Photo Credit: Rick

The UnSummit yesterday was great. The sessions were helpful and the conversation was organic. There could have been a little more conversation during the sessions, but at least people were talking outside the rooms. What I want to talk about now is mobile.

I really enjoyed Lisa Foote’s (twitter link) Mobile discussion. There were a ton of stats thrown around, but I think most of you get the gist. Mobile is the new exploding category for business. People are realizing they don’t have to lug around their huge laptop bags to stay connected. Often, people who do this (I’m usually one of them), bring enough cords to hog-tie a cow. It almost defeats the purpose. And yes, I know your phone can’t do everything your laptop can, but you’d be surprised what you can get away with.

For me, the most important topic brought up was attention span.

This doesn’t just apply to bloggers, but really, anyone who creates content for the web. The content you create for a desktop simply does not transfer to a mobile device the same way. Mobile users are now “snacking” (Buzzword!) on their content. In terms of our discussion, that meant under 5 minutes. In most cases, it’s going to be a lot less.

If you’ve got less than 5 minutes to deliver content, how do you do it? Well, they certainly aren’t going to be reading my earlier posts of 1800 words. Don’t worry, I’ve learned a lot since then. For readable content, I’ve found that it translates into around 350-450 words. That’s not a lot. It doesn’t leave a lot of time for grand musings, numerous descriptions, and wonderful metaphors (I’m already at a word count of 250).

Pick 1 idea and drive it home.

Make sure your title is exactly that point. I’ve also noticed that if you use “list posts” people will most likely not read it. They just read the list and move on. It’s usually what you say about the list that’s important. For that reason, I don’t do many lists posts. I try to have a very concise first paragraph so by the time the reader finishes it, they’re committed to the rest of the post — which shouldn’t be much longer, if you do it right.

If you like this post, I already like you. If you don’t like this post and share your insights on why, I’ll probably still like you. You can read more about me and my blog here and Twitter link here. New design coming soon!