The Importance of Terse Posts

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Appropriately enough, this article began as a post on LinkedIn. But once I got into the meat of the message I was trying to convey, I quickly realized that an article was a more appropriate vehicle.

One of my Eight Pillars of Technical Writing is Terseness. Being brief is particularly important in business communications and for anyone who is targeting an audience of busy professionals. This demographic simply does not have the time to consume lengthy posts, regardless of their topical appeal or quality.

Verbose Posts are Common

Every week, literally dozens of posts pass through my LinkedIn feed that are considerably too long. It's sad, because the authors of these posts are intelligent and successful professionals who typically have great info to share.

Every week, literally dozens of posts pass through my LinkedIn feed that are way too long.

Why are verbose posts such a common mistake on LinkedIn and other social media networks? I think a contributing foible is the justification of overly long posts based on quality or appropriateness for one's audience (too much ego can also contribute to this). "But what I'm posting about is very important." "Everyone wants to know this!" "My post helps my followers big time." That very well might be. But I'm sorry, those are not valid excuses for a verbose post.

In fact, long posts are ironic. If the message is important, it's a gross misstep to package it in a way that will be ignored by the majority of your followers. However, there often is a need for longer messages. But how can they be accomodated?

Leverage Articles for Long Posts

LinkedIn, X, and other social media networks offer the ability to create articles. If you're not positioning your articles and other long-form communications on a website (typically in a blog), LinkedIn's article feature is a good option, offering ease of use and a professional layout.

Monitor your posts to see which perform the best, attracting the most engagement. Consider taking these and using them to develop an article.

Another significant advantage of articles versus regular posts is lifespan. The average social media feed moves at the speed of a SpaceX rocket leaving the atmosphere. I recently attended an educational video by LinkedIn visual storytelling expert Chris Bogue . During the session, Bogue emphasized the need to reuse content. He explained how single-use communications provide considerably less value than their multi-use peers. Unlike posts, an article lasts forever, allowing you to repeatedly promote it (this is called evergreen).

Pro Tip: Monitor your posts to see which perform the best and attract the most engagement in the form of reposts, comments, and likes. Consider taking these top posts and using them as the genesis of articles, podcast episodes, or other marketing assets. It's borderline impossible to predict what will pop and what will flop in terms of your posts. Let your followers lead the way with their real world preferences.

Perform a Special Editing Pass

I've preached before about the need for any IT professional to practice discipline and rigor if they want to be successful. Part of my personal discipline is a protocol that involves making an editing pass through a post, article, or podcast episode in which I focus on cutting the fat.

You will shock yourself by the words, sentences, and sometimes even paragraphs that can be removed from your communications.

Be sure to perform this editing sweep separate of proofing for grammar or format. Don't allow yourself to be distracted by any other editing task. Categorize this as niche editing or layer editing; it allows for more precision and effectiveness.

You will shock yourself by the words, sentences, and sometimes even paragraphs that can be removed from your communications to make them lean and mean—and attract a considerably larger audience. Simply by strategically focusing on this issue, you automatically become a better business communicator.

Good Luck

The next time you're tempted to get too chatty in your social media posts, ask yourself if the message (and your brand) would be better served by an article or podcast episode. Avoid telling yourself that you simply do not have the time to develop a short article. Because if you don't have the time to convert long posts to articles, your followers are guaranteed to not have the time to read them.

But that's just my opinion. Share your thoughts in the comments.

— Curt Robbins, Senior Technical Writer