First impressions are what you can do in the first 20 seconds. I'd not heard that exact figure but i'll assume the post above is true. It sounds about right to me though.
Bearing that in mind, what can you know in the first 20 seconds?
1) What kind of clothes someone is wearing.
2) How someone's hair is done
You can make a generally quite good judgement about people by how they present themselves visually. In less geeky terms, their style. If your style is screaming little miss innocent but you don't want to be seen that way, you could change your style a little bit. Not saying dress like a massive slut (unless you want to be seen as one), but your clothes should be a physical manifestation of your inner state of mind. If girls aren't going to put effort into the way they look, I make the judgement straight away that they aren't going to put effort into other areas of their life. I'm not going to even bother talking to them more often than not. Unless I know them personally or I'm playing the wingman role with friends.
3) How someone holds themselves
If someone looks depressed, they probably feel depressed. Same is true for most emotions / states of mind. If you're acting shy and small, people are going to assume that's what you're like. It's probably true to a certain extent, I don't know many confident people that slink around in the corners, trying to avoid eye contact (for example, not saying you are like that).
4) How you talk
Note, not what you say, but how you say it. You can't possibly know anyone well in 20 seconds so what you say doesn't really matter at this point. If you speak quietly and into your chest, you'll come across as shy. If you project your voice and speak clearly, you'll come across as confident.
That's my thoughts. I don't see how you can learn much more in 20 seconds. If I've missed anything, let me know!
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