Though there are many ills Twitter may be blamed for, the platform is responsible for at least one redeemable objective: encouraging succinct messaging. In a world with so much noise, literal and proverbial, cutting down on mouthfuls of content should be applauded.
While even Twitter in 2018 doubled its character allowance-from 140 to 280, it still sets a litmus test any podcast producer should strive to achieve. Are you able to describe your product in the size of a tweet?
In any public relations or business endeavor should have a one-sentence objective (ie., an elevator pitch) written out. If not, the message is going to be muddled, especially with today’s attention spans of about eight seconds. Compound this with nonstop information coming at consumers from every direction and you have to make each moment, second, millisecond count.
The Twitter test, even boiled down to the original 140 characters, gives podcast producers about two whole sentences to work with, unless a run-on sentence, well, runs on and on. The argument can be made that it's far harder to develop a concise sentence describing a podcast than to write a one-page synopsis. Harder is more worthwhile, right? And that’s why you have editors.
For today’s audiences, whole sentences are not needed and, in any event, may not be the best course of action for social media posts. Can you sum up a podcast in three words? If so, it’s probably catchy. From a graphical standpoint, such a feat would allow for sharp imagery that’s not cluttered by text. If nothing else, it’s a good excuse to study movie posters for homework.
The flexibility of fewer words continues with how the words/characters are used. For a new podcast trying to establish itself in an established marketplace, hashtags are an important tool to teach audiences already interested in the topic or show. Remember, we are trying to make each letter and symbol count in building an audience and brand. The right combination of hashtags should attract groups with similar interests even if they are not familiar with your podcast or organization at first.
Perhaps most importantly, holding fast to a character count is likely to expand horizons. Rather than a traditional email blast boosting the show, consider a video that can live on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Most content marketers will agree videos will generate more engagement on Facebook. Full disclosure: At first, this may not translate to clicks to register but it gets the podcast further out in the zeitgeist. All it takes is finding the right influencer to see the messaging, listen to the podcast and spread the word to see a spike in your numbers.
You can still attract listeners to your podcast these days, but you have to be quick about it. William Shakespeare called brevity the soul of wit in “Hamlet.” In today’s age, he may as well have stated, “To be heard or not to be heard—that is the question.”
