Short and sweet: The value of brevity

In today’s modern world much has changed in the way of how we get and internalize our information. With so much new technology constantly coming out that makes it easier and faster to get information, we are oversaturated. We are constantly hit with a barrage of information about absolutely anything and everything. It has changed many things around us as well as how we go about getting and ingesting our information. Twitter has become the monument to our shortened attention spans created by this information overload. Its platform that makes you get your message down to 140 characters can teach you some valuable lessons about elevator pitches and messaging in this social media era.

1. There is so much content available now that if you can’t get your message across in the first sentence or even the first 140 characters people may not read further.
2. The act of focusing down your message into 140 characters forces you to filter out all the extraneous information and focus on what’s really important
3. Most of us learned the wrong message in college. That lesson being, if you said enough stuff the teacher would take it and think you put enough work into it and give you the grade. That’s not how the modern world works. People want their information quickly, easily, and most importantly, concisely.
4. Twitter itself has made 140 character messaging a must for most organizations. Most organizations need to be able to communicate on that platform and others like Vine, Tumblr, and blogs etc. that reward those that are able to be both concise and informative to be successful.
5. People don’t have time to read the whole novel. Give them the Cliffs notes. They’ll appreciate and love you for it
6. You get 90 seconds in an elevator pitch and most peoples decisions are made on that basis. In the new social media world a lot of research has shown that most people never make it past the first 7 seconds of a YouTube video. This just illustrates that the quicker you entice the better.
7. Who reads your next email may very well be dependent on how good your subject line is. Great subject lines need to capture an audience and intrigue in just a few words.
8. If it’s a really good idea, you ought to be able to get it across in a few seconds. If you can’t, you’re going to have trouble getting the eyes, ears, and attention of today’s overexposed, information overloaded, and harried content consumers.

These are just a few reasons I believe brevity is a virtue that is becoming more and more valuable in today’s world. As always I’m curious what other people think.