They used to be called sound bites. Diddies. Short sayings that people could remember.

Now they are called Twitter Headlines.

I was giving a presentation in Las Vegas not long ago. Good energy. A full room will do that for a speaker. Especially when there are people sitting in the aisles and on the floor and along the walls.

I was doing my thing. Sharing my theme. Making my points. Old style.

Not long after I was done … greeting, exchanging business cards and such … I went to the speaker ready room to be un-ready. To unwind.

I grabbed my smartphone to check emails and Whoa! It was full of notifications from Twitter.

The tech savvy listeners in my lecture had posted the things I had been saying on Twitter – in sound bites. Pretty much word for word.

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“Don’t ever let people tell you what you can’t do.”

“When you competitor gets tired, don’t get tired.”

And so on. They had grabbed my ‘sound bites’ and posted them to their friends.

It was then that it occurred to me that a good speaker can make his/her point in 140 characters and usually much less. And if the lecturer can’t make a point that concisely, well, then, rethink your point.

Twitter headlines are the new sound bites.

Now, all we need are Twitter followers.

You can follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/billbelew_com

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