My post this morning was inspired by comments in Chris Brogan’s latest blogging newsletter. (It’s interesting, Chris has a very successful website and blog, yet has also begun to send out a personal newsletter, explaining that he can handle more personal, introspective subjects there. Sort of retro in this day of twitter, IM, and blogging. But read on…)
Like Chris, I have noticed that my personal reading and writing styles have changed rather dramatically over the years. This evolutionary process has rapidly shifted in the past few years as blogging, social networking, and corporate downsizing have increased. According to surveys, we’re reading more text than we were in the 1990’s, but fewer words per instance. I guess we can interpret that as instead of reading Moby Dick, we’re reading a lot of Facebook entries and text messages.
My own writing skills come from a time when writing was for the longer form. In school, it was term papers and essays; in business, that meant customer presentations, corporate reporting and research studies. As soon as email and voice mail became de rigueur in the workplace, we were all encouraged to “…get to the point!” in these communications. Pretty quickly, being brief migrated to many aspects of corporate life, including reports (…it must have a one page executive summary!), board presentations (…you have five minutes to present your proposal to the directors!), customer presentations (…we have thirty minutes set aside for your meeting with Mr. Jones…), as well as voicemail messages (…get to your issue in the first 30 seconds!). Over time we all developed A.D.D. and focused on brevity, and became short (no pun intended) with those who weren’t.
In that spirit, Chris’ tips for the “snacking web” have been combined with some of my own personal observations for use in this new culture of brevity-craving:
1. Lead with a very brief "engagement" story. Typically one paragraph (mine above stretched to two, but they were fairly short). Reading it will warm you up for what we are about to say. This applies as well to business communications. Give them a short paragraph leading them to the point of your communication.
2. Deliver your payload in the next paragraph. Include any secrets. Don't make the reader wait. Today’s A.D.D. demands it right up front. Or they move on.
3. Use bullets, bold text, highlighting…any visual separator. First, we simply cannot abide fat paragraphs any more. And we skim. Incessantly. Make it easy and productive to do so. (But CAUTION: too many bold words and highlighting just creates a visual mess. Be spare. Pretend each one costs you something…because it does.)
4. Buy a magazine and see how they handle brevity to address their readers A.D.D. (Playboy is not a good example; try Men's Health or Fast Company). Notice the use of boxes, bullets, background hues, and 60-100 word pieces. Like it or not, it’s how it’s done today. Embrace it.
5. Practice writing to space limitations. Twitter is a perfect example, as are LinkedIn and Facebook “status” entries. Personally, that took some getting used to. Learning it improved my brevity. It will work for you, too.
6. Endear yourself to people by giving them the meat, not the fat. This goes for emails as well as tweets. Consolidate for serious traction. Be brief and give them the meat.
The way we communicate is constantly being shaped by the tools we use. Because so many more people are communicating via mobile devices, we must all be careful to realize how what we write will be viewed on a 1” x 2” screen. We're snacking more. We use Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter. We have the technology. Accept this, and adjust your writing styles and delivery methods accordingly. See how it helps.
“He doesn’t have A.D.D., he has A.D.O.C.: Attention Deficit…OH COOL!” --- Jamie Turner, Chief Content Officer, 60-Second Communicators