Is Your Content Missing This Often-Overlooked Ingredient?

By Thomas Clifford | Published: August 6, 2010

Remember Steely Dan? Man, I loved those guys.

I grew up with their music and really enjoyed hearing their hits on the radio. Here’s the thing, though. I only bought a few of their albums.

35 years later, do you see me running out to buy all of their CDs?
Not a chance.

On the other hand, would I buy a box set of their greatest hits?
Indeed, I would. And I did.

That’s what’s cool about a greatest hits collection. A greatest hits collection takes a band’s greatest hits and packages it in one convenient place.

Just like summaries.

Summaries package up your greatest hits, too.

Your “greatest hits,” of course, are your key ideas; the ideas you really want an audience to remember.

Have you ever read something then realized a minute later you don’t have a clue what you read? Or how about this: ever doze in and out of a presentation? Heh, heh, sure you have.

Needless to say, you missed parts of the message.

Why are summaries critical?

Summaries condense your ideas into a nutshell.

Let’s face it: people are paying less and less attention these days. They daydream or skim over your material. They miss parts of your message.

As communicators, we need to use different communication techniques to reinforce our ideas so these ideas reach our audience as effectively as possible. Summaries are one such technique. And summaries can be used just about anywhere, too.

Where can you use summaries?

Summaries are highly flexible. You can use a summary in many places. Here are a few that come to mind:

In an article
In a live presentation
In a video
In an audio
On the phone

On the phone? Yup. Summaries are great to use when wrapping up a meeting on the phone. Summarizing key ideas provides a feeling of closure and provides momentum for everyone involved in the next meeting.

What do summaries look like?

Some bands have their greatest hits on one CD. Some bands have two CDs. Other bands take the box set route.

Summaries are no different, really. They can take a few different forms, too. You can summarize:

Using
Bullet
Points
Like
This

Or
You can
Use
Numbers
Like this

Or you can write a few sentences highlighting the key ideas of your work. Any approach could work, so use what you think works best for your situation.

Do you always need to summarize?

The short answer is yes.

As a rule of thumb, get into the habit of summarizing everything. Once you’re in the habit of summarizing, you can decide whether to summarize or not. Establish the habit first, and then you’ll know when not to summarize. Of course, most of us aren’t in the habit of using summaries in the first place.

Don’t feel like summarizing after working so hard on your work?

The same thing happens when bands don’t have greatest hits collections: the work gets forgotten. Having your ideas forgotten isn’t a good thing, of course. It’s tempting to save five minutes and skippity-do-dah right over your summary.

You might feel that:

Summarizing is too foolish or rudimentary to use.
You’ll exclude readers from commenting on your blog.

1. If you think you’ll sound like your third grade teacher by summarizing, think again.
Getting and holding someone’s attention these days has never been harder. You can’t afford to assume your audience received your entire message the way you intended. Take a few minutes and summarize!

2. You can still summarize your message and invite comments on your blog.
Just follow your summary with a series of questions to stimulate the conversation, like I do at the end of this article.

A summary on the power of summaries

A summary is like your “greatest hits” collection.
Summaries give audiences a chance to catch up on ideas they may have missed.
Summaries don’t have to be close-ended. Ask questions following your summary.

The next time you wind up your presentation, remember to give your audience some of your greatest hits. They, um, may have missed a few hits along the way.

Now, over to you: