Truth.
Engage.
Guru.
At what point do these stop being useful words and start being complete bullshit?
There’s an overload of would-be buzzwords in the blogosphere. And most of them suck.
I’m a writer, right? I love a well-chosen word as much as anyone. If you can say in one word what would take you 5 or 6 otherwise, I’m all for it. But when you start bandying pretty buzzwords around in hopes that someone will think you embody them, you’re doing it wrong. If you’re still referring to yourself as a “ninja,” I sincerely hope you live in an abandoned subway car with a rat and a reporter who wears a yellow jumpsuit.
Buzzwords are completely meaningless without some sort of tangible link to you. Saying you “deliver personal truth” means nothing, unless it’s in the face of 500 other bloggers who flat-out lie.
It’s a good thing to position yourself in a unique way, or use your own personal terminology to expand your brand. For this purpose, well-chosen buzzwords make complete sense. Nathan Hangen does this beautifully with his “Digital Emperor” theme. The same goes for “Digital Crusader” Mars Dorian. These guys both take a fresh spin on things, and make what could be totally cliché territory awesome. Their writing and design reflect their monikers. This is how good branding works. Randomly attaching words to yourself isn’t.
Don’t be “a futuristic minimalist creating bliss and meaning through a fiery lens,” or some other utter crap. Call yourself “the least transparent blogger on the planet,” or “that social media guy who hates everyone,” or something different. Something that actually says something about who you are or what you do. It doesn’t have to be boring, but how many people can be “the next Gary Vaynerchuk, only with (topic other than wine)?”
It’s our unique personalities that make us interesting bloggers. When you start cultivating a fake persona built on some fluffy nonsense buzzword, you lose the core of what makes you worth paying attention to. Give up on the buzzwords. Stop using someone else’s terms to explain who you are and what you do. Define yourself on your own terms.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to do some lifestyle design. Whatever that means.
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Hey Jill,
Nice post
Nice seeing you over posting with Keith. You guys have a great weekend.
PS. My favorite PC buzzword has to be “transparent”. I've hated that word for the past 3 years. Brings chills up my spine, causes a curling in my stomach like a virus is setting in, and then my eyelids begin to uncontrollably flutter.
Brandon
[...] Blog Tips, where I make weekly “Fed Up Friday” posts. Here’s this week’s blogging rant, if you’re [...]
Oooh, this is good, and not just because I'm in it. Smart strategy says that you should walk the talk. Call yourself what you are…if that doesn't sound right, then become something…don't just create a fancy name.
Bravo Jillian.
You should add “expert” to that list, too. Everybody and their mother is an expert these days.
If you're such an expert, you don't need to announce that you are, others will ask you to help them. Great post, Jillian.
Hey Brandon!
Transparent is another good one. I guess “honest” isn't good enough anymore?
Hope you have a great weekend too
You make a good point. If you want to be seen in a certain light, embody whatever that is.
Glad you enjoyed the post!
Expert's another good one.
You're right though – whatever other people call you is ten times more powerful than what you call yourself.
I think also add “Acurate/Accuracy”.These also suits you Jillian. thanks for your stuff.
“whatever other people call you is ten times more powerful than what you call yourself. “
YES YES YES! I've been so trying to get this point across forever and a day. Don't even get me started on buzzword like GURU…..if you're not 150yrs old living atop a mountain in robes while speaking in tongues…..you're not.
But I digress.
I always wanted to be known as a coach; it's what I like to do. I never wanted to be THAT GUY, self-proclaiming this and that. People had called me that and similar from time to time but I never took them seriously; still afraid of being THAT GUY.
Last year I started building a relationship with a young blogger (17). I commented on hers, she commented on mine, we chatted on messenger, etc etc.
A couple months later she told me how she was fed up with people ignoring her because of her age…she is quite intelligent and already somewhat of an expert in areas other then blogging, like tech which truthfully even shook me a bit. lol
A short time later she ASKED me to be her COACH. She even went so far as to say she wanted to make it OFFICIAL. I wasn't really sure what she meant, but I did think….
BINGO! NOW I can put it in my header. LOL. A little humor, but you get the gist.
Using tired cliches indicates lazy-ass attitude or a creativity void. It just takes a little effort to coin a phrase and make your very own buzz-word.
Like “Fed Up Friday.” For those who like a good rant, this is perfect.
The goal is to create your very own velvet-rope society (tribe) with unique communication channels and language. To give credit, those are Rich Schefren's ideas from his Maven Matrix Manifesto.
Hi Dr. Joe
That Maven Matrix Manifesto sounds interesting. A quick Google search also tells me it's free, which is always awesome. Thanks for the tip!
I really like coined phrases and whatnot, but you're right – it doesn't take much effort to create a personal spin on something, so it's pretty lazy to just latch on to someone else's.
That's awesome Dennis! At least you got a moniker that you liked.
How's that young blogger faring these days? I love seeing whiz kids
I agree that if you create a unique term for yourself and for what you do, you'll have your own fresh identity and you won't be mistaken for others in your niche. It may take a while to find some fresh title, but it's well worth it.
Unfortunately we are not so much in contact these days. I check in on her blog from time to time, but that's about it.
She is also being home-schooled due to illness and far behind her peers (another reason I found her so exceptional)
Her mother kinda put her foot down regarding STUDIES FIRST! She's right of course, but there it is.
Unfortunately we are not so much in contact these days. I check in on her blog from time to time, but that's about it.
She is also being home-schooled due to illness and far behind her peers (another reason I found her so exceptional)
Her mother kinda put her foot down regarding STUDIES FIRST! She's right of course, but there it is.
So weather you define it as a front-end movement, a server-end movement or database movement, the truth is Web 2.0 is a shift toward making the Internet a more reliable and robust experience through standardization.