So let me level set here. At the time of this writing, I have around 4500 friends and followers on Facebook, 4500 connections and 3500 followers on LinkedIn, and probably another 1000 people who are unique on Bluesky, Instagram, and Threads. I think it's safe to say that I am connected to over 10,000 individual people across all of the social media platforms that I choose to participate in.

Do all those people really see what you post… or, better yet, care when you don't?

So I decided to create a little experiment. More accurately, that experiment was thrust upon me. I got sick.

I Go Boom

A couple of weeks ago, on Monday, I felt a little ill but mostly tired. Kim and I agreed that I had caught the flu. That was until around 2 am when I got up to go to the bathroom. The next thing I know, I am on the floor, blood everywhere (I hit my head on the cabinets or floor), and I scream for Kim, “KIM? I Go Boom!” She awoke to a crime scene and a dazed and confused husband. Not what you want at 2 am.

Needless to say, she called 911, cleaned me up as best as she could, and waited. The EMTs checked me, threw me in the back of a box truck, and dumped me off at the nearest ER. Kim had to stay home with Layla since she is still going through heartworm protocol.

Once they got me in, I was positioned in the middle of the ER with 20 or so other people who could not get rooms. I found out there were over 40 people admitted to the hospital who were awaiting a room.

After a CT scan showed no brain bleed, I was admitted and given a room in Emergency (albeit temporarily). I was given the choice of staples or hair weave to close the gaping hole in my head. I chose the option that did not need to create more holes to fix one hole.

After a short stay in the emergency room, I was moved to a holding area for people waiting for rooms (which I was never allotted).

Houston, We Have a Problem

I was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection, which turned into a kidney infection, which turned into a blood infection (Sepsis). This was my second bout with this. The first one landed me in the ICU. This one was manageable with fluids and antibiotics. So I was in good hands.

The problem was that the EMTs had only grabbed me, not my emergency cables (go figure), so I could not charge my electronics. My watch was dead by morning, and my phone was at 30% or so (with help from the nurses). Watching a video or taking a few phone calls, and she would be dead. So I had to manage both my health and my technology. My life and business were on a tight lifeline, with limited access to technology.

I am lucky I built a team. I just needed to alert them of my situation, and they could autonomously get things done without the need for my approval. There has been a level of trust built that everyone knew what our clients wanted and how to effectively communicate on their behalf.

That did not make up for the fact that I could not look at the news, my project management sites, and could only text with a few phone calls before my phone would shut down.

Attention

We all know the posts we get flow through an algorithm, and I feel real-time communications is a mix of current and future audience views. I was off social media from midnight Monday till late Thursday.

On any given day, I wish people a personal Happy Birthday on Facebook and LinkedIn, post a motivation quote on five platforms, post my Wordle Score on Facebook, and do a nightly Caption Contest on Facebook. That is a lot of daily posts that I do with consistency.

Other than the people who'd been alerted that I was in the hospital, only two people reached out to ask if I was OK. I am sure many wanted to but did not want to be a pest, but out of 10,000 people, that's still a really small number to direct message me.

That shows me that most of the information I post is simply attention content. We live in an attention economy, and keeping people's attention is a premium. Consistent posting keeps people aware, but does nothing to get them to take action. I have not asked or taught them to do anything but consume, remember me, and move on.

There is no instruction, incentive, or directive to do anything with intention.

Intention

When you ask someone to do something, sometimes they will, especially if they feel that it has value to them. We intend to do that when we create blogs, videos, and educational content. Our intention is to get people off the social media platform and onto our own space (website). If we keep people on social media, we have their attention, but chances are, they will just move on to another article or post.

By getting them onto our own platform, we can ask them to contact us, read more, or download something, which allows us (as opposed to that social media platform) to collect information, data, and more.

This works even when we are advertising on LinkedIn. The posts we advertise are teasers for people to click and read more. Our clients can see as many as 250,000 impressions (attention) to receive 250 clicks (intention). Although it is a small click-through rate, in the B2b space, the cost per conversion is still under $1 per lead. Those 250 clicks often turn into 25 additional actions like contact us, read more, or download something. As little as one conversion to a sale can lead to a 10:1 ROI based on advertising costs per result per month (but often far exceeds that number on average).

Closing Thought

We tend to like bigger numbers when it comes to marketing, but often it's the small number that shows how capturing attention and converting to our intention is the real number we need to pay attention to.

I never intended for people to reach out and ask how I was doing. All I would have to do is post a picture, and I would have hundreds of messages saying, “What's wrong?” or “Heal fast!” I neither had the attention span nor the technological juice to deal with all that!

By the way, I gave my transport a 3-star review for the quality of the people but a lack of amenities. I gave my room rental only 2 stars for inconsistent service and the paper (linen) thin walls!

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Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about business-to-business sales and marketing today! Do you have a sales or marketing communications strategy that works for you? What tips or techniques can you share that work for you and your business?

To learn more about this and other topics on B2b Sales & Marketing, visit our podcast website at The Bacon Podcast.