Look I get it. You don't have time. You're busy; I'm busy, everyone is busy. However, you are doing yourself a disservice if you aren't reading past the headlines.
Headlines are great for short attention spans and cliff notes, but not for understanding the importance of the details. You are going to have to take the time to dive deeper into subjects if you want to grow your business and hit that next level.
First, I want to give credit, where credit is due. Gary Vaynerchuk has been preaching this mantra…for years. It isn't new. He knows the difference it makes when you start listening and doing. I say again: Listening and Doing. I said that twice because it is important and bears repeating. If you are simply reading headlines and then acting, you are neither listening or doing. You are taking the easy way out and forgetting that the devil is in the details.
Headlines will tell you that nobody watches more than a two-minute video on Facebook, that Millennials don't want to interact with you, that Snapchat is for kids, and that your older clients don't use social media. All of which, as a narrative, is 100% false. Not only is it false, but it is, in fact, a pile of horse apples. Descriptive, yes, a little over the top, maybe. But I want your attention because this next part is important.
If you have been sucked into the above narrative, don't worry, you are not alone. So has your competition, especially in our industry. If you don't understand how important that last sentence was, then you might be in trouble. Why? Because your competition is WRONG, and if you want to gain attention, if you want to gain market share (punchline is YES, YOU DO), then you go where they aren't. You do the things they won't.
If you read past the headlines and start DOING, you would know that none of those headlines are true. Yes, of course, there are people who don't watch more than 2 minutes of video. But guess what? There are people who don't watch more than 30 seconds and some that don't like video. You cannot bucket people using generalities because that is how you lose market share, not gain it. How do I know? By being a practitioner, by testing, and going deep into these subjects to see the real world results.
Here is what the headlines don't say. If your content is good, people will watch or read or listen, across all demographics, no matter the length or format. It is simply a formula of attention and value. Understand that technology and social media are aging everyone down. The traditional marketing silos of demographics are being blown to pieces because of this.
By going past the headlines, you will see the 82-year-old grandma who only uses FB Messenger (true story), the 75-year-old Real Estate pro who uses Snapchat to coach his agents, and the other industry pros who do long-form blog posts and 15-minute videos that are killing it. Those of us in the industry who understand this and who go all in to capitalize on it will win.
Headline reading means staying inside the box. Not going deep into what is happening because you don't have time to read a few paragraphs will be a death sentence. "TL;DR" is the rallying cry for the lazy. For those of you who want to be different and want to stand out, get into the details. Understand that in today's era of consumerism it is all about listening (attention) and doing (executing).
