AIDA: The Cure for the 8-second Attention Span

Scenario: You have an idea. You need to put out content. You don't have a lot of time to plan out something strategically.

It’s fine. The idea of focusing on your personal brand is not meant to add stress to your life. It's the opposite, in fact. And the more you work on it, the more natural it will become.

As long as you are careful in planning out most of your content with an eye to creating your identity, say, 75-85% in the beginning, you'll be in good shape. Banging off a few quick blog or media posts every now and then is no big deal.

But you still have to overcome the most-content-is-boring-AF hurdle. Luckily, there's a tool for that: AIDA

AIDA is an acronym copywriters have used for decades as a guide for creating engaging content. It stands for: Attention, Interest, Desire & Action. In short, these are the responses you want to invoke in your reader, in this order, to get them to take an action you want them to take.

For copywriters, that’s often visiting a website, placing an order, clicking for more info… or maybe just thinking of the brand when you have a it solves.

When building your personal brand, you still want your content to inspire some sort of action. Visit your site so they can learn more. Leave a like or comment. Think of you as an expert on a topic. Better yet, “hire me!”

First,  determine what the action is. Then let AIDA be your guide.

Attention: This is the duty of the headline and/ or visual. It's sole job is to get you to read the first line. Period. (A note here: avoid clickbait. Yes, it gets page views, but your goal is to get them to take an action at the end. If you trick them, you lose their trust. No trust, no action.)

Interest: The goal of the first line is to compel them to read the second line. Nothing interests people more then themselves. Data is boring, unless it impacts me. Scientific jargon is meaningless… unless it deepens the meaning of something I'm already fascinated by. News about celebrities? Booooorrringgg. Wait, except for that celebrity who played that character I loved. And that jerk who broke his or her heart. And that other jerk he or she had a flame war with ten years ago.

To make any information intriguing,  make it about your audience or something they care about to reel them in.

Desire: Use their interest to generate desire for an outcome. To do this, you have to paint a picture of their life, improved in some way. It doesn't have to be huge. If you want a “like,” deliver meaningful content in an interesting way, and let them know that a like will encourage you to make more content like this. Your content should seek to build up emotional leverage. It can be funny. It can be scary. It can be inspiring. It can anger them or tug at their heart strings. But you should be intentionally building up a reservoir of this energy, all leading to a single event.

ACTION: At the end, you want to provide a single outlet for all of the emotional energy.

“If you like this content, let me know!”

“If you're looking for someone who knows how to [whatever], I’d love to speak with you and see if I’d be a good fit with your team."

The action you’re asking them to take should be framed in a way that makes it as simple and easy as possible.

Psychologically, “I need you to like, share and subscribe” is three separate actions. “Let me know you like this! It's easy as hitting like, share and subscribe!” is one action with three subtasks. It might seem like a silly distinction, but it makes a real difference.

Just understand, you have to earn the action. The desire you build will have to have enough emotional energy to match the physical and/or psychological energy they'll have to expend to take the action you want them to take.

Don't take this example literally, but as an illustration of degrees along the desire/action spectrum, “5 Reasons I'm Not As Boring As I Look" might get you a like. A phone call, however, will require “101 Ways I'll Knock Your Socks Off!”

Put It Into Practice

Now that you have an understanding, if the parts, executing on this is really simple.

1. Write a line summarizing what you want to talk about

2. How is this going to impact my audience? What visual/ headline can I use to communicate this?

3. What's the most interesting thing about what I'm trying to tell them?

4. Why would they take the action I want them to take at the end? What emotions can I tap into as I relate this info to make the payoff with it?

5. What is the simplest way I can allow them to accomplish what I want accomplished.

That's it. You can write about whatever you want. Even if you don't get all the pieces right, thinking about these factors as you go will make your piece better, helping you avoid rambling or getting lost in the weeds.

In the end, what you’re really doing here is thinking about your audience while you write… which is the true difference between good writers and everyone else.