The Great Goldfish Attention Span Myth

& What it Means for Engagement

Jason A MillerGlobal Content Marketing Leader at LinkedIn

Humans Have Shorter Attention

Span Than Goldfish, Thanks to Smartphones

You Now Have a Shorter

Attention Span Than a Goldfish

The Eight-Second Attention Span

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Digital media isn’t killing

attention spans

What we actually know about attention spans

Smartphones aren’t

killing attention spans

We’re better than ever at

processing and encoding

information through short

bursts of high attention

We use our attention

far more efficiently

than at any other

point in history

We’re far better at multi-tasking,

able to divide our attention among

several different things without

compromising our focus

The main focus of our more

efficient attention is to find content

that’s worth paying attention to for

a longer period of time

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The messy truth

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The new model

a long-form

blog

31 millionunique visitors

acquired

87 millionpage views

through

80 articles

that average over

2,000words each

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Power Pages(How to, What is)

Strong Opinions(Editorial)

Research

We:

+242%

Increase in unique page

views

+128%

Increase in Total Shares

+146%

Increase in Avg. Time on

Page

+67%

Increase in Ave. Shares

-8%

Decrease in Bounce Rate

312%

Increase

YOY in Organic

Sessions

2017 vs 2016

We are posting

less, but traffic

and conversions

go up.

We believed anything worth doing is

worth over-doing.”“

Localisation

6 Blogs (3 French/ 3 Spanish)

34k Page Views

8 Minute Average Time on Site

Rich media images have 38% higher CRT than

linkshare updates with a thumbnail image preview

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VS

“Guide” saw a

100% increase

in click through

rate (CTR).

Image with

quote saw a

30% lift in CTR

vs. image

without quote.

Image with a

face saw

+160% CTR,

+290% CVR

vs. image

without face.

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Background color

Does woodgrain feel more authentic, or provide more

visual interest? Either way, the post with the darker

wood background saw 32% more clicks than a lighter,

white background.

+32%clicks

Test Creative Placement to Draw a Reader’s Eye

Can you spot the difference? In one image, the model is

looking right at the CTA button, subtly drawing readers’

attention to it. This image saw an 89% increase in clicks

over the other image.

+89%Click-

throughs

5.32%CTR

75%OR

6.19%CTR

61%OR

25%increase in

open rate (OR)

95%increase in

CTR

Running Sponsored Content & InMail Together,

we see:

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95%open rate

“The week that we recorded 95% — we sent 7,086 and recorded 6,743

—

The Death of the One Dimensional Marketer

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The 4 unique band members work together

to deliver an amazing product

Lays

Groundwork

Fuels Content Fuels Demand

Gen

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They consistently deliver content that

their fans want to consume and share.

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Their PR efforts guide their vision

as the hottest band in the world

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Event marketing:

They deliver amazing experiences on tour

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They built a thriving community.

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People want a thrill, people want a spectacle

and people love to be entertained.”

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Thank you

Jason Miller

Group Manager, Content Marketing

@JasonMillerCA

@LinkedInMktg

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