140 characters.

That's all you get when you use Twitter. Sure, you can post photos and you can shorten long URL's but at its core, Twitter is about brevity.

I was asked to proofread a letter today by a colleague. As I suggested adding a line to a particular paragraph, he looked at me and said, "I was trying to shorten this letter. Do you really want this sentence included?" His point: let's get to the point. We deleted my line.

Twitter is synonymous with one phrase: an economy of words.

Too many folks take too long to say too little. One of my best friends, @genedavid on Twitter often posts mysterious quotes and pithy statements (often about things that are over my head). All are brief and each makes me think.

All of this could explain why some people are killing their email inboxes and using Twitter instead.

Be brief. It's your gift to others.