The Hidden Dangers of Using Jargon, Example 4

Last week the Content Strategy Google Group (of which I’m a member) discussed the term “thought leadership.”

Everyone in the group (and most people reading this) pegged ‘Thought Leader’ as jargon. Even a client rejected it for a category header.

“My problem is everyone in my industry (other than us) seems to use that term, so my firm is rejecting that outright.”

So, what should they use instead?
Some group members proposed alternatives, like:

• Knowledge Center
• Reader Resources
• [Subject] White Papers
• Our Publications (I kind of like this one)

Then the conversation swung toward Thought Leadership’s underlying problem: The implications you make if you use the term ‘thought leader.’

Has Anyone Ever Done Business with a “Thought Follower”?

When used, Thought Leadership claims a hierarchical position. Namely, the top.

But nobody claims a “thought follower” position, do they? Of course not. No one would.

Well, we can’t ALL be Thought Leaders. What do we do?

“Thought Leader” as a jargon term tries to claim the high ground. Like everyone else. So the classification goes flat. Being a Thought Leader among thousands is kind of useless, isn’t it?

In the group discussion, one person pointed out that this whole thing is meaningless. Why? Because readers aren’t interested in these kinds of classifications.

At all.

They just want to find information on a specific topic.

Which is the only thing that really matters. Are you able to deliver information on that topic? If yes, then you don’t become a thought leader to the reader.
You become a resource.

Be a Resource Instead of a Thought Leader

If “Thought Leadership” implies a hierarchy that doesn’t really exist, how should we classify ourselves? What will the reader respond to?

If you have the information they’re looking for on a topic, you become a resource to them. So, aim for that!

Try being a resource instead. It’s more specific, and more valuable. For example, you could be:

“A resource for financial management software for HR consultancies.”

This fosters more of a collaborative space online, not an arbitrary hierarchy. Resources share information & audience attention with other resources, instead of competing for every last second.

One resource aids another. One website sends traffic to others. People find more and more information as they go – noting the businesses that PROVIDE those resources.

Readers don’t look for thought leaders. They look for specific resources.

Do YOU go looking for thought leaders? I don’t. I look for information from Kristina Halvorson (for Content Strategy), or John Jantsch (for B2B marketing), or Brian Clark (for Web writing techniques & Internet marketing strategies) or Steve Slaunwhite (for the business of copywriting).

Because these people have made resources of their websites. And by extension, their businesses. Last I checked, none of them are hurting either!

There’s no high ground in the term “thought leader.” Readers don’t care. They DO care about good resources. Look at social media – people share resources all the time, every day. Isn’t that a more powerful marketing approach than using jargon?

Look at your content. Ask yourself: “Is this something the reader can use? How? When?” If your content answers those questions, you have the makings of a resource.

What could your business be a resource for? A product you made? A specific audience? A region?

(DISCLAIMER: I wrote this post as a comment on the CS group discussion. These opinions are my own and are NOT intended as a reflection of the group. It was a great discussion!)

The Hidden Dangers of Using Jargon, Example 2

Early on in my copywriting career, I went to a meeting with a prospective new client. Small software firm. We talked project goals, audience, and so on.

Then my contact (the VP of sales) said, “And make sure to note that we conform to best practices.”

I stopped. “What do you mean?”

I honestly had no idea. I thought he’d explain.

Instead he replied, “Huh?”

I asked again. “What do you mean by ‘best practices?’ Can you describe some of them for me?”

Now I admit, I was fishing here. I didn’t even know what the phrase meant. Apparently, neither did they. He couldn’t give me an answer!

They just expected me to recognize and know the term “best practices.” Jargon alert!

The Danger in Using Best Practices: Assumption

Like this client, if you use “best practices” in your content, you’re assuming. Assuming the reader knows exactly what you mean. So you don’t have to specify your actual practices.

See why it’s a dangerous assumption? There’s no guarantee the reader will know what you mean. You’ve left a hole in their user experience.

What Does “Best Practices” Mean Anyway?

