As the AHA Guy I wanted to share with you the Writing Guidelines we follow to craft AHAmessages for our clients to share their genius in a 140 AHAmessages that we create with them.

There’s a detailed video at the bottom of this article if you would rather watch instead of reading this, but let’s jump right in…

1. Each AHAmessage should stand on its own. If you read that and only that AHAmessage, it should make sense by itself.

2. The first and last AHAmessages in the AHAbook (#1 and #140) as well as the first and last AHAmessages of each section should be upbeat and broad in scope. The first AHA of the book should point back to the book on the AHAthat platform.

3. Every AHAmessage should give attribution to the author (or a third party). AHAmessage attribution is given by including the Twitter handle or the LinkedIn profile of the author. As of 11Oct18, we recommend the LinkedIn profile which can be referenced via this short url http://aha.pub/FirsName.LastName. If there is no online attribution, use the name with a dash before it (e.g. “-PT Barnum”). If you do quote a third party, particularly someone in the public domain, consider using “via @yourhandle” at the end of the AHAmessage to signify that you are the one sharing that quote.

4. No plagiarism. If the AHAmessage is not your quote or thought, please do not use it unless it is available in the public domain and you give it the appropriate attribution.

5. You can also include a hashtag (#) and a short URL pointing to additional info. By incorporating a URL, you can extend your thought by pointing to a YouTube video, a SlideShare presentation, a Blog Post, a Podcast, an Amazon link with your traditional book for sale, the top of your funnel or a host of other relevant locations.

6. To make each AHAmessage easily tweetable, try to make the AHAmessage 255 characters (in relation to the new character limit on Twitter which is 280) or less, including your attribution. BTW: The shorter you can make your message, the more powerful it becomes.

7. If you are supplying a list of items, include the name, number and total number in the list at the beginning of each AHAmessage (e.g., Life Lesson 1 of 5, Life Lesson 2 of 5, etc.).

8. Introductory and closing comments do not belong in this book. AHAmessages are not meant to be read in order so these types of AHAmessages are irrelevant.

9. Have fun! Enjoy the writing process. You are in the process of writing AHAs you are bringing to the world.

If you would rather watch a video that goes into more detail, please check that out below.

Please contact me with any questions/concerns/feedback here on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchelllevy/

Mitchell Levy, The AHA Guy at AHAthat.