Translate to Tweet
Translating to Tweet
(April 23, 2009) I’m learning a great deal about Facebook and Twitter. They are both dynamic information distribution environments. Each day, I pump out a flow of 15 or so items. Bill Kutik calls it “the cell phone news.”
Twitter’s format requires you to become adept at writing fortunes for fortune cookies. The constraints are huge. If I have a link to interesting material (13 characters, one space) and leave room for a retweet (about 15 characters and one space), you’re looking at a budget of about 98 characters (I have to allow another 11 for attribution – @johnsumser). It takes sophisticated trimming and editing to pack anything of interest into 98 characters. That’s nearly 1/3 less than the advertised budget of 140.
In the twittersphere, ideas only get communicated if they can handle the retweet attribution overhead. This is how you attach information to the network. Your brand (@yourname) guarantees one level of quality. The retweeter’s brand (@theirname) is the localized guarantee. You need both big brand and local references to do business in the real twitosphere.
Often, I take a key quote from within there target article. Writers who work in print have a luxurious style. Print is almost as unconstrained as web writing. Paring down those long sentences to something close to their essence takes time and an occasional intuitive leap.
The result is a slogan-y flow of micro-headlines that point to a larger story. Like mini-sculptures made of 98 letters and spaces, you take away the stone to reveal the image that was always there. Compressing meaning into a small fixed space always involves solving a puzzle. Teensy bits of meaning get sacrificed to the gods of communication. I aim to capture the essence and get there regularly.
I think of Mark Twain who said, “It would have been shorter if I had more time.”
At 98 characters, the ideas are bold and declarative. You can make complex and nuanced cocktails at 140 characters. At 98, it’s straight up.
To the uninitiated, it looks like communication by bumper sticker. Artless tweeters resemble those California Volkswagen buses with 50 urgent messages competing for your attention. Armed with a flow of good material (and resisting the temptation to preach), it’s possible to effectively point people to key bits of information.
In that way, using Twitter and Facebook is an obvious extension of the work I’ve always done: moving ideas from one landscape to another
- I’m on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Friendfeed. Catch up with me.
- I’m doing a Free Webinar: Regional HR Marketing and PR – Tailoring Sales to Market Realities
– Thursday, May 7, 2009,
– 10-11 am PT (1-2 pm ET) - I’m leading an Intensive workshop called Recruiting Strategy in a Down Economy: Identifying What’s to Come in the Upturn at the Kennedy Recruiting Conference in Las Vegas on May 19.
John Sumser
John Sumser is a principal analyst for HRExaminer, an independent analyst firm covering HR Technology and the intersection of people, tech, and work. John’s mix of experience over the course of his career gives him a broad and unique perspective on the industry. Like anyone trying to process a lot of information, he is two or three steps ahead in some areas and still learning about others. Sumser’s work includes deep research into the nooks and crannies of HR Technology to identify and explain rapidly evolving trends. Built on a foundation of engineering, design, and philosophy, John’s seeks to understand and advise clients on where their technology works best, for whom, and in what context. Each year, John examines the insides of hundreds of companies, their products, and ecosystems. He delivers vendor analysis by building the framework from which to deliver the critique. He is constantly connecting and making visible the front end of change. He can help you see the path of evolution and the risks on the journey. The HRExaminer is Sumser’s vehicle for understanding and explaining the inner workings of the industry. With three weekly podcasts, and written commentary, he covers emerging ideas, the state of the industry, and the executives who operate it.