To coin one of Nathan Barley’s best bits, even if you’re not a ‘self-facilitating media node’, there’s a good chance you’re aware of just how prevalent buzzwords are within the creative industries, marketing and PR.
Of course there’s a big problem- many don’t actually mean anything. Instead, these trendy terms are mere distractions from the truth, designed to make people think an idea or job title is groundbreaking and unimaginably impressive, whereas there’s really no substance behind the statement. Scratch that surface and you’re more likely to find the under-skilled and unoriginal, as oppose to anything else.
In the name of generally having a bit of fun, and poking even more fun, we’ve scratched our heads, procrastinated, pored over more dodgy LinkedIn profiles than is wise, and come up with 10 weird and wonderful buzzwords, complete with definitions- our way of spreading a little amusement on January’s final gloomy Friday. Enjoy.
1. Social Media Guru
Thought leaders keen to push the sector forward through innovation, or fools looking to get paid more than their peers for doing the same thing? You decide, we’ve already come to our conclusion.
2. Ideation 
WTF are three letters that come to mind here. Put simply, ‘ideation’ is the process of coming up with ideas, a word that, amazingly, is in the dictionary. Extra credit for anyone who can guess why you never really hear it out loud.
3. Growth Hackers
It sounds like some twisted lab experiment dreamed up by Monsanto, but it’s not. Growth hackers, apparently, help brands expand reach without access to a substantive budget, usually through ‘scrappy’ and slightly clandestine means.
4. Customer-centricity 
Like the best on our list, customer-centricity makes sense, but sounds a bit silly. As the logically-minded may have guessed, this is about placing customers at the centre of your marketing and PR strategies. So basically good PR and marketing.
5. Synergy 
“The interaction or co-operation of two or more organisations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their individual elements???. Which would surely translate as working together or collaborating?
6. Snackable content 
It’s claimed the average real life human adult now has an attention span lower than that of the average real life goldfish. Whether true or not, people crave easy to digest, short articles and blog posts some refer to as ‘snackable content’.
7. SoLoMo
At first glance this could be the latest posh burger joint to open in a city centre near you. Best take another look, though. SoLoMo refers to Social Local Mobile, and nobody has used the term since 2013. Probably.
8. Gamification
A useful subtitle would be ‘because everyone wants to turn everything into a game’. Think FourSquare’s badges (remember those?) and rewards built into mobile apps, making a mundane digital action much more ‘fun’.
9. P-Commerce
It’s e-commerce, but not as you know it. Well, maybe you do but perhaps the phrase is unfamiliar. P-Commerce means participatory commerce; for example online stores that allow you to customise trainers before buying.
10. Contextual marketing
The subject of some debate, contextual marketing is either marketing that mirrors the media property in which it appears- like native advertising- or behavioural targeting- i.e. a car ad popping up in your feed after visiting a related website.