I am a fairly recent twitterer and to my surprise, I find it compelling. I seem to find more interesting and relevant links from Twitter than from my RSS feeds, even though I have hundreds more of those. What is it about Twitter? This puzzled me.
Then yesterday I read this great blog post that made many good points. It linked to an even better video also making tons of good points. I wanted to tweet about them and as I was thinking about what to say in my tweet, I realized that I was going through the mental process of what authors Chip Heath and Dan Heath of Made to Stick call finding the lead. If I wanted to pique interest in twitter-land, enough to inspire others to click on an obscure tiny url, I had to do exactly what Made to Stick advocates – relentlessly prioritize and find the core message.
In this respect, twitter is a case of back to the future. Heath and Heath recall the early days of the telegraph. Civil War reporters borrowing military telegraphs might be bumped at any moment so they sent the most important information first. Like these reporters, I have to put the most important information first when I tweet. That’s the lead, my lead. I have 140 characters to get my message across, minus the tiny url and any # code. Talk about relentless prioritization!
What makes Twitter even more interesting is that my lead won’t be the same as yours for the same news or blog post. Instead of the same copy being replicated across many sites, the bane of internet content, my lead and your lead add to the conversation.
The Heaths also remind us of what James Carville famously said during the Clinton ‘92 campaign. “If you say three things, you don’t say anything”. The blog post that inspired this blog post made many great points yet just one day later I don’t recall what the core message of that author was. Twitter, on the other hand, says “this is the one thing I want to say”. And now you have said something.
The same lesson applies to building your company. What is the most important thing you want to say about who you are? Your company’s lead is its touchstone. As I talked about in “I’d Fly Costco”, your touchstone shapes your decisions and drives loyalty and trust. It’s what Heath and Heath brilliantly captured in their illustration of the Army’s Commander’s Intent, the “crisp plain-talk statement that appears at the top of every order, specifying the plan’s goal, the desired end-state of an operation.” Detailed plans blow up when confronted with reality. Knowing the goal doesn’t.
Twitter works when you find your lead. So will your company.
