Can you pass the Twitter Test?

Twitter is the 'in thing' now-a-days. Every body is joining the bandwagon. In Twitter you post (or tweet) short messages to people following you. Obama's use of twitter during his Presidential Campaign has already become a marketing case study. How he kept in touch with his voters on the go.

The most interesting thing about Twitter is its word limit restriction. 140 characters, that's it. It forces the user to condense the message, come to the core and reduce excess flab.

Why suddenly Twitter on a presentation blog?
In presentations, we are advised to 'talk less and talk sense'. Come straight to the point and don't beat about the bush. If you apply what you do on Twitter to your presentations, you can improve yourself as a presenter.

The Twitter Test
Imagine you are giving a presentation. Your audience is following you on twitter and instead of talking you need to tweet whatever you have to say. You can only tweet once for each slide. How will you fare in this exam? Can your presentation pass this twitter test?

Just the thought might make you wonder, Oh God! How on earth can I say all the things in 140 characters or less. In reality you are not needed to. But if you do know how to then you are in a good position to do well.

While you are preparing the slides, think about the core message for each slide. What is it that you are going to say. Write it down in 140 characters or less. It will be tough initially. You wont be able to squeeze in everything. Once you start eliminating, the non-core items will get thrown out and what will remain will provide you immense amount of clarity about your own work.

Put your next presentation through the Twitter test and tell me how did it feel? How did it help you present better?