Losing your audience's attention? These three S's will help you

As an Expert Professional sometimes you feel like you are loosing your audience's attention: using more of these S's will help:

Straightforward Slow Simple

As an expert we are often dealing with subjects / topics / challenges that could be challenging and we are trying to work out how to present our best solution to our audience. Often the assumptions we make about our audiences are not very helpful in our efforts to grab their attention:

When I speak and write, I often find it useful to remind myself about these key aspects of how of my audience experiences my words (lest I lose them in my passion for my subject?) and I find this maxim most useful when I choose my words:

Make it Straightforward. Keep it Simple. Take it Slow. LinkedIn Maxim No. 76

1) Make it Straightforward

Our audience usually don’t have the time required to pay attention properly: so you have to make it easier for them:

1. make sure the words in the beginning of your post or presentation address the key silent questions your audience will ask: i.e. make it obvious that they should pay attention (see the separate section below with the detailed list of silent questions that are key to first acquiring your audiences attention)
2. The application (relevance) of your content needs to be obvious to your audience
3. you also have to overcome (compete with?) the constant distraction and interruption that your audience experience in the modern world

Other words to think of here in terms of how to approach this include Obvious (as in make it obvious)

2) Keep It Simple:

Chances are your audience are not “the expert you are”: so it’s best to assume you are writing / speaking to a "ten year old" (without telling them that / patronizing them) and adjust your content accordingly:

1. Start at the beginning of the topic - so that you bring your audience with you on the journey of understanding from step 1
2. Don’t assume prior knowledge of the topic on the part of your audience
3. All while making your words interesting enough so that your audience pay attention to the end thereby receiving the full value of your expertise

{Side note: "ten year olds" are usually a very discerning audience: they can detect "insincerity" from a mile away which is a good context to consider when delivering your message in}

Other words to think of here in terms of how to approach this include Basic (as in keep it basic)

3) Take it Slow:

Accents, Abbreviations and the like complicate our audiences ability to get our messages so it’s often useful to consider you are addressing an audience who’s first language is not English (even if it is): and therefore it may help to begin with these principles in your post / presentation

1. Slow Down (which means the audience doesn't need to understand all of the topic / subject from the get go: just give them the first few points and then they will come back for more then they are ready. Your audience dont measure the value of your content by the number of words you use but rather by how much change they can implement immediately based on what they have just heard / read)
2. Use Fewer Words (your audience will pay you more the fewer words you use: LinkedIn Maxim No. 18
3. and words that are less complex

The overall principle is assume your are talking / writing for "ten year olds" (just don’t say that)

And that this is an exercise in

Celebrating the joy of learning rather than the serious business of educating

“We learn most in moments of enjoyment” Ralph Smedley (founder of Toastmasters)

You can adjust your message (the words you use) as your audience get to know you better i.e. when they are a clients ?? mainly because then you have more of their attention and they have more time (and interest) in absorbing your content (your expertise).

{Side Note: If your audience understand your area of expertise almost as well as you do, then chances are they are not your audience for they are your peers and that is an entirely different conversation}

4) Your Audience asks these Silent Questions of you

Before your audience really engage their full attention they ask three silent questions

1. Me: Are you talking to me? (and not anyone or everyone)
2. Challenge: What is the challenge being addressed by your post or presentation? Is that challenge relevant or interesting to me?
3. Solution: Give me a hint of the solution you are going to share so that I can see if I am excited enough about the possibility of learning more about that solution to read / listen further

By silent question I am referring to the questions that your audience ask in their head (i.e. not out loud) which as an author (and speaker) you have to answer quickly and effectively if you want to hold their attention ... otherwise they just switch off (and or keep scrolling)

Its the quick version of WIFFM (What's In It for Me?)

One of the best Speaking Coaching I ever meet (Ed Tate) described it like this: When your audience is considering listening to you they are having this silent reaction / conversation ("So what! Who cares! What is in it for me?!?")

Side Note: sometimes when you experience the sensation that you may be loosing your audience, it may not all be about you: maybe this is the wrong audience: if your explanation of how to knit the perfect jersey isn't gripping them maybe they just aren't knitters so consider that the solution might be changing your audience rather than changing your words

5) Speaking versus Writing: How strangers feel about your message

This Maxim is even more valuable when writing content for publications than when you deliver the same message by speaking in a live environment because when you speak you can "auto correct" to adjust to this specific audience in this specific moment as you are delivering your message if it doesn't quite seem to land. You dont have this luxury when you are publishing the written word as you cant see the audience experience & expressions the way you can when you speak. So when you write especially for social media then

Make it Straightforward. Keep it Simple. Take it Slow.

If you want your audience to pay you some maybe don’t leave them guessing the reason why they should pay you some attention.

6) More useful assumptions to make about your audience

These are probably more useful assumptions to make about your audience, that although tey are similar to you

1. They are more like "ten year olds" in terms of their understanding of the topic that interests them (and the subject of your expertise
2. They are not the expert you are
3. Their first language is possibly not English

If you would like to explore more ways to connect more effectively with your audience when you post or present then connect with me on LinkedIn