Social Media and the Evolution of Writing

A lot of old school thinkers lament the loss of writing skills brought on by the rise of social media. I say it is an evolution, just as we have seen since Gutenberg printed his Bible. Take newspapers: Find newspaper copy from even a few decades ago and notice how different the writing is. Quality is subjective. For some, the writing is better now; for others, it is worse in some ways. What is inarguable is that writing, now, is of this time. It evolves through natural selection--this is how people read and absorb information now. They see it on screens. They absorb it in microbursts.

If anything, I think it takes more skill to write effectively in this era.

While evolution continues, foundations for effective writing still exist. In 1998, Jacob Nielsen produced what remains as some of the best advice for writing on digital and social media platforms. His tips for crafting Microcontent (such as headlines, e-mail subject lines, tweets) include:

• Explain what the article is about in terms that relate to the user.
  
• Make the first word and important, information-carrying word. Skip leading articles, for the most part.
  
• Avoid teasers. People have been burned too many times.
  
• For digital media, write headlines to stand on their own. The way people read online does not enable them to gather as much context from surrounding data (photos, graphics, etc.) the way they do in print.
  

No matter the platform, no matter how much it evolves, effective writing still must serve a need. It must be audience-focused. Which brings me to the "Shameless Plug for My Book"--Reclaiming Your Readers--which is now available from Marion Street Press and most other websites where you can order books.

My kids want to go to college...I have to do what I can.