At the end of the day, social media may be innovative, but it's also really annoying
Is your company undergoing a culture change and now going green? Does it want to spread synergy through innovative measures via a value-added social media campaign that promises a strong return on investment at the end of the day?
If the above sentence annoys the living daylights out of you, you're not alone.
Results from a survey conducted by the Creative Group highlighted some of today's most annoying terms, or "buzzwords," in the professional marketing and advertising world.
Topping the list, somewhat surprisingly, is "social media" or "social networking." This isn't to say social media isn't important; but as a term, it's been so overused that people are sick of hearing it.
"Certain buzzwords may be commonly used amongst marketing and advertising professionals, but when overused, they can quickly lose impact and cause people to lose interest and tune out," said Lara Dodo, regional vice-president of The Creative Group in Canada.
The second most annoying term was "synergy," which has long been infamous as a buzzword since Dilbert punctuated its overuse years ago. The third most annoying term, unfortunately, was "innovative" or "innovation." Not a word people should overuse, but looks like they can't help themselves.
Also in the top 10 were "extra value" or "value added" (that one's for you, Facebook), "going green" (for bloody well everybody), "free" (I'm particularly annoyed by "freemium"), "integrated" (makes my blood boil), and "think outside the box" (people actually say that still?).
"ROI" or "return on investment" and "culture change" were two more, although these I haven't really experienced as being overused or overtly annoying. Others annoying terms worth mentioning include "proactive," "multi-tasking," and - this one really irks me - "at the end of the day."
I expected to see "search engine optimization" in the top 10. Maybe next year.
