You won’t be able to read to the end of this post. At least, that’s the received view nowadays. It’s a commonplace to say, with a sad shake of the head, that people’s attention spans have fallen to such a shockingly low level that 140 characters of text or a few seconds of video are all that anyone can manage. It’s simply not worth writing or recording anything longer.

This, of course, is utter rubbish. How many people watch Strictly? How many people read Harry Potter? How many people go to the movies? We all engage in media consumption that goes way over the supposed thresholds. Admittedly we’re more likely to stop before the end. We live in a world with so many media options that if we’re not satisfied we’ll jump ship. We channel surf, check out a different Twitter account or put a way a boring newspaper in favour of the Internet. But that doesn’t mean that we have shorter attention spans. it merely means that we will no longer put up with m

edia that don’t interest us.

So what’s the key to getting your content read or watched? Big budgets, topical ideas and quality product are of course desirable. But the popularity of home-made content on social media indicates that the key to success isn’t just being a Hollywood studio or a big-name author. Facebook users love a cute kitten but they won’t stop for a wildlife documentary, however well it’s made.

The key term here is “stop”. Social media are consumed in a rapid, shallow way in order to quickly access a wide variety of information. There have always been activities like this. Listening to Radio 4 while cooking. Reading the adverts displayed along a High Street. Flicking through a magazine at the dentist. This is how we behave when looking for content. Sitting down to watch a rented DVD is a whole different ball game. We’ve committed time and money to something and we’ll be annoyed if anyone tries to distract us.

The question is, how do you upgrade the status of your content in people’s minds from What’s That? to Must See?

This, of course, is a very old question with a very old answer: advertising. Movies and TV shows have always had trailers. Books have synopses on the dust jacket. In social media we have to do the same. Re-purposing video content down to a 30-second promo clip for Facebook. Summarising an article into a Tweet rather than just posting a link. Telling people about your product rather than just handing to to them. Get them interested. Get them intrigued. Tease them. Get them ready to switch from browsing to actively watching or reading. They may not have the time at that moment, but if you interest them enough they’ll come back when they do.