Words that you social media and agency types need to stop killing

by Mark Pollard on March 11, 2009 · View Comments

in Wordplay

Shhh

I’m starting this list with 8 of my least favourite word-deaths. Wonder if we can get it to 50. Please add yours with a smart one-sentence point after it in the comments below.


1. Drive
Apparently, in advertising, you can drive everything: awareness, consideration, preference, trial, conversion, value, emotional connection, acquisition… I don’t want to get in my car any more because the word ‘drive’ has been so molested by so many of you.

2. Relevancy
Now, if you have an American accent and use this word, I will curdle. Of course, you want to ‘drive relevancy’… but, seriously, what the hell does that mean? And, is ‘relevancy’ even a word? It just feels made up… like ‘self-orientated’ and ‘presentate’.

3. Influence
Big fan of ‘influence’… I’ve even written about it in my online communities lessons thing. But, let’s face it: you’re killing this word right now. Stabbing it. Daily. Hundreds of times. Too many of you are pretending you have a silver bullet and can quantify it. Too many of you are dropping it into a conversation… just because you can… but you can’t actually discuss it. Stop hurting it!

4. -ability
Ah, yes, a suffix that makes me laugh out loud then punch myself in the chest. Permissability. Sociability. Talkability. Speakability. Sessionability. Someone out there probably even uses ‘drive-ability’. The list goes on. These. Are. Not. Real. Words. If you just want to make up words, make up cool words like ‘anonymosity‘. In your face – I made that one up! Stalkernomics – bam, did it again!

5. Social media
This term sucks as much as ‘Web 2.0′. It gets used like ‘digital’ does when you’re in a big meeting looking at a huge media schedule with millions of dollars of spend… and the magazines and their covers are nicely presented, the TV shows and their stars are called out… and then there’s this dirty line at the bottom of the spreadsheet that nobody can see and the media person glosses over… “Oh yeah we’ll do some digital stuff too”. Please, sir, can I have some ‘social media’? Stop. Killing. It.

6. Empower
OMG. This one makes me break out in teenage-internet geek acronyms. FTW? Backwards even. Please, if we have a meeting… do not tell me your brand empowers me to do anything. Your product may help me cut my steak but that’s it. It’s not empowering me to have a more meatiful life. Dont. Do. It.

7. Engagement
I flirted with this one when it was a virgin but then too many of you queued up to get a piece of the action. I think this gets used when people want to say: “We have a campaign that doesn’t involve talking down to people and blinding them with starbursts.” C’mon, let this little lady become pretty again so I can date her.

8. Integration
When a large agency uses this word it means their agency is broken. It does not mean that the agency functions in an integrated way. It means that there is a middle person who talks nicely to one department then passes the baton to another department that they have to work with because it’s in the contract. The word ‘integration’ is now also broken.

Can we get to 50? Write your favourites below with a simple explanation.
I’ll give you 2 more to play with: Greenfield. Step-change.
Please clean up your language. Un-taint my beauties.

Photo courtesy of libraryman.

If you enjoyed the read, please leave a comment. Feel free to follow me on Twitter

Related posts:

  1. Iain McDonald and Julian Cole: two award-winning social objects
  2. Don’t use social media (a presentation)
  3. Social media campaign vs commitment: short-term or long-term? Ad:tech Sydney
  4. How to do social media
  5. The agency of the future – Mumbrella

Tagged as: Twitter

  • michaeld
    OFF-LINE. Not sure why someone ever needs to take a discussion off line when they're actually sitting in the same room together. Is saying, let's talk about that later really so hard?
  • Passionate - I refuse to include the words 'is passionate about' in any client's bio I'm hired to write. Anyone who has to announce that they're passionate about the job that they do, deserves a big fat 'duh'.
  • Viral – When the suits come around and tell you the client wants this campaign to be viral. Like hey, let's make it award winning as well while we're at it. Quality wins awards, quality that makes you send it to everyone you know goes viral.
  • Yes, I squirm when this is used too. If someone says 'we'll seed a viral', on the insides I bleed.
  • carol pedersen
    Hilarious...........reading through the comments one word that is not a word that I absolutely loathe is incentivize!
  • Jamie
    around.

