Buzzwords. What do they do? Why, when working in almost any industry, do they fly out of mouths onto Zoom calls and off our fingers into the emails and instant messages to clients and colleagues?? 

What is the most effective form of communication in the corporate world? How do we make the clearest impact? Closing the loop, finding ways to loop in top performers without disruption, we can move the needle in order to unpack and debrief the concepts of those thought leaders who think outside the box by taking a holistic approach and using their bandwidth at capacity to not only become a stakeholder, but to become a change agent, happy to drop that ping, hop on a call, lean in or double click to get beyond those pain points and avoid unnecessary pushback. The value added by initial value propositions allows top-tier businesses to pivot, align and buy-in to win-win opportunities, to liaise top talent with frontline industry innovators, touching base to their core mission values, circling back to properly assess the right cultural fit and taking that deep dive every landmark decision deserves. This robust approach and commitment to consistent optics will allow your organization to avoid becoming a corporate silo and to remain relevant with your space.

Wait … I forgot synergy. 

Whatever that means, it sounds good … I think. Buzzwords are useful. In the business world, whether in marketing or website development like us or in the production of corrugated cardboard, chances are you have used one of the bold terms from the previous paragraph. They become part of our lexicon as much as any conjunction or pronoun, having taken on meanings that are often metaphorically separated from their initial and long-established Merriam-Webster definitions. 

That’s how language works, though—meanings shift with usage and new definitions are established when agreed upon by a population—to be technical. The issue is, however, that the use of these buzzwords has only been practiced very recently. As professionals, we use them but they carry no real weight. In short, they lack substance.

Kate Cray, an assistant editor at The Atlantic, curated reader responses on various social media platforms to compile a list of buzzwords used most frequently and then set up a tournament-style bracket system on Twitter to pit them against each other, to see which term readers liked the least. Lean in took the crown. (I also added quite a few I use and hear on a daily basis.)

So, why do we lean into these buzzwords? Often, intention gets lost in an email or even sometimes in a video conference or phone call. We lean on buzzwords because something with a vague meaning is difficult to misinterpret—but it is in all aspects a stop-gap measure. Unless you’ve devoted the time, energy and resources to establish your voice and your brand, they allow others within your industry to gain some vision of what you mean, albeit an otherwise blurry one. 

How do we fix this barrier, this fog of business, created by countless variables, including distance, professional cultural difference, approach, context and intent? 

Achieving the accurate recognition, or precise optics (jk), is not something you have to do alone. Most companies do not have the resources to keep their marketing in-house. Researching and seeking out a marketing firm that matches you is an invaluable resource for developing and establishing your brand and your voice, reflecting not only what you do but who you are as a group—and as individuals in the content you produce.

Content is king is almost its own buzzword. Bill Gates coined the term in 1996 and the sentiment still rings true. Content comes from every part of a company—social media, thought leadership, sales, real-time marketing, customer service and recruiting teams are all requesting and producing public-facing media. 

Every artifact they produce for a company completes the mosaic of that organization's fluid image in the public eye of their consumers. Managing that content creation to build an image by design is where good marketing and social media management become a must, assisting companies in reaching who they need to reach, establishing a road through which current, new and future consumers can get an authentic view of how a business and their offerings connect to the user. 

As sellers, we all want to be the first choice, the go-to, the no brainer, but that takes a level of trust we have to build with consistent service and effective communication on every level and within every interaction. Recruiter’s Websites has the actual experience in recruiting and in marketing, forming a potent combination that can partner with you to design and deliver your message the way you would say it.