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Communication

The Concision Imperative: Twitter pushes us to get to the point.

Bemoaned by communicators steeped in tradition, Twitter was first regarded as some kind of tee-hee platform amounting to little more than virtual note-passing. Today, it’s power as a means of juicing visibility is still debated, but it can’t be dismissed.

Drew Olanoff offered an appropriately to-the-point assessment in TechCruch. The insight that caught my eye:

The real reason why I get responses to things I say on Twitter is that the service forced me to introduce brevity into my arsenal. Yes, the fantastic world of keeping things short and compact, allowing people to let it run through their brain quickly and fire out a response if they like.

That kind of reflex has value well beyond Twitter, as ten-page case studies shrink to two-page concept papers, as daylong conferences become lunchtime webinars, as rambling presentations become podcasts. Drew’s article is definitely worth the read.