    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.
  • rosie
    Beautiful list. Three more: connected, kpi. and fabulous. Connected: keep your mobile with you at all times so clients, students or customers can feel comfortable and close to you. Non-stop texts: no sleep. An industial relations issue. KPI: Even an insult to those sensitve labradors that don't make the cut as guide dogs. If you don't dribble on your boss, you deserve the bonus. Fabulous:. Jennifr Hawkins (25?) is hot. Deborah Hutton (40+) is fabulous. Somewhere between the two this adjectival shift lets everyone know that no matter how convincing the exterior, you are rotting inside: worms, slime, death. Nefertiti was well-preserved. Queen Latifah, as well as Beyonce, remains a babe. Thanks Mark.
  • adding on these 'buzzwords' of filth:

    leverage
    widget/gadget
    google
    search
    SEO
    SEM
    sales
    awareness
    consideration
    preference
    activation
    enabler
    recession
    crisis
    "in these times"
    economy
  • How did 'social media' get old so quickly? I'm still feeling warm and fuzzy about its potential, and you condemn it to the cliché bin. Damn. Oh well, it was tweet while it lasted.
  • image
    the use of the term 'civilian' gets a cringe out of me every time.
  • Simon Lester
    Spot on choice of words. I do think you missed the big annoyance though.
    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!
  • Dr Mahjong
    Hey Mark

    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
  • "Proper" and "administrative." I tried to banish them from my vocabulary a year ago, but they keep popping back up!
  • The word "Escalate".

    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.
  • I hate the word 'buzz' and 'the long tail effect'.

    Both awful words that should only be related to animals and insects.
  • Okay, so, 35 comments later; which words aren't passe? Aren't overdone? Aren't cringe-worthy?

    '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?
  • Any word that is Tweet-ised. Tweeple in particular.

    Lame.
  • "Evangelist"!!! (Not sure if someone else has mentioned it. I did a Find on the page, but couldn't read all the comments. Just too many.) I'm not saying I hate people who use the word. Just hate the word!

    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!
  • Pete
    Nice words Pollard. You speaketh the truth. My fave (or anti-fave) is "bandwidth" when applied to the time-related informational capacity of a real live human being.

    Ugh. Just say "busy".
  • James Sneddon
    34 comment and counting - this must be a record. Retire now!
  • The term 'traditional media' makes sense if you are a 60-year old fart still sitting in a marketing director's chair. Sorry folks if that hurts anyone's feelings.
  • riss
    oh, and the word citizen. particularly when prefaced with the word internet. internet citizen/net citizen. i don't recall when the internet became a country.
  • Riss
    dialogue needs to be added.

    "we want to create ongoing dialogue", "invitation to dialogue", "blah blah blah dialogue blah blah".

    sometimes people just want to be left alone.
  • Erik Ingvoldstad
    I'll jump on Scott's bandwagon. The "line" has always annoyed the hell out of me. Can't we all just be friends? (Trying to be less feisty Tsen).
  • Anna Lohe
    Penetration.

    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.
  • Robbie Upcroft
    Monetise makes me vomit in my mouth a little bit every time I hear it. It has to be a made-up word. Has to be.
  • Not used nearly enough, but I reckon 'narrative' has got quick death potential. Feisty response BTW Ingo.
  • James Sneddon
    "...we placed a TV commercial announcement in between a number of TV programs, the likes of which people have reported they take great amusement in viewing. In addition to the TV we also thought it would be a sensible idea to run a competition across the world wide web. The very same people who were watching the TV commercials, we deduced, could be found at a variety of locations enjoying their daily dose of news and views...What we were saying in these promotional excerpts was equally exciting; we announced the arrival of a new and tasty soup. Not just any old soup but a soup that could be served directly from a can, no less..."

