Effective Communication: Learning to Speak in Pictures

I’m kind of a big deal on Twitter. Over the past few years I’ve created a bit of a following as a result of my writing. I’m up to 15,000 followers from all over the world.   

Twitter has changed communication forever. Our President, Donald J. Trump, has largely neutered the White House press corps by delivering 140 character instant missives to 40M Americans on Twitter.  It's a great example of disintermediation-or the intentional removal of the middle-man. While some criticize his methods as form over substance, few can argue against its effectiveness at controlling the narrative. And, with the average human attention span is growing shorter by the day, he hit the twitter-sphere at the right time. 

A 2017 TED talk by Scott Galloway, Director of Susie Films, is evidence of this trend. Galloway is the founder of the 100 Word Film Festival. This Charlotte, North Carolina based film festival limits submissions to short-form films with no more than 100 words. What began as a gimmick has become an empowering movement that democratizes film, connects art and community, and encourages and develops the most important aspect of filmmaking: writing.

To be sure, we are experiencing a cultural shift towards shorter forms of communications. This is groundbreaking stuff, except it’s not. A guy named Bill Shakespeare was on to this trend back in 1599.

“Since brevity is the soul of wit and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief…” William Shakespeare (Hamlet)

Historically, in most forms of communication, we are anything but brief. I had to read The Odyssey in college. It was miserably long. In stark contrast, Ernest Hemingway won a lunch bet with friends that he could craft an entire story in six words.  

The simple truth is that, as a writer with 25 years of experience, I’ve seen a lot of poorly written stuff.  

“There is a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, can make it irresistible. All you have to do is find it.

Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

As Galloway points out in his TED talk, some of the world’s greatest messages were less than 100 words. The Lords Prayer taught by Jesus at the sermon on the mount is 66 words. The famous “Mean Joe Greene” Pittsburgh Steeler television ad was only 93 words. And Maya Angelou’s famous Touched by an Angel is exactly 100 words.

But these messages all contained powerful, emotional imagery. Yet in communicating, some continue to utilize mediums and messages that are stuck in the era of newspapers and telegraphs.

So if our attention span is truly limited to 100 words, and our brains are wired to receive visual messaging more effectively, why do we continue to use the same antiquated communication methods? Call me crazy, but what if we created blogs in the form of 100 word short films loaded with imagery, music and emotion? What if we used the cultural shift towards shorter forms of communications as an advantage? Galloway urges us to approach communications with the creativity of an unemployed, independent filmmaker. And, most importantly, he urges us to be concise in our delivery. Be effective, purposeful, understandable and thoughtful.

We must think differently about how we communicate. The good news is that sophisticated production is getting cheaper by the day. And there is an unlimited supply of unemployed, independent filmmakers living in their parent’s basements.

Life is all about relationships. I want to get to know you better. Feel free to leave a comment. Or just shoot me an email at T@tomgreene.com You just might hear back from me.