Your nonprofit social media audience has permanent toddler brain

We kind of know without being told that social media has broken our brains a little bit. The constant firehose of information and entertainment is leading to shorter attention spans, more trouble regulating our emotions, and increased reward-seeking.

Short attention spans? A tendency to get overwhelmed? Hyper-fixation on jellybeans?

Er, likes. I mean likes, not jellybeans.

It's just that the average social media user is increasingly reminding me of a toddler.

Anyone who has ever cared for a kid under 4 will know that paying attention is not their strong suit. Their minds are noisy (in both a literal and neurological sense). Red plate or blue plate? Did I just hear a dog? Is this bug I found on the floor edible?

The world is constantly presenting them with new, exciting distractions; listening to an adult is not a high priority.

If you want a toddler to do something, yelling instructions at them as they careen past is a wildly ineffective approach.

Yelling instructions on social media is the same.

I know you care deeply about the work that you do (it's one of the reasons I love working with nonprofits!). Whatever your message is, I know it's important. But that doesn't make it as interesting as playdough, or that bit of dirt on the floor, or the next reel your audience is scrolling to.

So if we want our social media audiences to listen, we have to learn talk to them like toddlers.

Not talking down to them. (No one wants you to hear about the "ickle widdle problem" your organization is solving). But talking in a way that gets results, even with a distracted brain.

Your audience didn't come to social media looking for your organization's information. The sooner we, as nonprofits, accept this, the sooner we can stop moaning that no one's listening to us and start figuring out how to make them pay attention anyway.

When I wanted my toddler to put on his shoes, I did not present him with a long list of reasons why shoes were important. I did not follow him around telling him about splinters, reminding him of the time he stubbed his toe, or explaining how it would be very helpful if he could stop and listen for a second because I really, really wanted to tell him something.

I would quickly (and concisely) say: "Buddy - there's a digger outside. Put your shoes on so we can go see."

When your message is up against a nearly endless well of alternative distractions, the only way through is relevance. Don't tell someone why something is important to you. Tell them why it's important to them.

My toddler was not wandering around the house thinking about his shoes. He was thinking about a million other exciting things the world is presenting to him at any given moment.

The fact that I wanted him to put on shoes wasn't interesting. But diggers? Well, diggers were very interesting. Maybe even worth putting on shoes for.

(If someone wanted me to put my shoes on, a digger wouldn't be the best approach. But "come have a drink on the patio" would probably do it.)

If you want your social media followers to pay attention, tell them why your message matters to them--and do it before they get distracted by any of the million other messages at their fingertips.

Communicate your relevancy in the few seconds you get as they careen through your social media living room.

What's in it for your audience? Why should they care?

Can they understand in the few seconds it takes to swipe past?

If not, it's time to start talking to them like the distracted toddlers they actually are.