Two Keys to Keeping An Audience’s Attention

You have just 30 seconds.

In 2010 a group of researchers from at The Catholic University in Washington, D.C. performed a study to understand precisely how long a lecturer had before students stopped paying attention. The result was 30 seconds.

That’s half a minute. That’s the length of some commercials.

If you are someone to has spent hours preparing a speech, lesson, or sermon, hearing this can be quite disheartening. As a presenter you WANT this time to be valuable to your audience, rather than your voice serving as background noise while they crush candy on their phones.

So how do we, as presenters delivering speeches, lessons, sermons, etc. stand a better chance of having the audience with us for more than 30 seconds? Here are two keys that can help you get, and keep, your audience’s attention. Since speeches involve both content and delivery, I will offer one key for each major segment.

DELIVERY: BE ENGAGING

Some view the idea of engaging as a personality trait that one simply does or does not have. And, to be fair, one’s personality will certainly influence their ability to be engaging. Yet, even the most soft-spoken, reserved individual can be an engaging presenter if they work on specific elements of their presentation style.

Intentional familiarity with your introduction so that you can look to your audience rather than your manuscript, beginning with energy that indicates you want to be there, and looking into the eyes of audience members can go a long way towards meaningful engagement.

CONTENT: SHOW YOUR AUDIENCE WHY THEY SHOULD CARE

A major mistake many presenters make is to assume their audience is invested in what they are about to say. This is a topic I address directly in my book about preaching since preachers are notorious for this mistake.

Yes, your audience is rooting for you to succeed, but mainly because they don’t want to be bored. Some of the first statements you make should indicate why this talk matters to them. Some potential ways to do this include:

Identifying a shared experience that can help them relate.
“Have you been to the DMV and it feels as though they need your birth certificate, social security card, three pieces of mail, a notarized Nolan Ryan baseball card, and an original copy of the Declaration of Independence? Well if you can understand that feeling you can relate to what I’m about to address today.”
Generate tension by asking a question or addressing a problem.
Internally, we all want to resolve tension when it arises. This is why we get frustrated when an episode of our favorite shows has a cliffhanger forcing us to wait until we can find out the result. Interjecting even a moderate amount of tension or “stakes” into your talk can cause your audience to sit up and want to hear more. Some ways to do this include:Ask a question (e.g. “You’ve been told the cold war is over, so why is there such animosity between the United States and Russia today?”), orIdentify an acknowledged problem (e.g. “According to a March 2023 report by the US Treasury, Social Security funds will be depleted by 2034.”)

Yes, a great deal more can be said about introductions, but these two keys should get you started on the right track to overcoming that 30-second window and increasing your chances that they will really want to hear what you have to say.