I was recently reading a post on LinkedIn, a popular business networking site.  The post was an answer to a blogging question – the post explained that the new “millennium generation” has a very short attention span.

I would suspect resulting from a mass of information, quick television ads, computers, cell phones, and all the other technology that seems to whip past us at light speed, caused this short attention span.

Leading to applications such as Twitter and other Live Web sites.

Maybe Twitter limits its posts to 140 characters because that is the limit of peoples attention span nowadays?

The writer went on to say that not only do people not have time to thoroughly read much in depth, but with tweets popping up every 10 seconds, they basically have to extreme multi-task just to keep up.

How do they do it?

They scan very quickly.  Unless it is something that directly relates to their interest or job function, people now give about 2 seconds to scan a post or tweet to see if it warrents further examination.  Even if your post IS interesting, if it comes in the middle of an extreme scan by a reader, it still might get passed over.

So, as a blogger or business owner, how can you get your message out to the new attention span audience?

Keep your introductions short.  Keep your tweets short, succinct, and to the poing.

People tend to notice messages that are new, different, and exciting.

Of course, it depends who your target audience is, and what your call to action is (what action you would like your reader / customer to do when they get to your site or store).

What is your attention span?  Post a comment and let the world know.

Immediate Advertising?

This is the second in a series on the Live Web and your business.

It’s coming… yet another marketing path to push your business to the next level.

I’ve been posting about the latest branch of the internet – the “Live Web”, as brought to us by the application Twitter and other immediate information applications.

I told you in my last post how this will help your business – so here it is.

I was driving home last night, and, while sitting in traffic, was noticing the many billboards that crowd the sides of the highway.  I don’t typically look at billboards – with most advertising media, they are pretty much invisible to most people.  There is so much of it, we get advertising overload, and ignore the bulk of it.

But last year, one company put up one of the first digital billboards around Atlanta.  It is pretty much just another billboard – but it is NEW, and it stands out.  I can’t tell if I notice it more because of the brightness of it, the changing images, or the random pictures they put up there to fill in the gaps between paying advertisers.  Some of the images are very nice!

Last night, one specific ad caught my attention.  It read “Today only, 99 cent doughnuts!”

Wow.  I love doughnuts.  That was not what sparked my interest, though.  It was the Live Advertising.  With digital media, you can update your advertising on-the-fly.  Incredible, if you think about it.

Imagine sending out an ad on a platform such as Twitter:

• “50 cent coffee for the next half hour at Jon’s Java Hut!”
• “Buy one get one free until noon at Betty’s Bakery Palace!”
• “Free dog grooming for the first 10 customers at The Dog House!”

Do you get the idea?  Immediate advertising, immediate feedback, immediate customers.

Get your entrepreneurial thoughts running full speed on this one – and get ready for it.

What type of advertising can you see working on this Live Web platform?  Comment and let me know!