You live in a 140 character world.

Even if you’re not on Twitter (Why is that again? Because you “don’t get it”? Ya, maybe millions of people ARE wrong.) you have to acknowledge that the pace of our world has changed.

When I started my career we had one email account, and the office manager would print emails and deliver them around the office. I now get a few hundred emails a day.

And I heard an intriguing conversation on CBC Radio the other day about “continual partial attention”. Too bad I missed big chunks of it between responding to emails, answering the phone, parenting my kids, stirring the sauce and sipping my beer.

But the point is that we are consuming more media and more messages than ever before.

And that fundamentally changes how we connect with each other. And how you connect with your donors and the public.

You spent time and energy on telling your stories. And if you’re discovering that more and more you are telling your stories online – on your website, your e-newsletter, using social media – you have to get your head around what you’re doing with your subject line.

You’re sending out your Fall E-Newsletter. If your subject line says “Fall E-Newsletter”, STOP what you are doing. Draw from your top story, pull a quote from a powerful testimonial. Still stuck? Get up and go for a walk until you think of something inspiring, compelling and engaging to say. Still stuck? Your Fall E-Newsletter clearly sucks. Start fresh.

Here are some fantastic subject lines:

• “I just adopted a mom!”
• “Choose Your Own Adventure!”
• “Interval House scoops The Globe and Mail. Find Out How”
• “$100 Million Edition”
• “Share Your Story – and WIN!”

Remember that when your e-mail arrives in my inbox, you are between a notification from Facebook that my friend Sarah’s new baby pictures are up and that I had to navigate through some work sludge to find you. Does your subject line make the cut?