Quote: David Belasco and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
If you can’t write your idea on the back of my calling card, you don’t have a clear idea.
- David Belasco
This was found in an insightful post from Leo Baubata of Zen Habits, titled “Your Emails Are Too Long.”
The ideas of minimalism, and using Twitter as the main form of communication have been in the back of my mind for several weeks now, ever since my post about email and about dimensional language. It has made me question whether I should be working on cutting down the length of emails I send to clients, and whether I should eliminate it altogether on the business website. But because it is so widely used still, would I be alienating potential clients and never hear from them since they don’t know what Twitter is?
Wish there was a contact form that would send the message as a tweet to you directly, instead of email. Is there anything like that out there right now?
The David Belasco quote also reminded me of this one from Mozart:
My great-grandfather used to say to his wife, my great-grandmother, who in turn told her daughter, my grandmother, who repeated it to her daughter, my mother, who used to remind her daughter, my own sister, that to talk well and eloquently was a very great art, but that an equally great one was to know the right moment to stop.
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
By James McCullough
- More at
Mar 28, 2011 @ 15:51:00
I encourage strangers, my blog readers, and potential business partners to introduce themselves to me through Twitter. If they can capture my attention in Twitter, they are WOW!
Mar 29, 2011 @ 01:25:00
How many partners do you think you have lost in going in that direction? I agree that capturing someone’s attention with less than 140 characters is amazing, but I’m not sure if that equates to a better partnership in the longterm.
Mar 30, 2011 @ 03:40:00
James:
It always comes down to putting your money where your mouth is. If that’s the game I want to play, then I’ll pay the postage too. [grin]
Some pith and action in business is required. Also, knowing what you want to happen. People that are overly-afraid to make mistakes, unable to get passionate, make a commitment and/or make things happen tend to postpone opportunities and hedge in savvy words via private conversations.
An engaging tweet is a publicly registered commitment in a manner of speaking. Most people (using their real names) tend not to make a fool of themselves on Twitter.
If I compare the proposals/ideas addressed to me on Twitter with those in email, I’d say that I get 5000 times more junk emails than junk tweets.
Obviously, however, you can’t work out the details, responsibilities, and confidentialities of business/collaboration on Twitter.
Mar 30, 2011 @ 06:45:00
Interesting how business is going from a private realm to a more public space. It’s the elevator pitch in reality rather than in theory.
My only concern is the people I’m targeting probably don’t even know of Twitter’s existence. I’m unsure of how valuable it will be with me building up my own consulting business.
Mar 31, 2011 @ 12:13:00
Hi James, I do like quotes I have to admit and I think these two sum things up pretty well for me. Incidentally, most stuff I read about email tends to say that an email should be no longer than 5 sentences. It’s not always possible to do that, but I think at least the basic facts and action needs to be within 5 sentences and the rest either as an attachment or clearly labled that it’s support to your opening paragraph.
Apr 03, 2011 @ 23:55:00
There were some great tips in the post from Leo Baubata. One of his big take-away ideas is putting information on the blog, and sending the link via email. This could be really useful instead of explaining yourself multiple times to different people. It’s something I want to incorporate more with my business – when I reach out and market the business, and also when I work with the clients.
But on the flip side, I find that if I have to click out of an email to get more information, I usually don’t. I get annoyed with newsletters that tell me to “click here to read the rest of the post.” The only reason to do so from the point of the author is to get people to see your ads, retweet it, comment, etc. I think people will take the same actions regardless of whether they read it on the blog or in an email. Maybe something to explore in a future post.
Question about Social Media by @jeffsarris - Four Sides | Four Sides
Sep 13, 2011 @ 00:08:05
[...] Minimalism is such a trendy topic these days, and the paleo diet is growing in popularity, as well, so it makes sense that people have become more aware about what they consume digitally. People have taken digital sabbaticals and put themselves on a digital diet to cut down on the amount of content they take in. [...]