Amazon comms exec extols bite-size messages

About half your audience will stop reading your message after 111 words.

That’s not all: They’re also checking hundreds of emails daily.

“Multitasking is the myth that erodes our efficiency,” Kristin Graham, principal of culture and communications at Amazon, told a packed house of 300 communicators at the Employee Communications, PR & Social Media Summit at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

Graham shared many sobering—and jarring—statistics about how we consume information and what that means for the future of communication.

These are the obstacles you face as a communicator. Understanding this reality will help you package and produce material more efficiently for your distracted audience.

“We absolutely have to make our content snackable,” Graham said. “This is critical.”

Here’s why and how:

What’s your BLOT (bottom line on top)? In other words, what’s your point? Bring it up to the top. Put your blot in your subject lines, captions, video teasers, etc. Break it up with space and bullet points.

“White space is the cleansing breath for the brain,” Graham says.

Neuroscience shows there is a sweet spot for processing dense information. It’s our job to pay attention to what the science tells us.