Working with the internet, there are certain trends that you see over and over. Unfortunately for brands, one of the most common trends is for the excitement about your site, content, or promotion to wane over time. Whenever I talk about this phenomenon, I describe the graph this behavior makes if you plot interest over time. The easiest way to describe the graph is like a slide at a children’s playground. At first interest climbs up and up until it reaches the top of the stairs; but then it peaks and slides down and down until it reaches the ground. This happens with every product launch, every promotion, and every new piece of content that spreads virally. The only thing that ever changes is how long the initial growth lasts, how high the overall interest grows, and how long it takes for interest to peter out to just about nothing.

I see this graph every where I look. This very graph describes the rapid rise and fall of Google+ in the two and half months since its launch; it describes the number of tweets about Bin Laden’s death within the first 48 hours of the story breaking; it describes the first week of site visits to the virally successful groupmeh site we built this past spring. But as I’ve become more acquainted with this simple but brilliant graph, I’ve even begun to see it off-line. Think back to any short-lived relationship you’ve had. Think back to your listening behavior of a new favorite musical album. Think back to how often you went to the gym after signing up for a new membership. I’m beginning to think that this graph doesn’t just represent digital interest, but rather it represents human interest in general. We’re simply creatures with a high amount of enthusiasm for new things, but with relatively short attention spans.

The world doesn’t spin on its axis any faster than it used to, but it certainly feels like everything in life is moving faster and changing faster than ever before. What that means for the interest graph is that the time part of the graph is getting more and more compressed, while simultaneously the height of the peak is getting higher and higher. For brands who are trying to reach people with high expectations and low attention spans, the task at hand isn’t easy. As important as it is to deliver exceptional products, content, and experiences, you’re only as relevant as your last release is fresh. There is no easy fix, but I think brands should focus on consistency. Produce content and experiences consistently with a high level of quality. Set expectations that you can consistently meet. And provide experiences that leave your customers and fans consistently satisfied. By introducing new ideas frequently and regularly, it doesn’t change human behavior to be any less fickle, but it lets the overlapping interest graphs begin to resemble a more consistent smooth line.