    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?)
  • "Unique" - HA! Hardly anything is "Unique" anymore! It seems every ad that every agency produces is 'Unique'.

    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!
  • Funny post Mark. But seriously, we should never mention the words "social object" ever again.
  • I'm very wary of the words Expert, Guru or Maven. Mostly used by people referring to themselves to elevate their own 'personal brand' up some imaginary ladder built on the flimsy materials of social media. Just telling people that you're an Expert, doesn't make you one.
  • I am way over words like "transparency," "leverage," "speak into," "authentic," "circle back," and "thought leader." I could just puke. I think I just did a little when I saw them all together.
  • An oldie but a goodie - Edgy.
  • 1. How about anything involving the mystical "line". ATL, TTL, BTL. Surely media fragmentation has killed this off by now.

    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.
  • Michael Robinson
    Forward.
    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
  • When you live in the echo chamber it CAN get a little noisy. But you know what? Just because WE are sick of these words doesn't mean they don't still hold value for others for whom "social media" sounds like a vast, uncharted wilderness.

    Of course, you can just use one of my favourite words - unsubscribe ;)
  • Ann Stringer
    Green: they've made it a joke
  • A nice bit of fun. I'm adding 'viral' and 'organic' - two words that seem to get used for everything.
  • Recency

    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.
  • I can't believe no one's even mentioned the T word; transparency (and all its variations). Last time you'll hear it from me.
    : P
    But here are two words I LOVE right now; construct validity.
  • Brendan
    Nice List Mark,

    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
  • Traction

    Because everything was just running on uphill ice in thongs beforehand.
  • Seconding: Innovation ("We want to look like we're doing something new without doing something new - we've decided to promote you from Special Projects to our new Innovation Unit ") also Creativity ("Some just handed me a paint brush and told me to draw my soul, I think I'm going to sick").

    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 gullible 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.
  • Leverage

    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 - ...
  • "social media" makes me cringe. There are so many other sectors - banking, telecomms, travel - that are affected by social economies that media hijacking everything for nefarious marketing purposes makes me scream.

    Loved "engagement - C’mon, let this little lady become pretty again so I can date her. " hah!
  • Amy
    I couldn't help but laugh wryly at myself reading over those words and phrases. Sometimes I've been the sayer, sometimes the listener rolling my eyes.

    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
  • Good luck with the eradication of these buzzwords (ha there's another one - buzzword) as soon as agency types are over them, they get taken over by the "client-side stakeholders" (another two) where they become corporate speak and degenerate into meaningless psychobabble.
    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.
  • I think it is safe to say that you just got taken back to school by the man Erik Ingvoldstad.

    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. ;)
  • Tristan
    nice post pollard.... nice and relevant! can't help but feel a little guilty that i've used a few of these terms myself though.

    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.
  • Paradigm Shift
    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.
  • James Drewe
    Have a tough time at Ad:Tech hey, Mark? Can we throwh 'viral' into the mix please? It would seem that every other agency wants to 'do a viral' at the moment. Pretty sure what they really mean is 'let's create a video, put it on YouTube and hope the kids love it enough to send it to their friends'. These 'virals' could just be your regular TVC if you want...
  • Erik Ingvoldstad
    Yeah, sorry Mark, I think you're desperately trying to find something to be upset about. Calm the f### down, and go through your own words. You'll be surprised how many clichés you use in a day... We're all part of this. But you're right, 'relavancy' is not a word, it's 'relevance'. If you really want to get into it, I'd put 'strategy' on top of my list, and then 'creativity' and 'hands-on'. Soon we'll have nothing to talk about. Now I'm going to drive some engagement and empower myself by integrating a middy to my lips. Drinkability, as Bud Light would say.
  • julie
    Great post Mark. I agree words quickly lose their meaning when overused.

    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!'
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