A tweet is ... metaphorically speaking, and why it matters.

Take a few tasks in your workday:
  The essence of conveying information
  The transfer of one skill to another person
  The explanation of a topic.

How many times is the same information relayed, re-relayed, documented, explained, re-explained, edited, versioned, changed, chatted about, bastardized in conversation, ad nauseum?  Think back at your last conversation in a group where about half of the audience collectively was muttering in their minds "what is she talking about?"

These conversations stem from lack of in-depth understanding of the task at hand.  Each component of the task seems distinct, disjointed, and divisional, whereby people seek a document to explain the steps.  I call to reference our tax code and April 15th activities.

Often when we present an idea, we begin by stating its obvious benefits, its numerous qualities, its sustainable lifespan, or its beneficial impact on the listeners/ your audience.  And very often, if this is a new idea, the listener (your audience) is still trying to figure out what it is you are talking about three quarters of the way into your conversation. 

Build into you conversations, your instructions, and your passionate pleas, a strong analogy or metaphor that your listener can grab a hold of immediately.  Does the task have 5 points of interest?  Utilize the construction of a star with its five points. 

Does the concept have an unlimited number of outcomes based on a decision?  Discuss the trunk of a tree with the branched (current day metaphor) outcomes as the physical branches.

When you create this metaphor to be able for people to connect with your idea, use it!  Develop it.  Do not simply use it as an icon.  Explain procedures, tasks, sub-points in the context.  It will allow your audience to map (both conceptually and biologically physically in their brains) a memory and a connection to the topic.  Problem solutions, adjunct ideas are then seen in context of the metaphor.

Think back at some of the most powerful metaphors you have used, believed in, or utilize to get things done.  Perhaps a a certain piece of software is like a movie ...  it opens to a curtain call, has a plot, and then delivers its result.  Perhaps you use the image of a sports event to judge whether an activity was good.  Touchdown or Fumble, anyone?

Speaking of such things, what was 'having a photographic memory' called before cameras?