sBy Melissa Walsh

What’s nonsense business language good for? Absolutely nothing. 

Yet we see it on many websites, especially those of technical and industrial suppliers. True, despite poor web copy, these companies manage to stay in business. The rationale is, “We’re doing fine. No need to hire a professional to communicate who we are and what services and products we provide.” So the leaders of these companies choose to continue communicating to potential business partners and customer prospects like Mr. Spock instead of humans living on planet Earth. 

Certainly, this thinking leads to lost opportunity not calculated in an annual report. 

Instead of relying on a professional writer to develop website and other promotional copy, these business thinkers task the intern, low-level sales or operations employee, or maybe even the technical writer to pull something together in the spare time of their 9-to-5 day.   

The result is business jargon strong in hyperbole and weak in information. The copy is convoluted, wordy, dry, ineffective business speak that means little to a prospect seeking to understand what the business does and what differentiates it.

Here are examples of nonsense business language:

• “appropriately facilitate enabled markets”
• “distinctively build competitive best-of-class data and e-commerce deliverables”
• “seamlessly conceptualize interdependent internal or ‘organic’ sources”
• “proactively create team-building action items and synergistic principles”
• “collaboratively build multifunctional imperatives”
• “seamless growth strategies for cost-effective functionality and human capital”

Businesses who do not understand the value of investing in good writing post this nonsense on their websites, and likely in other communications pieces. A website is a window into a company. Yet too many companies present robotic nerds talking nonsense business jargon in the parlor. 

Good communication, formal and informal, breathes and has a human rhythm. Words should be short. Phrases should be succinct. The message should be authentic and stick to the reader’s memory. It should awaken, alert, and inform. A business should feed a message to a reader like a pass in sports — direct, vibrant, and crisp.

In the chapter “Business Writing: Writing in Your Job,” from his book On Writing Well, William Zinsser recommends being “yourself when you write” for business. For company leaders, this means knowing your company and its branding and presenting it sensibly and like a human in your business-to-business and business-to-customer communications. “You will stand out as a real person among the robots,” Zinsser says.

When written communication isn’t a core strength of a business, that business must bring on board a professional writer or writing team who can present the company’s strengths clearly, avoiding nonsense jargon.

© 2015, Powerplay Communications

By Melissa Walsh

Social Media Marketing (SMM) Etiquette

“Facebook is like a coffee shop. Everyone is there for his or her own reasons, but it is a great place to strike up a conversation.” 
— Shama Hyder Kabani in The Zen of Social Media Marketing

The first rule of SMM etiquette is keeping in mind that people aren’t using SMM to shop; they’re there for conservation and to express their point of view. Your market prospects don’t want to be marketed to on SMM. They are marketing themselves as, not just who they are, but as who they want to be and how they want to be perceived. SMM forums, Kabani explains, are tidy niche markets in a virtual coffee shop. If you push sales and in-your-face advertising, they’ll feel awkward and leave the coffee shop.

To interact with your prospects using SMM, you must identify closely with your followers, so closely that your brand becomes part of their identity. So while being mindful that overall trust in advertising is eroding and that your target market prospects enter into SMM for conversation, follow these SMM etiquette guidelines:

1. Don’t attempt to fool or manipulate a market; it will only backfire on you.
2. Don’t “like” and “follow” everything that enters your suggestions feed. Be strategic and selective.
3. Respect people’s virtual space.
4. Don’t make gaining traffic your chief goal. Retain traffic with quality content and interaction.
5. Use your real name. People like personal interaction.
6. Balance being proactive with not being pushy.
7. Avoid infomercials. Your SMM video posts should be no more than two to three minutes in duration with continual action depicting a glimpse into the “secret” world of your product/service.

Kabani stresses, when employing SMM in your marketing strategy, understand how it differs from traditional marketing communications. While traditional marketing speaks loudly to a market, even sometimes shouts at and dominates, SMM thrives in a community of friendly conversation with a market. So to become considered good company among your market, listening and responding in a way that makes prospects feel heard go a long way. 

In other words, while traditional marketing pushes a product/service out to a market through display advertising and direct sales copy, SMM pulls a market into a message through relationship-building and spontaneous word-of-mouth market penetration.

By Melissa Walsh

“If eyes are the window to a person’s soul, a website is the window to a company’s soul.” 
— Shama Hyder Kabani in The Zen of Social Media Marketing


EMS of Websites

SMM should be thoughtfully incorporated into a content marketing strategy that points prospects to your website, which is your point of sale. Therefore SMM should always lead attracted prospects to your website content. 

Kabani says, “Content is king; relevancy is power.” Be sure your content is found and shared easily by your market by 

1. Applying SEO (search-engine optimization) principles — namely, including target search keywords and phrases and and tagging your site content with descriptive topics
2. “Listening” to your traffic — measuring you ROI by analyzing your content likes, shares, tweets, comments and known conversions.

Your website is the EMS of your product/service.

E - Educating prospects.

M - Marketing to prospects.

S - Selling to prospects.

EMS is achieved by including all five elements of an effective website:

1. Design for a great first impression. Present navigation and content options in an intuitive interface with a clean, uncluttered backdrop of consistent branding, color scheme and graphics.
2. Structure the page layout and elements virtually to hold the hand of prospects through your overview presentation of your product/service through point of sale or other action decision.
3. Present clear and concise content that differentiates your product/service.
4. Optimize traffic to your website with fresh content (blog posts) that applies easy-to-read structure, relevant keywords and metadata.
5. Maintain your website consistently, ensuring it remains living and interactive.