Buzzwords. We love to use them and loathe to hear them, am I right?
Once they’ve wormed their way into our vocabulary it can be nice to “show off” your new word that leaves everyone else going, “huh?!”
But when you’ve been on the other side of the bizarre buzzword it doesn’t feel great does it? Having to ask what the fancy new term means can often leave us feeling flustered or foolish for not knowing it already.
And it can probably be named something else, that makes much more sense, that everybody can understand - so let’s make a promise in 2019 to make things easier on us all.
As a digital growth agency, we want to inspire readers, and customers, to reach the next level and having conversations where we have to explain ourselves over and over isn’t ideal for building bridges. So let’s make a pact to banish the buzzwords!
Disruption
One of those terms that sound exciting, that inspire us to take action, “disruption” is the idea of causing a ripple in the industry with whatever you’re doing - be that a new product or a marketing campaign. It intrigues us, we want to cause disruption, shake up the status quo - but does it really mean anything? We can’t all cause disruption, but we can all produce fantastic products, deliver superb service and craft stellar marketing campaigns. That’s all we should be doing - aiming for “disruption” just disguises the main goal, aiming for “success”!
Hustle
Earlier definitions of the word hustle don’t have great connotations...
- To try to persuade someone, especially to buy something, often illegally:
- A dishonest way of making money:
Source: Cambridge Dictionary
Which is why ‘hustle’ makes us a little uncomfortable and it’s most definitely unnecessary in the business world. You shouldn’t be focused on hustling, or wheeler-dealing, unless you’re selling ‘knock offs’ from your garish Robin Reliant (Del Boy!)
Focus on building a solid business strategy, with a trusted circle of professional network connections, to showcase your high quality, reliable products/services. Don’t hustle, keep it professional and make an insightful, determined ‘go’ at success.
Unicorn
You’ve read the articles about that elusive employee - the one that does everything, can “be” everything to your organisation - they’re apparently a unicorn, if you believe what you read.
But what’s the one thing we all know to be true? Unicorns aren’t real.
Focus on paying your staff fairly and rewarding individual successes, whilst continuing to assign time and budget to training and development. Then you’ll have a team full of unicorns happy, hard-working employees.
Transformation
What does this really mean? Terms like brand transformation and digital transformation are growing in popularity.
We recently revamped our brand strap-line to support the fact we’ve realigned as a digital growth agency, which breaks down simply enough - we’re an agency, we offer digital services as a solution and we want to inspire growth, help you reach your growth targets and grow our own business too.
Simple, right? But what about digital transformation or brand transformation?
We know there’s logic behind the terms but ‘transformation’ is very ambiguous and needs clarification. ‘Transformation’ is different to everybody - how do you ask for a digital transformation and ensure the solution is what you were hoping for?
So let’s just rephrase it to what everybody is really asking for, “I want a product/brand/marketing solution that will deliver results that suit my audience, works for my business and helps me to achieve my targets”. How is such a solution packaged up? Let’s try:
- A robust brand
- A bespoke website
- A professional marketing campaign
If you’re looking for excellent, high-quality solutions, that’s all you need to ask for - the transformation is a byproduct, not the “be all and end all”!
