Hilary Billings
“The psychology of attention, especially with short-form video, boils down to a study of curiosity,” says Hilary Billings.
Billings is an attention expert who knows how to leverage curiosity. A former Miss Nevada, journalist, on-camera host, and TV producer, Billings has also worked with national traditional media outlets including USA Today, E! News, and Extra! Entertainment Television.
As a marketing strategist, she has worked with a gamut of high-performing entrepreneurs, including billionaires, Victoria’s Secret models, and New York Times best-selling authors to parlay curiosity into positive exposure. She teaches clients that curiosity is a powerful ally.
“Curiosity is like an itch,” said Billings in a recent phone interview. “It’s a force that grabs hold of us and demands to be scratched. In order to survive, our brains continuously attempt to predict the future. Thus, our brain knows that if it knows what’s going to happen next, it can plan accordingly.”
Billings says the key to curiosity is that it comes from the gap. Shaped like a bell curve, curiosity is at its weakest when it either has no information or all the information. So, in order to earn views as a content creator, you must learn how to present just the right type and amount of information at the right time.
Here are three core ways she advises to create curiosity for your viewer:
An unexpected change. “Often referred to as a ‘pattern interrupt,’ this is a piece of content that subverts the brain’s expectations and forces it to ask the question, ‘What’s going on here?’” says Billings. “When scrolling through our social media feeds, we’ve unwittingly created expectations. We have an idea of what will be presented to us when we open the app. So, when we run across someone dumping ice cream into the sound hole of a guitar—we pause. Not only were we not expecting that, we’ve never seen it before. Our brain forces us to keep watching so it can answer the question, ‘What’s happening here?’”
A gap in information. “Once the brain has posed this question, it shifts into solution mode,” says Billings. “It might notice a caption that reads ‘Best Sundae Ever.’ Now, it knows we’re building an ice cream sundae, but it can’t quite envision the final product. This makes you keep watching. We know where we started (ice cream in a guitar), and we know roughly where we’re going (best sundae ever), but we don’t know how we get there. It’s a puzzle the brain must solve.”
A new take on something familiar. “Though not necessary to trigger curiosity, we will hand our attention over to something that feels new, but is also tied to something we already care about,” says Billings. “This is why cat videos will never die and why celebrities gain massive followings before even making a single post. If you’re not a cat, or a celebrity, you can still tap into what your audience already cares about. In fact, you have to. There’s a reason why every fitness magazine can use the headline, ‘5 New Ways To Get Great Abs,’ ad infinitum.”
The next time you’re sitting down to shoot a video for social media or to craft an ad, Billings says to ask yourself these three questions:
How can I present this in a way that hasn’t been done before?
How can I tease the beginning and end without giving away the middle?
How can I tap into something my audience already cares about?
Billings is also a popular viral video creator and strategist who grew from zero to 400,000 followers on TikTok in 40 days. She is cofounder and CEO of Attentioneers, where she leads a creative agency to help clients grow revenue and reach through viral short-form videos. A sought-after business speaker, she’s shared the stage with William Shatner and Bon Jovi.
