A recent story about small business marketing had an interesting twist.

"Phones start ringing at the Farmington Hills, Michigan, salon each time co-owner Miranda Jade Plater posts pictures on photo-sharing app Instagram.

Would-be customers call to book appointments or ask questions about hair extensions she posts."

PAYING FOR ATTENTION

To boost Limelight Extensions' followers, Plater pays local models and reality show stars to promote the company on their accounts.

Payment is either a percentage of sales, a flat rate or free hair.

In return, they post photos of themselves wearing the extensions with a link back to Limelight Extensions' Instagram account.

The company has more than 27,000 followers."

Does your spouse tell you "You don't listen" or " You don't pay attention"?  I know my wife does.

"Pay attention" is something I continually say to my young son.  

Our daughter, on the other hand, wants me to pay attention to her.

Pay Attention.  Pay for Attention

It got me thinking.  Why do some professionals write interesting articles & upload  them to their website, if nobody is paying attention?

Do they think that by uploading an article with an file transfer protocol program, FTP, they are now "publishers"?  Maybe they do.  I don't know.

Neither you or I would go to a trade show to give a talk, if we knew that there was no one in the audience.  Nobody would be paying attention.  So, we wouldn't bother.

Pay Attention. Pay for Attendees.

So if you are writing to get your name out there, why do you bother if you aren't getting the attention you deserve?

Let's face it - the people on Facebook and Twitter don't actually want to read.  They aren't paying attention to articles you write, they are too busy doing something else.  

And, the people who you could do business with are on LinkedIn.  

LinkedIn users like to read.

Pay Attention.  Paying for Attention?

If you think about it, attention is a type of currency.  You can pay someone with attention, or you can pay for attention.  

And most of us want more attention, especially for the ideas we have written about.

Who is Paying You Attention?

Here is a typical picture of the traffic or readers to a professional's website -(Law Firm's name removed to protect the innocent).

Now, this isn't so good - not even being the top 1 million of popular websites.  

Nobody is paying attention to this law firm.

Which is really too bad because the firm has some very good articles on franchising.  Thoughtful and topical.

So Why Not Pay for Attention, Instead?

If you have spent two or three hours researching, writing & revising your article, that article is worth $750 - $1,000 of your time.  Why not pay an extra $80.00 and get the attention you deserve?

When you want more clients, get Franchise-Info Key Partner Marketing Program before your competitors do!

(Or are you doing so well you don't need more clients? I know I need more clients!)

You write content & Franchise-Info distributes your content to our many LinkedIn Readers.

How does that help you?

Well, remember that nobody was paying attention to you on your website?

Now, look at who is looking at our Franchise Info updates last month ending June 22nd, 2014.

Ok, we are seeing between 20,000 to 30,000 impressions daily, between Monday and Friday!

So, when you want more clients, get Franchise-Info Key Partner Marketing Program before your competitors do!