Social media gurus: Have mercy on the lowly communicator: Cut the crap, please?

CEO Mark Ragan makes an impassioned plea on behalf of his jargon-hating readers.

We love you. You know we do.

You have done so much for the industry. You write research reports that change how we look at our communication strategies. You provide statistics we can use to persuade our starchy bosses to embrace new media. Most of all, you motivate us by showing us where the world is heading.

But can you STOP creating new jargon and corporate speak? You meet with senior executives at our companies and get them all pumped up. You know CEOs. They love this stuff. But after you board that plane back to the Silicon Valley, you leave us behind to clean up the mess. Our bosses worship you, and they begin speaking like you. But we have to pass their messages down to employees and they hate this stuff. And without them, we’re sunk.

So, we’re begging you, please stop making this crap up.

We know jargon serves a purpose for you. You need big, vague words like “holistic” in order to sound as if you have some inner knowledge; you need a new word to justify the consulting gig. If you merely make the point that corporate messages have to be consistent across all media, it sounds too simple. Holistic makes the potential client think, “I don’t really understand what you’re saying, so maybe you know more than me.” That, in turn, leads to a new contract.

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