Contrary to the misconception that storytelling that captures attention is an art of trial and error, I saw patterns that prove the art is, in fact, a science with specific underlying frameworks.

But since the attention span of the average human—especially on social media—is about 10 seconds, how then do we capture that attention?

In addition to my LinkedIn post analysis, I ran repeated experiments with a stopwatch and discovered that it takes about 12 seconds to read a sentence of about 36 words.

What does this mean for you as a founder trying to build authority in your sector? Before you build authority, you first need to capture people’s attention, right?

Now, back to my content analysis.

I found that the best content creators on LinkedIn, knowingly or unknowingly, implement the Move, Earn, and Spark framework—a method I first discovered through Sonia Simone in her class The Strategy of Content Marketing by the University of California.

Let’s break it down.

Move: This addresses how you can trigger the neurochemical and behavioral reactions of your audience when they come across your content so they pay attention to you for just about 10 seconds.

Triggering what I call the scroll-stop reflex of your audience should happen—in the case of a write-up—in less than 36 words. If your article has a title, this should be the hook in the headline. If not, you must find a way to infuse it within the visible letters before the “see more” cutoff.

Earn: Triggering the scroll-stop reflex of your audience does not mean you have earned their undivided attention. In fact, you are more likely to lose them as quickly as you gained them.

This is where emotionally focused storytelling comes into play. Since research shows that people exposed to empathy-building stories behave more cooperatively and are more likely to give (in our case buy, subscribe, or engage), you’ll want to tap into that human nature by binding them with deep and relatable stories in your article.

Spark: Once you have earned their attention through empathetic storytelling, you now have to ensure you spark them into taking some form of action.

This means that as a founder, almost all your personal-leaning content should have a goal directly or indirectly linked to your company’s mission (subscription, website visit, purchase). Your CTA should be strong enough to compel them to take action toward that goal.