I just cannot get enough of Made to Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath. I cannot get enough. Like In N Out Burger. It haunts my dreams.
I know you’ve read Made to Stick, but, like, keep reading it. Read read read it.
I’m sure you know the Made to Stick model – S U C C E S s. Sticky ideas are Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories. Like a dog at a homeless shelter, each of these deserves love and attention, but the one for the Get Loud blog today is Simple.
Essentially, according to the Brothers Heath, a Simple idea follows this equation
Simple = core + compact
Essentially, you want a simple message? Communicate your basic meaning in as few words as possible.
I remember reading William Strunk’s The Elements of Style in college. I loved it so much I wanted to have some kind of osmosis with all of its’ pages, or something. But my biggest takeaway from that book is this:
OMIT NEEDLESS WORDS!
Now, I suck at this. I can take three paragraphs to give a one word answer. But, I love the thought. Here’s a little more detail about it from Strunk:
“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”
And the Heaths are picking up what Strunk is putting down. This is Compact. Sooooo goood.
And how does this relate to texting, you ask? Duh! When you send a standard SMS text, you’ve got 160 characters. Now, the technology today makes longer texts possible, but you’re gonna lose people quickly if you go on long. So, the key for a Texting Master is to OMIT NEEDLESS WORDS while still getting the point across and not using “LOL OMG ILYSM” text speak that makes people as ill as the old Gravitron rides.
Texting forces you to OMIT NEEDLESS WORDS. It’s the ultimate in Compact communication. So, when you’re designing your texts, when you’re outlining your messaging strategies, texting is going to help you make every word tell.
Texting is simple, and it works, and every business should be doing it.
Want to get started? Text me!