Sustainable Excellence Xtras #125 - The Importance Of Being Brief When Asking For What You Want

Do you usually say more than you should or need to?

Do you think that by saying more, you'll get what you want?

The shortest inaugural address was delivered by President George Washington. It was just 135 words. The longest inaugural address was delivered by President William Henry Harrison. He delivered a 9000-word speech that took him two hours. While he spoke, a freezing wind chilled him to the bone. The next day, he came down with a cold, and a month later he died of pneumonia.

Other than ensuring you don't die of pneumonia, delivering a short, concise message will make your communication more memorable.

Brevity is important to get your message across and to get people to act on your request.

A study done by Microsoft in 2000, found the average human attention span was twelve seconds. By 2015, our attention span was just eight seconds, a full second less than a goldfish.

On the average web page, users will read only about 28% of the words.

To get your message across and acted upon: make your message clear, keep it short, tell stories, and, if possible, use video content within the first eight seconds to grab the attention of your reader. 

The average attention span for reading online content is 15-20 seconds, so I should probably end this blog.

Please check out the video below to learn the importance of keeping your message short and clear. Also, leave me a comment about your tips for generating communications that get acted upon.