Contributing in the Snack Culture

March 12, 2007 · Comments

Getting Ready For Work Recently, Wired magazine wrote an article about Snack Culture, basically showing that we’ve gone from albums to single songs, movies to trailers, TV shows to Internet TV shows. How should YOU interact in this culture, where the obvious truth is: TIME is more important than money?

Brevity

Above all else, brevity. There’s no time for a build-up. In person, in email, on reports, during presentations, the new cool is brief. You think it’s hard? Learn it now, because it’s a skill that will get you far.

Lead with the Lead

I learned that from MADE TO STICK. Start EVERYTHING with the payoff, or at least the promise of what will be discovered at the end. You can still surprise people, or leave small memory gaps for them to fill, but let them know what they’re building up front. There’s no longer much palate for “you’ll see.” Give us strength of purpose right up front.

Make it Snackable

One defining point of a snack: it stands alone. It’s not a bed of rice waiting for stir fry. It’s an avocado on a wheat cracker with fresh cracked pepper. You can take it out. You can put it somewhere else. You can remix it (don’t like avocado? throw a piece of cheese on instead). Give your friends/participants/colleagues snacks.

Serving Suggestions

If there’s smaller value in these new “snacks” of your contributions, deliver even more value in your audience coming back to you. Give them a great reason to keep the interactions flowing. Even by adding a simple “call to action” to the end of every snack that suggests to your audience what should come next, you’ll win. Serving suggestions. Ideas on what to do next.

You’re the New Appetizer

Stop cramming everything into your delivery. Give it room to breathe. Offer a return visit or a second session or a follow-on email with the main course. Snacks are tricky. People often eat more calories in appetizers than they think, and they never even notice how much of your snacks they’ve taken in and appreciated.

So, What’s Your New And Improved Snack?

Taking the above in mind, how would you apply it to your emails? How do you see this changing your presentation style? What about your contribution to meetings? What does your life broken into snacks look like?

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  • Twitter = blog snack.
  • I am more aligned with brokenengine on this point. My knee-jerk reaction (and I fully acknowledge it as such) is to ride this trend out and wait to take part in the backlash.

    Brevity has its place. A strong message delivered concisely has always been an important part of communication. No argument there. Watching the "Snack Culture" encroach in other areas has been a little discouraging. Brevity can be artful but not all art can survive brevity intact.

    Maybe I just wasn't designed to flit about through life like some hummingbird. I like the "I've taken time to create this; will you take time to experience it fully/be a part of it?" dynamic.
  • I actually am kind of discouraged by the new focus on brevity. I understand the need for it, and how it's attractive, especially in todays A.D.D. world. But I like to think of myself as a storyteller, and I love the turn of a phrase. I love to "show, don't tell" in my emails and blog posts, and frequently thats at the cost of brevity.

    I think that brevity kills storytelling, and the more that we focus on it, the more that art will be lost. It's the same as the whole "Spelling & grammar don't count on the internet" attitude. Well, yes, it frigging well does. The more we allow people to spell things incorrectly, to ignore the art of our language and lexicon, the more that becomes normal, and the more the art gets lost.

    I'm all for changes to the lexicon and the general zeitgeist of communication. You can't fight it. But not at the cost of the collective intelligence of the following generations.

    There, thats my soliloquy for the day.
  • I agree with most of the above. The big keys: hook them from the first bite (or opening scene) and be able to take it with you / share it.

    The biggest problem I have with BuzzMachine and other like-minded blogs are the overlong paragraphs. It gets to a point where I can't tell what's more important than anything else. We're on the move; we need bullet points, lists and short summaries.

    I also agree that this kind of thinking leaves room for the reverse killer-app: long-term food for thought. But in a snack-driven world, those long-form meals had better be better than ever.

    Does all this mean iJustine is even more prescient than I thought when she named her blog TastyBlogSnack long, long ago?
  • Gotta snack, but gotta make it clean and easy. Take from those of us with ADHD- if it's too much, too busy, we gloss over it. I agree with Matt- the article was hard to get through because it was too much.

    The trick here is when to "bullet point" and when to explain. We get into so much short hand of communication, it can be difficult to always know who is on your same page.

    Part of it is that I think we assume in new media that everyone we meet knows who we are, knows something about us beforehand- filling in the back story takes time- hence the reason podcamp is important.
  • Keep it tight baby!
  • Very cool, Joe. Thanks for posting the link.

    MattG- I think MADE TO STICK was an excellent book to teach you some basic communications goodness.
  • JoeC
  • JoeC
    Funny that you should mention this. Jeff Jarvis has a gargantuan post (or two) up today. Can't get through it. But, much to your point here, it has a really cool vid of The Telegraph newsroom.
  • So how was MADE TO STICK? I glanced over the Wired article, but haven't read it through yet. The layout sort of made my eyes hurt a little, as it was so snackerific.

    Snacks are good, but too many of them and my brain hurts. I need a meal (figuratively) every now and then. Maybe that's what books are for.
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