Ready, Set, GO…Communicate in 140 Characters Or Less
I was recently asked by Elephant Creative to conduct ‘the law’s fastest interview’. I was asked to respond to several questions in fewer than 140 characters. Simple, I thought… I can definitely do this, afterall, I tweet routinely. How hard can it be? Well, I have to say it wasn’t hard, but it sure was eye opening. The questions were great… pointed to my primary industry, all on topics near and dear to my heart. The hardest part… keeping my answers succinct and to the point while still sharing what I thought was important. It was a great exercise in carefully selecting my responses and then boiling them down to the essence of what I wanted to convey. As I answered each new question, I realized that this is a great way to tell others about what they believe in and do for a living. So here is my challenge to you. The next time you write marketing content or have a discussion about your services, consider putting it into 140 characters or less. Write down all you would say if you weren’t confined to 140 characters and then carefully select the most descriptive words and short, concise phrases. See what you come up with and compare it to what you started with. Of course you won’t always want to write and speak in 140 characters, but this process will help you to get the point across in a straight-forward way. Try it!