Buzzwords: What’s the Buzz?

Have you noticed that with most business interactions, meetings and networking events you participate in, the conversations are peppered with words such as ‘low-hanging fruit’, ‘value proposition’ and ‘thought leader’. Most likely as a PR/Marketing professional it is expected that you use terms like this in your everyday work.

But do you, or those you talk to, actually know what all these terms mean? Are buzzwords merely expressions we fall back on to explain more complex terms, useful when speaking to people in a similar industry, or are they a means of complicating our language to avoid actually saying something?

Buzzwords are particularly prevalent in the PR/marketing and business industries. We tend to get into the habit of using the same words obsessively around like-minded people to boost our credibility and relevance in the industry. I am sure we are all familiar with sentences such as “to optimise our communication’s effectiveness, let’s strategise more efficient messaging to change the perception around marketers’ conversations and engagement.” However, for those who use them, often ‘buzzwords’ can also be the fastest way to convey a particular message or describe an industry situation.

The issue with overuse of these ‘buzzwords’ is that what may seem clear as daylight to some,  seems like gibberish to others. ‘Buzzwords’ are frequently  perceived from outsiders (and often those in the industry too) as a way of outwardly conveying industry knowledge when the speaker actually has no idea what they are actually talking about. Finally, as many in the industry are beginning to discover, when overused, these buzzwords lose their impact altogether.

Regardless of their proliferation, many buzzwords in our industry certainly seem as though they are here to stay.

Take a look at Pressat’s Infographic of the most overused Buzzwords in PR for 2013. What do you think?

Curzon PR is a London-based PR firm working with clients globally. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our Business Development Team bd@curzonpr.com