“A buzzword is a word or phrase used to impress, or one that is fashionable. Buzzwords often originate in jargon or are neologisms.” – Wikipedia
Buzzwords – love them or hate them they’re here to stay! That, however, doesn’t mean you should collect a bunch of buzzwords to leverage in your next marketing campaign because some are good, some are ok, some are silly and some are, simply put, far too overused to ‘utilise’ and your business could come off looking quite unimaginative by using them. For an education of sorts let’s look at those first.
These overused buzzwords come from a list of thirty compiled by Mashable in 2013.
- Advertainment – Branded entertainment
- Big data – Extensive and detail-rich data sets
- Custom activation – Unique or personalised brand messages
- Earned media – Second party distribution of your message with no cost to you
- P-commerce – Participatory commerce or Pininterest commerce
They’re five of the thirty ‘overused buzzwords’ that Mashable compiled, though to be honest, some that made the list many of us are yet to come across – does that still mean they’re overused?
What’s more some, like advertainment, are too good not to be used over and over and probably should become a part of ‘everyday speak’.
Here are five more that apparently should be avoided. These five ‘silly’ buzzwords come from an article in Inc. written by Geoffrey James, author of ‘Business Without the Bullsh*t’, and they even come with explanations as to why they’re silly.
- Two-way conversation – Is it possible to have a one-way conversation?
- Immersive experiences – It sounds like you’re underwater
- Holistic experience – You’ll come across as a hippy
- Bleeding edge – It just sounds wrong
- Bottom-line – Profit doesn’t appear at the bottom
It would appear the list of ‘overused’ or ‘silly’ buzzwords is seemingly endless; here are five from LinkedIn’s annual ‘Overused Buzzwords’.
- Creative
- Effective
- Innovative
- Organisational
- Driven
Enough of ‘avoidable’ buzzwords, here are some you really should consider leveraging.
- Content
Chances are you’ve heard quite enough about ‘content’ but consumers haven’t, in fact, it can safely be said that ‘content’ is one of the biggest buzzwords used in marketing circles at the current point in time and will be well into the future.
- Social
The word ‘social’ is applicable to so many things these days, though you’d better know how to use it correctly. ‘Social media’ is one we’re all familiar with and ‘social lesson(s)’ is one that’s on the rise.
- Sustainability
In a day and age of environmental concern ‘sustainability’ is a hot buzzword, one that should be used in a responsible manner to avoid overuse of a highly relevant term. Correct usage of the word and its derivatives include ‘sustainably produced stubby holders’, ‘sustainable business practices’ and ‘sustainability as a core business value’.
- Transparency
Like ‘sustainability’, ‘transparency’ is another increasingly touted buzzword and one we should all learn how to use correctly and responsibly. A great definition of ‘transparency’ regarding winning the trust of consumers comes from a Walmart executive, “We are all naked. So get buff.”
If you noticed that there are only four buzzwords in this list of ‘buzzwords that should be leveraged’ and three sets of five buzzwords that you should avoid and came to the conclusion that there are more buzzwords that should be avoided than used – congratulations!
At-the-end-of-the-day (whoops!) there are more buzzwords that should be avoided than used, though there’ll always be some that are effective and capable of winning over consumers, though beware – these do have a tendency to change frequently so stay ‘up-to-date’.
This is a guest post by Jessica Worgan. Jessica is a quirky blogger at heart and a serious copywriter by profession.
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