Exactly what ARE “best practices?” I still can’t find a clear example. Best I could locate was a series of infographics in Google. The most common ‘practices’ there were:

• Find the medium between price, customer service and convenience
• Stay on top of (our) industry
• Confidence in our product
• Make customers happy

News flash. EVERYONE wants to abide by *those* practices!

Nobody wants to have anything less than “best practices.” So why do we use the term? It’s become so universal it barely has meaning. Whatever meaning there was has been flooded away by its rampant overuse in business content.

My thought is that businesses only use it out of fear. Fear of someone out there thinking they’re NOT the best in ALL their practices! Gasp!

No. It’s just jargon now.

Time for an alternative.

The Alternative to Jargon: Clarify Your Actual Practices

Instead of sticking jargon like “best practices” into your content, try this:
Clarify your actual day-to-day practices. Split the whole idea out by industry.

You wouldn’t expect a software development firm to have the same practices as an auto parts manufacturer, would you?

A few industries do this already. Creating practices unique to their products and their standards. This Quora answer by Greg Lindahl is a good illustration of practices for software deployment.

I’d even suggest adopting a new, more specific term. Like, “X Industry Business Guidelines” or “X Corp. Operating Policies.”

That way you have to write things out. Be clear in what your readers (and clients) should expect.

Accountability, folks. It starts in your content. Not in jargon like “best practices.”

I’ll expand on this idea in a later post. Maybe write up a set of guidelines…for making guidelines. (Very meta, huh?)

What would be on your ‘industry business guidelines’ list?

A lot of the web content out there is too fat. Overstuffed, failing to persuade, droning on and on…

And I think I know why. (Well, ONE of the reasons.)

Some of it comes from our school days. When we were kids, you had a word requirement for essays, right? It stuck with us. We equate “longer page” with “better page.”

But it’s not the case. All Clear(er) Content has to do is address the need of the person reading it. That’s it. Anything else you add is fluff, filler. The extra words you stuffed into the essay to meet the word requirement.

(Not to say longer content isn’t effective. It definitely is! Giving lots of content is GOOD when the content is informative, relevant–and doesn’t mince words.)

Think of it like giving a speech. Chances are if you had to give a speech, you wouldn’t waste any words. You’d get to the point, back it up, and then finish.

Do the same with your web content too. Here’s some ideas as to how.

1) Dangling Words = Shorten the Paragraph

Ever seen a word or two dangling at the end of a paragraph? (Shrink your editor’s window so it looks like the website will.) Edit the paragraph’s sentences until the dangling word isn’t dangling anymore.

2) Secondary Point? Remove It

Doesn’t matter if you’re writing an email, a webpage or a white paper. One piece of content, one topic discussed. If you’re talking about more than one thing, split the content accordingly.

As the Star Wars pilot said, “Stay on target!”

3) Cut Down to Half. Then Another 25%

There’s a usability maxim: Once you’re done writing content, take out half the words. Then do it again. You’re left with what matters. I prefer to cut by half, then a quarter. Feels easier and goes faster.
Couple ways to go about this:

• Drop as many adverbs as you can. (Remember, ending in “ly”). “I am dead to adverbs; they cannot excite me.” – Mark Twain
• Any sentence you can’t read aloud in one breath? Cut it in half.
  “The way people work has changed dramatically as new tools and technology challenge the traditional rules of how and when people can do their jobs.”
  VS.
  “Work isn’t 9-to-5 in the office anymore.”
• Read each paragraph. Does it directly relate to the main point? Yes? It stays. No? It goes.

4) Never Use a Paragraph When a Sentence Will Do

Resist the urge to “surround” a point with verbiage. It doesn’t help make things clearer. (The opposite is often true.)

Wait.  Won’t This Hurt SEO?

Not really. You’re sticking to 1 topic, where the real focus should be. Remember, humans have to read this for it to be effective. Make it clear for THEM first.

Editing is more than just trimming out words. There’s a lot more factors involved. Editing however becomes much easier (and faster) with lean, clear content.

What’s the last piece of “fat” content you came across?

So you’ve finished a piece of content. Now comes the testing, right? You need to know a few things.
Is it engaging?
Is the SEO taken care of?
Eye-catching headlines/subhead?
Is the darn thing even readable?

