Is Your Content Worth Someone’s Attention?

Getting attention takes creativity. Rewarding attention builds trust.

Everyone wants attention. But there’s a more interesting question than how to get people to click:

What do they get in return?

A website, newsletter, video, or social post is one touchpoint in an ongoing relationship. Each one is a chance to offer something useful, memorable, or meaningful.

Here are two approaches that make this point.

1. Give people something real to believe in.

Robert Rose, chief strategy advisor at the Content Marketing Institute, made a sharp observation about AI:

In other words, AI can help us explore, organize, and express ideas. But it can’t be the witness. Only people bring the firsthand experience that gives communication its substance.

So the most valuable content often starts with something only you or your clients know: a hard-earned lesson, an unexpected discovery, a customer story, or a distinctive point of view.

Try this: Look at your website’s About page or your last newsletter. Could someone else in your field say essentially the same thing?

If so, what’s one story only you could tell?

2. Give people something worth experiencing.

Visit Carlsbad, the tourism bureau for Carlsbad, California, earned millions of organic video views by bringing online pen pals together in person at the town’s famous Flower Fields.

Instead of simply promoting a destination, they created an experience that people wanted to share.

That’s a creative challenge for any business, and one worth taking on.

What could you help your audience experience, rather than tell them about?

It doesn’t have to be elaborate. A short demonstration, a useful interactive tool, a revealing customer conversation, or an unexpected visual story can make a lasting impression.

A 30-second content check

Before publishing your next piece of content, ask:

• Useful: Will someone learn something they can apply?
• Distinctive: Is there something here they couldn’t get from a dozen other sources?
• Human: Does it reveal genuine experience, perspective, or care?

You don’t need to check all three boxes every time. But if you can’t check even one, why publish it?

The Connection Engine takeaway

AI gives us more ways to create and communicate than ever before. But possibilities alone don’t make communication valuable.

That takes curiosity, creative judgment, and a willingness to ask ourselves tough questions.

Here’s how real relationships get built:

• Getting attention takes creativity.
• Rewarding attention builds trust.

And trust is what brings people back.

So, did this newsletter reward your attention?

Either way, I’d love to hear from you. What was useful, what stayed with you, and what would make the next edition more worthwhile?

P.S. Speaking of giving people something worth experiencing: I recently hosted a live demo of Life By Decade, the personal history timeline app I built, with executive coach and management consultant Helene Roos. Helene started her timeline this summer and couldn’t stop. I also showed my own timeline publicly for the first time. Watch the replay.