False promises

Getting attention is easy. Make it bigger, faster, louder, or crazier. And if in doubt, throw money at the problem of making it even more so.

In the past, it was the guiding principle of commercial TV and today, it is the guiding principle in wide parts of the Internet. Look here. No, no, no, don’t switch off … something exciting is about to come. The next post is going to be AWESOME. Stay a little longer, or you’ll miss this. Come on, just one more clip. Look here. STAY HERE!

That may grab your attention, it may not be boring, but it’s still a waste of time.

It’s promise after promise after promise … with the sole purpose of getting your attention. It isn’t even about keeping any of these promises. Because these people will happily promise something greater before they even come to keeping any of the promises.

Until, of course, the next guy comes along who makes an even greater noise with an even greater promise: Come here: This. Is. Going. TO BE AWESOME!!!!!

The better question to ask is: once you have the attention what do you do with it? What promises can you make that you can actually keep?

Because when you keep a promise, it builds trust. And from continuous trust follows loyalty. Which means that I don’t even have to make a noise. People will want to hear from you. People will come back. Because they are going to be tired of all the broken promises.