Copywriters like me go through this all the time. We use a bunch of tests and tools to polish up our content. To make it “social-ready” (if that’s even a word yet).

Recently I started using the HubSpot Grader. The site has apps for “grading” websites, blogs, press releases, Twitter and Facebook, FourSquare…even one for books!

These Graders examine live content for marketing effectiveness. That’s great for websites, blogs, etc. But what if you want to grade a piece of content that isn’t live yet?

Here’s where you thank me. I worked out a (sneaky) way to test content before it’s posted.

Test Content Before Posting with the Press Release Grader

The secret is Hubspot’s Press Release Grader. It works by direct input. So you can paste in any copy you want – a webpage, a case study, whatever.

Just copy and paste, enter your company name and URL (or those of your client) and hit Generate Report.

NOTE: Obviously it’s geared toward elements of a press release. It wants to see an “About” section, contact information, etc. Some of the results may not apply to your content. But the rest will give you an idea of how social-ready the content is now.

How to Measure Social Readiness with Grader Results

Pay attention to these sections on the results page:

1. General Statistics. Word count, link count and a readability grade. (If higher than 9th grade, edit.)
2. Content Suggestions. Pay attention the “company link” subhead. It might say, “This press release does not seem to contain a link to www.yourURL.com.” That means you haven’t linked to your/the client’s website yet.
3. Link Analysis. How many links have you added? Do they have clear link text? Will the positioning help you or hurt you?
4. Word Cloud. My favorite. A visual representation of the most frequent words. You should see your key terms loud and clear in this cloud. If not, edit and re-grade.

Pretty decent way of checking how social-ready your next webpage is, huh? And the best part is that all the graders are free. Another tool to add to the Web writer’s ensemble!

A question every web writer – and every web writer’s client – should ask

While sloughing through post topics, I glanced at Twitter.

A tweet came through from Lorraine Thompson, @WritersKitchen – itself a retweet of Nick Usborne’s, who posted a link to the Web Content Strategy Blog titled An Interesting Content Manifesto.

(Why am I thinking of Kevin Bacon all of a sudden…)

Anyway, this blog post makes a very, very crucial point in regards to content. ALL content.

“Content Manifesto: Don’t create content ABOUT something. Create content IN ORDER TO DO something. To achieve goals. All content should be in service of a goal. If not, cut it.”

In service of a goal. I agree 100%.

But what goal?

Do Something?  How about “Spur Reader to Action?”

I have asked clients the question of what goal they want to accomplish with content. Almost every time the answer goes like this…
1. “Just something about the product/service.” (Okay…what?)
OR
2. “It should tell the client about how great our product/service is, how great we are to work with, that we’re the only one to work with…” (See a “self”-evident pattern in there?)

Many clients want the goal of their content to be “talking about themselves.” It’s understandable; if you’re passionate about something, you want to talk about it.

But it’s not the kind of goal you should use when writing content.

Look at that citation again. “Create content IN ORDER TO DO something.” Now obviously, companies want their content to do something.

Like what?

Most would agree that they want their content to spur the reader to action.

Question is…what kind of action?

Examples of Content Goals

Asking questions like this helps us specify the goal for a piece of content. In order to do something, a content’s goal must be specific.
These are a few goals I’ve used when writing content in the past.

• Drive visitors to sign up on a website.
• Get prospects to read an email.
• Reward people for downloading a file or application.
• Encourage readers to consider a product/service in their project plans.
• Educate the reader on specialized information the company has.
• Make people want to bookmark a site and return.
• Encourage visitors to email the company about a project or question.
• Purchase a product/service.

Include Content Goals in Content Strategy? Definitely.

The Web Content Strategy post concludes by suggesting a “page goal” be incorporated into content strategy. Again, I agree. For content to belong in a matrix, it must DO something to forward the company’s overall goals.

Wait a Second, Does This Post Have a Goal Too?

Yep. The blog post you’re reading right now? It was intended to remind you – content must do something. You must decide on a goal for your content. That’s the goal here.

And if you read this far, it means the content succeeded!

To what goal will your next content be in service?