In the world of marketing, trends come and go.
For a while, posts HAD to be at least 200 words to even be noticed. Then it changed to 1,000 words. Before long, it was 2,000 words.
But does it matter?
If you have something real to say, do the number of words have any bearing on how your readers will react to it?
I don't think so. In fact, when I start reading an article that someone has deliberately tried to make longer, I often lose interest and click away.
What do you do?
Do you keep reading in hopes of finding a nugget of information you can use?
Mark Twain used to write about the value of brevity. The story goes that he once wrote to a friend and apologized because his letter was long. He said he simply hadn't had time to make it shorter.
In other words, he hadn't had time to condense his words, cut out the fluff, and get right to the message.
That advice has me going back over copy I've written, looking for places I can shorten a sentence or even eliminate a whole sentence or paragraph.
What do you read?
If it's long and rambling, do you keep reading? Or do you only keep reading a long post if the topic keeps moving right along, giving you more and more good information?
What do you write?
Do you try to make your posts longer? Do you tell yourself that you need to meet a word count? Or do you say what you wanted to say concisely and leave it there?
Share your thoughts!
Comments(13)