Nov 03, 2016 05:22 AM EDT By Emily Marks, UniversityHerald Reporter

There is a lot of competition for the attention of the younger generation of consumers. A 17-year-old entrepreneur has figured out what companies are missing from their marketing.

Inc. reported that Connor Blakley, an entrepreneur, a Fortune 500 consultant and a renowned speaker was able to identify what a lot of brands get wrong about customer engagement. The 17-year-old entrepreneur noted that businesses fail to make an emotional connection with its customers.

Blakley shared a story of when he and his friends hung out in his basement one night. Everyone turned to social media to check out what happened while they were playing basketball all day.

Connor noticed that his friends were scrolling through their social media feeds so fast and only paused to pay attention to something that they found interesting. "I suddenly realized, the attention graph for consumers is decreasing rapidly," he said.

He believes, though, that the problem goes both ways. A lot of brands don't know how to tell a good story while the customers' attention span has decreased.

"We want nothing more than to be engaged with as a human," he noted. "We want to know 'the why.' Stir up our emotions. Tell a story."

He acknowledged that older generation may value this type of engagement as much as younger ones. The millennial and Generation Z attention graph on social media is much smaller so businesses have a very small margin for error. This is why they need to ensure that they do it right.

One way to be able to stir the hearts of millennial customers may be to ask them this question: "What is your dream?" It was reported that this question can motivate millennials to talk about their passion and aspirations in life.

"One thing I always say is that it is easier to sell to a friend than it is to a stranger," Connor added. "Being human is so important. So often through social platforms we see companies selling, selling, and selling some more...Nothing is cooler than when a personal brand or company replies or acknowledges your comment or engages with something you're interested in."

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