Deliver your message in 25 words, or kiss your audience goodbye.
If you’ve attended a business meeting recently, you’ve witnessed a huge change in the way people make decisions. Participants consult phones regularly, receive information, make a decision and respond. They act on 25 words or less.
Text messages are limited to 160 characters, Twitter to 140 characters, and messages on smart phones are limited by screen size. Three and a half inches (89 millimeters), measured diagonally, is about as big as phone screens get. About 25 words, sometimes a couple more, and don’t expect anybody to scroll down.
Only three or four years ago, people made decisions based on 250 to 400 words — the information displayed on a single page of printed office paper, or on a single personal computer screen. Today, words 26 through 250 are backup, and words 251 through 400 are luxuries.
For better or worse, business presentations are based on information bullets in Powerpoint charts. Management teams want the conclusion, or the recommended action to take, on the first chart. You can build a case later.
Ad writers and journalists have been on a 25-word limit for years. Everybody else needs to spend more time editing.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
A friend of mine in Los Angeles often reminds me that “It is a PDA world.” If you can’t be clear and ultra-concise in 25 words, then pick up the phone to ensure understanding. This happened to me yesterday with one of our contract partners. I’d write more but you are probably reading this on a PDA and I’m way over 25 words
Recent research from Morgan Stanley says the mobile Internet — PDAs, smart phones — has the fastest uptake of any hardware technology, ever. This is just the beginning.
http://www.mercurybrief.com/2009/10/mobile-internet-tsunami/
From The New York Times, 8 December 2009 — “Text messages now outnumber mobile voice calls three to one, according to the Nielsen Company.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/us/09text.html?_r=1&hpw
Great article Bob. Makes me think of my search ads — Google allows only 25 + 70 + 35 = 130 characters in ads. Thank God Chinese is such a concise language.
Sheji Ho
Beijing