10 industry buzzwords that need to die

“Data visualization doesn’t sound so bad,” you might find yourself saying. “What’s the problem?”

And then someone will throw “enterprise data visualization to optimize the ripple effect and hyper-connectivity of your key influencers” into an article.

That’s the danger of letting industry buzzwords run rampant.

Here are 10 words or phrases industry pros have used once too often. They can be unhelpful, unrealistic, irritating, confusing and vague. Can we all please cut back on using them?

1. Mobile

Whoa, slow down! Did I say “mobile”? “Mobile” is a great buzzword—everybody and their dogs are on mobile these days.

“Mobile” means we can reach consumers whether they’re at home on their couches or on the sidewalk looking for a restaurant. “Mobile” is where we have to shrink our ads and forfeit our click-through metrics. “Mobile” puts the “Mo” in SoLoMo (social-local-mobile).

The problem with “mobile” is that it’s restrictive; you automatically think of a smartphone, tablet, or mini tablet. Trying to sum up and address all of those in one word might cause you to cut your efforts short.