Could you pitch your new business idea in 140 characters?

The big challenge using Twitter as a marketing tool is trying to fit what you want to say into just 140 characters, but sometimes this can help you to hone your messaging and be more direct about what you want to say. But what about a business pitch, could you do this is just 140 characters?

It’s a fairly similar concept to being able to pitch your business in one sentence, or in the time it takes to ride with someone in an elevator. But in an elevator you do actually get quite a bit of time, you have to press the button, wait for the doors to close (maybe just jam a foot out at an appropriate time to slow this bit down), wait for it to start, travel up (or down), then it comes to a stop and then announces which floor you’re on or that the doors are opening. In reality, that’s taken me more than 140 characters to describe and you’ve probably managed to fit a lot more words in. So how can you fit it in to 140 characters?

Adeo Ressi, founder of Founder Institute, has come up with his own formula that you can follow. It goes like this:

My company [insert name of company]

Has developed/is developing [defined product or service]

To help [define audience] [solve this problem]

With [this secret sauce]

So if you test this method, Nespresso becomes “My company Nespresso, has developed a luxury coffee machine to help people at home create barista-style coffee with a unique pod capsule”. I wrote that in one go without checking for characters and haven’t done any edits, and it comes out as 136 characters, so this method really does work.

It’s really useful to be able to succinctly summarise your business in one sentence like this. So test it out with your current business, or business idea, and let us know how you get on.