-
Website
http://www.markpollard.net/ -
Original page
http://www.markpollard.net/words-that-you-social-media-and-agency-types-need-to-stop-killing/ -
Subscribe
All Comments -
Community
-
-
Top Commenters
-
Popular Threads
My contribution is ASAP.
Too many people use it every time they want something - anything at all! It's like the boy who cried wolf... In fact, I'm surprised he didn't yell 'Wolf! Wolf! Save me ASAP!'
I think nearly every agency has thrown those words into the bullshit ring on occasion and it was old by the 80s, dying in the 90s and by now it should have a bullet in the back of its head. Yes it basically means a pattern or a model and obviously the movement away from the pattern is shifting but let's call it what it is - you are taking an idea and moving it elsewhere. Just say that.
Zeitgeist
Never use this word. Ever. Just don't. Most of us know what it means but it doesn't mean you should ever think about saying it to clients or using it in a presentation because at least one person in the room is going to go 'huh??'.
However, one word that should be used more often is 'brobdingnagian' cause it sounds awesome.
working as in: 'its not working for me'
what does this even mean? its not telling the person you're speaking to anything other than 'i don't like it'... ok, thats fine, but how about some real feedback? lets start thinking about why and get a little more specific before throwing this phrase out there.
Just like a schoolbully you tried to unload a bit of that frustration onto poor innocent bystanders McDonald and I. It is alright I can take it big man, just keep bringing me those backlinks. ;)
I think we can smile and use some of these ironically - I know I do with paradigm shift. Its left over from my semiotic days at university - man, you think advertising is bad - you should hang out with some academics for a change. They'll raise your relevancy and go all in with modality.
The word I hear a whole lot is innovative. It's losing it's meaning the more it's said and I think what people tend to actually mean by it is "We're not copying anything. Really." Oh, and don't even get me started on the pronunciation issues associated with this particular word.
Thanks for the laugh,
Amy
Loved "engagement - C’mon, let this little lady become pretty again so I can date her. " hah!
Being a PR guy this word is typically attached to an interaction like this:
Marketing guy - 'We have just booked an advertising campaign that you can leverage for PR'
PR guy - 'Oh OK, sounds interesting, what are the details of the campaign?'
Marketing guy - 'Well we are running US creative that appeared there six months ago and we have bought some outdoor and TV spots'
PR guy - 'Doesn't really sound like the kind of thing that we can PR, I am afraid'
Marketing guy - 'But I sold this into the business because we could leverage the spend to generate PR coverage'
PR guy - ...
Leadership - "I have to justify my large salary, please tell me I matter to my employees. I even pay for your stupid book/training course which lists the 23 habits of highly <strike>gullible</strike> effective leaders in there" (and anything else with the suffix "-ship").
Anything ending in "-ful" - e.g. impactful.
Passion - My reasons can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/bbfp5f
Beef with ad agencies. Everyone in advertising seems to have the words "Director", "Creative" and "Strategy" in their job titles. Can we just call everyone "Director of Creative Strategy" and get on with it please?
I don't want to sound bitter, I just want words to mean something.
Because everything was just running on uphill ice in thongs beforehand.
I dropped my coffee when reading your entry under 'Engagement'
I'd like to add 'Traction' to that list. I have only ever heard this word said to me by people in lifts. It's the word that people always use but never seem to have the strategy needed to gain this ethereal Traction.
AND, any portmanteau to describe anything web related. Blogosphere, Twitterati et al. Wank 2.0
: P
But here are two words I LOVE right now; construct validity.
I know I know. A completely ridiculously flimsy made up term often used by media types and magazine sales people.
Cliches, buzz words and platitudes. They're a blessing and a curse. They provide a common language around things which might sometimes prove more difficult to explain. The biggest problem is overuse.
Of course, you can just use one of my favourite words - unsubscribe ;)
As in;
1. Looking forward
2. Going forward
Really, please, we all know means that you/we stuffed up and hope not to make the same mistake again.
Using "Forward" in a sentence does promise of a better future, however, it’s not a solution, rather, it’s an easy way of appoligising without appoligising, and keeping an air of respectability around your position.
Others I would like to nominate:
Compromise: There are no win wins. Its Yes or No.
Method: Well, if you has scoped properly the method would have been correct!
Green: Only a colour. Not a measurable in a product. Watch how you do measure it (if you do), as the experts can spot a fake easily.
And this one is very in at my Multi-National Corporation:
Overboarded/Overboarding/Overboard = Sacking people
2. Integration. I love it. But it gets over-used.
And the grand-daddy buzzword to throw out when you really need to impress the corporate ladder:
3. Two-way symmetrical model of communications. Otherwise known as engaging in conversation with consumer.
eg. "Why should our company/brand be on Facebook/twitter/have a blog?" CEO asks.
"Because it facilitates effective implementation of the two-way symmetrical model of communication in relation to channel management.." You say. With a smirk.
Couple that with the seemingly innocent word 'approach' and you get potentially the most frustrating phrase of all. "A Unique approach too...."
OH! and don't get me started on "Unique and innovative approaches". That makes me want to fly kick people!
Oh s*** without the words people can work out what we really do...we don't sound very important do we...
Now let's try that again:
"...in light of the post-structural collapse of normative protocol, underpinned by a deleveraging of core value, we identified an opportunity to re-engineer the value and in turn the remuneration exchange delivered for 'spots on Ten'..."
We don't need less, we need more to really, really “engage” & sound important
(Sorry I just had a whole pack of M&M’s...I should have just said “Long Tail” shouldn’t I?)
Why? Market penetration. Household penetration. Lunchbox penetration. The unpleasant visuals go on forever.....
Can't some words remain in the sancutary of fun?
But for sure my favourite word of the week: BUCKETIZE. the verb. believe it.
"we want to create ongoing dialogue", "invitation to dialogue", "blah blah blah dialogue blah blah".
sometimes people just want to be left alone.
Ugh. Just say "busy".
I hate "relevancy" too. I would have thought "relevance" would do the trick. Not enough letters maybe? ;-)
Oh, and while I'm on my soap-box, I hate the way people use "unfollow" when they mean "payback"!!!
That's all from me!
Lame.
'Cause if you can't seriously use any of the words mentioned here anymore - if the social media notion has become a mockery of itself - then what's the entire marketing/advertising/web industry going to do?
Both awful words that should only be related to animals and insects.
WTF, now I'm scared. So you mean you're going to tell some one who really cares? Be my guest. Better they put it in the bin file, than that $#7% passes this way again. Get it out of here before I hit it with the floor tool.
A minor mention goes to the word "iconic", you can only use "icon" to describe a small religious painting, usually only a little bigger than a postage stamp. It should not be used to describe football stadiums or fashion labels.
Hope you are well back in what sounds like a wet Sydney. My contributions to this post:
- Strategy Map
Back when I started work, this was simply called a plan. Why do we need to draw a map?
- Stategic Levers
Why are there are so many levers that we can pull yet we always seem to pull the wrong one? Maybe should have consulted the strategy map.
Au revoir
Innovation (or better still innovative when describing their 1990 online visions)
Every dumb and dumber out there adds it to their company tagline or slips it into a list or an ad line to wow a potential client. It has me wretching.
Love the blog and the common sense you talk. Keep up the good work!
leverage
widget/gadget
google
search
SEO
SEM
sales
awareness
consideration
preference
activation
enabler
recession
crisis
"in these times"
economy
at some point we started substituting "around" for "about" as if they have the same meaning
we talked around media.
so we didn't actually discuss media... we never got to the point really. I particularly like it when around is combined with another overused phrase.... "we talked around relevancy". Brilliant.