Helen Klein Ross is so much more cheery than her Twitter handle, @BettyDraper, named for the sullen Mad Men character Ross channels to write her 140 character missives on Twitter. That made attending her Friday workshop on how to fully exploit the short, short, short form – aka the tweet – that much more enjoyable.
While some writers complain that you can’t say anything in 140 characters, Ross vehemently disagreed, sharing bon mots like, “The less you say, the more they’ll remember,” “Leave out the parts people skip,” and, “It’s not about telling it all, it’s about telling it right.”
Working in advertising, the 140 character “limit” felt more like spreading her wings, Ross said. So, as a fan of Mad Men, a fan of the 1960s, and a time investment, she began. While @BettyDraper is not an official component of the award-winning series, so far she has the blessing of both AMC and show creator Matthew Weiner.
Ross provided several examples of short, short writing from over the years to help illustrate her points:
“For sale. Baby Shoes. Never worn.”—Ernest Hemmingway. This was reportedly the old man’s favorite of all his stories.
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”—food writer Michael Pollan.
“I didn’t have time to write you a short letter. So, I wrote a long one instead.”—Mark Twain.
Twain’s comment is the longest of the examples but gets to another of Ross’s points: making is short takes time. Do not write a tweet in a rush, she said, reminding attendees that “removing something from the Internet is like removing pee from a pool.” Words must be carefully selected. As in poetry, each word must pull its weight. It’s the difference between the words “lightning” and “lightning bug.” And most importantly of all, data is not story. So, all those posts about checking in here or going there? Probably not the best use of those 140 characters.
Here is Ross’s short list of best Twitter practices:
Make a story. “Our brains are wired for story.”
Make it short. But remember, it takes to time make it right.
Consider the target. In Ross’s case, Mad Men fans, 60s fans.
Keep it simple. “Just because you have 140 characters doesn’t mean you have to use them all.”
Stop writing paragraphs for social media. Instead, think of tweets and other writing for new technology as freed from the restrictions from one platform.
Say it differently.
Know your goals.
“The most important story we tell is our own,” Ross said. Fortunately, and in spite of all the handwringing about how new media has shortened our attention spans and is re-wiring the way our brain works, story—however long or short—are what people remember.
This article appears in March 11 • 2011.