4 MARCOMM TERMS I NEVER WANT TO HEAR AGAIN

Scream Photo for BlogYa know when you just get really tired of hearing or seeing a word or phrase repeated a trillion times…say like “Pokémon go,” “bwahahaha” or “yuuuuge”?   Well, I’ve got a few more where those came from.

As a PR pro, the last thing I want to do is bite the hand that feeds me, but there are a couple of marcomm terms that deserve retirement…as in right this minute.

Here are my top 4:

THOUGHT LEADERS

I get it. We all want to position our spokespeople as articulate leaders with at-the-ready words of wisdom. But, can we give it a rest already? I think the term has served its purpose and, ding, ding, ding, it’s time for a new one. After all, not everyone who’s a spokesperson is actually a leader. How about something fresh like “communipro?”  Hey, just tossing it out there…

GO VIRAL

We all want our campaigns to “go viral” but now every time I hear the term I’m thinking Zika or bird flu. It’s terrific if what we share online is then shared over and over, so we try our best to come up with cute cat pics, clever memes or new emojis. How’s this as a replacement for go viral – “social traction”? It’s just another way of saying the same old thing that kinda makes sense.

ENGAGEMENT

Maximum engagement is what we all want for our clients. Who doesn’t?  But, the only engagement I feel like hearing about these days is on The Bachelorette. So, instead of engagement let’s go back to basics and just start describing content as “sticky” and viewers as “eyeballs.”  The words are descriptive and meaningful without conjuring up a Neil Lane sparkler. Dunno. Works for me.

BRANDING

Maybe it’s because I just finished Season 2 of Penny Dreadful and I’ve seen all the branding (burnt flesh kind) I can handle, but I’m feelin’ a bit of branding burnout. So, let me do a quick rebrand. How about…identi-fresh?  Yeah, it sounds a bit like the name of a toothpaste, but if it’s more of a hit than a miss with you guys, then just maybe it’ll go viral…er…get social traction.

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