlessly surfing the media is a good use of your time at all.

Oh, and by the way, if you enjoyed this post you might also enjoy … well, I’m going to let you determine that.

A million ways to tell our story

Today, we’ve got a million ways to tell our story. We can tell it on video, audio, or write it down. We can publish it on YouTube, LinkedIn, or Instagram. We can record podcasts or chat live on Clubhouse. We can tweet with 240 characters or write long-from blog posts. We can call on the phone, meet in person or give a speech.

Yet, no matter how we choose to tell our story, one thing always comes first: Making a connection with our audience.

This is not about technology, nor about the format. It’s about empathy, clarity, and caring for our cause. It’s about understanding what matters to our audience and finding the words that make them see.

The beauty of it is this: When we get this right, our story becomes independent of the platform, the format, and the technology. When we get the story right, we’ll be able to tell it on any platform, using the format that fits us best with the technology that we have.

Soll man Vorträge für Twitter optimieren?

Wer heute auf öffentlichen Veranstaltungen präsentiert, muss damit rechnen, dass seine Worte nicht im Vortragsraum bleiben. Twitter und Co. sind selbstverständlich geworden. Viele Konferenzen ermutigen das Publikum dazu, indem sie ihr eigenes Hashtag definieren.

Für die Vortragenden ist das eine Chance, die Reichweite ihres Vortrags deutlich zu steigern. Jochen Mai gab neulich in der Karrierebibel Tipps, um diese Chance optimal zu nutzen, z.B. mit zugespitzten Botschaften, die in einen Tweet passen, oder mit provokanten Bildern, die zum Abfotografieren provozieren, immer versehen mit dem eigenen Twitterhandle, gewissermaßen die neuzeitliche Version des Firmenlogos.

Ich habe einen anderen Vorschlag.

Was würde passieren, wenn Sie sich auf das Publikum vor Ort konzentrieren und ihm einen Vortrag bieten, der so großartig ist, dass es gar nicht auf die Idee kommt zu twittern? Weil Sie das Publikum von der ersten Sekunde in Ihren Bann ziehen, so dass es Ihnen an den Lippen klebt. Weil Sie einen Draht zum Publikum aufbauen und die Zuhörer merken: »Hey, der meint ja mich«. Weil das Publikum viel zu sehr mit Ihren Ideen beschäftigt ist, als dass es an seine Smartphones denken könnte.

Verstehen Sie mich nicht falsch. Machen Sie Ihre Folien so großartig wie möglich, nutzen Sie Humor, provozieren Sie, kommen Sie auf den Punkt, formulieren Sie einprägsame Botschaften. Aber tun Sie es, um dem Publikum eine großartige Präsentation zu bieten, und nicht, um es zu überlisten, Ihre Botschaften zu twittern.

Allerdings: Wenn Sie es so angehen, dann würde es mich doch wundern, wenn das Publikum anschließend nicht über Ihre Präsentation spricht.

Spread the Word

Dr. Michael Gerharz

Dr. Michael Gerharz