Cedar Mill Communications

One of the best things about having an annual subscription to the Associated Press Stylebook is its regular updates. I learned how the Christmas Day bomber spells his name, for instance, and how it’s pronounced. It’s Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (OO’-mahr fah-ROOK’ ahb-DOOL’-moo-TAH’-lahb). In my line of work, I don’t deal with terrorist suspects, but I appreciate knowing the info’s there anyway.

Just this week I got another update that made me realize I’m not too technologically challenged – at least in knowing the terms for fast-changing technology. AP has listed nearly 50 terms or words with new definitions that are associated with social media. In fact, the editors have created a whole section called Social Media Guidelines in which the umbrella term is defined: “tools that allow the sharing of information and creating online communities.” I applaud the conciseness. While you could argue you’d have to have been under a rock the past few years not to know about Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, it’s also clear that traditional media reporters have a lot to learn about their online cohorts, whom they do they quote. AP points out (to those gullible few) that “phony accounts are rampant in the social media world.” You don’t say.

The fact that AP just now chose to recognize – and in its way legitimize – social media, says to me that the editors were like most conservative institutions and dismissed friending and tweeting as passing fads, but now have decided, like most of us, to just go with it. Why not get a Facebook page? It’s a great way to keep up with folks and reconnect with old, nearly forgotten friends.

By the way, I ran through the terms just to make sure I knew them all. I did pretty well; only hashtag threw me.

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I had the opportunity recently to be a co-presenter in a media training session. One of the tips we always give prospective spokespeople is to avoid the use of jargon and meaningless tech words.

We have a pretty good list:

• Leading
• Enhanced
• Unique
• Significant
• Solution
• Integrated
• Innovative
• Advanced
• Sophisticated
• E-anything
• Best-in-Class

And, last but not least, the word I’ve found most bothersome of late: Leverage.

Most of the time PR, marketing and sales folks are leveraging leverage to such a degree that it’s meaningless. Whether as a verb, noun, adjective, it’s been misused, overused and tweaked to the point where all relevance and impact is gone. There probably hasn’t been an enterprise hardware or software press release issued in the last 20 years without some leverage, somewhere.

It’s especially popular in headlines:

“Oracle Service Architecture Leveraging Tuxedo”

“IBM reveals Long Term File System (LTFS) to leverage LTO-5”

“Webinar: Leverage Microsoft SharePoint in you Online Marketing”

“Leverage Your Existing EMC Centera Investment with OnBase”

“RIM’s New MVS 5 Leverages Cisco Unified Communications Manager”

Maybe somebody knows what it means to leverage LTO-5 with a long-term file system, but you’ve got me with that one. The point of putting out a press release, for instance, is to communicate information so that it can be understood, not to leave people scratching their heads in confusion. Most of time when I see the word leverage, it’s pretty unclear what going on. Maybe the author didn’t know either.

If you’re a TV watcher, you know that leverage even has it owns series on TNT starring Timothy Hutton. The series is solid, and the use of the word leverage here almost forgivable. Leverage is so vague that you’re not entirely sure what the show is about. As names for undercover spy-like thrillers with a twist go, it’s tough to top Mission Impossible. But I guess Leverage isn’t all that bad.

If you’re producing a hit TV series, I’ll let you off the hook. For everyone else, take a minute and look at your copy or slide deck. How many times are you leveraging something? Three? Five? Ten? Do yourself and your readers a favor and cut that number in half. Or, if you’re truly committed to reform, delete them all. You just don’t need any more leverage.

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One of the things I think a lot about is product or company messaging. I try to look at all the facets of a product or service, analyze the intended audience and then figure out the most effective messages. If I do this job well, the message will strike a chord and the product or company will be on its way. If we’re off, then it’s back to the drawing board until we get it right.  Sometimes it involves product design changes, or adding features based on feedback.

I was recently reminded of how important it is to understand what the customer cares about when I went scooter shopping with my oldest daughter Jessica. She’s been home this week for spring break.  After spending the last couple months without a wheeled form of transport, she decided that a scooter would be the ideal way to circumnavigate the University of Oregon campus and surrounding areas. 

As life-long fan of anything with two wheels, I was all for it. Scooters are inexpensive, reliable, fun and environmentally friendly.  What’s not to love.  First stop was a Vespa store in Portland where Jessica spied a pink Buddy Scooter made by Genuine Scooter. While this little made-in-Taiwan 125 cc model was good enough, I figured I could do better.

The next stop was the local Yamaha/Honda dealer to look at what the Japanese motorcycle manufacturers had to offer in the way of scooters. There we found a blue Yamaha Vino for about the same money as the Buddy. Then we saw that the Schwinn bicycle company had gotten in the scooter business, and we could buy a handsome grey Schwinn for less money. Moreover, the Schwinn had a 150cc motor which would make the scooter more practical for occasional freeway trips.  To me, this was a no-brainer.

Turns out it was also a no-brainer for Jessica. If there was a pink scooter available, then it was going to be a pink scooter going back to Eugene. Period. End of discussion.  And indeed, the pink Buddy is now cheerfully lodged in our garage. While my priorities centered on performance and price, Jessica’s centered on style.

 The moral of this tale to all you marketers and communicators out there: make sure you know what your intended buyers want and give it to them. Genuine Scooter company figured it out and secured our business over what could have been, in a number of ways, a superior offering.  Do you really know your customers, or just think you do? It makes all the difference.

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If you’re new to the Cedar Mill Communications blog and website, you’re probably wondering what that handsome dog is doing in the upper right-hand corner. And you’re probably wondering why Brian is getting all the airtime. Wonder no longer! The dog is Felicity, our mascot and spiritual guide. A Buddhist priest once told me dogs are gurus, and he couldn’t have been more correct about Felicity. She and our small auxiliary dog Frankie will crop up from time to time because our world includes much more than just words.

About the heretofore (isn’t that a great word?) lack of words from the other half of CMC — me — I’ve been mulling over this whole blog business for some time now. I couldn’t decide if I really wanted to join this public airing of thoughts. It can get you thrown in jail in Egypt or fired or just dissed. But I do have something to say now and then, and a blog is a good place to throw out thoughts and elicit comments. So, I’ll likely add thoughts about my editing, writing and other word-related stuff — both written and spoken.

Among the kinds of editing I do through CMC is localization editing. That means I edit documents that have been translated into English. I try to make sure the copy reads as though it was written by a native English speaker. Editors needn’t speak or read the source language, but I think it helps to be able to do that. Maybe that’s because I’m a perfectionist about meaning. From three years living in Germany, I read and speak German well enough (though I need another class!).  I work with a fine German-to-English translator, Hilary Higgins. The two of us fuss over wording so that the German writer’s core message comes through, but in a way an American reader (or sometimes British) can fully grasp.

After nearly six years of doing this type of editing, I’ve learned some valuable (wertvoll) lessons: 

1. Discerning meaning is hard to do, but when you get it right, the ah-ha moment is wunderbar.

2. Translating describes only half the job; copywriting is the other half because clients often want us to make the translation better than the source.

2b. The source could have been better.

3. Working with a good translator makes the job a pleasure.  

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If you’re one of those people who has to look at press releases all day, I’m sure you’re fed up with unintelligible jargon that ends up being passed off as interesting or relevant day in and day out. Apparently jargon-filled documents have a modicum of meaning or they wouldn’t keep happening.

While jargon may come with the territory in some industries, there are certain words that need to stop being used (or mis-used). The most offensive in my book are unique, seamless and leverage. These at one time useful words have been worked into the ground by corporate types so as to be rendered moot. Now we get sentences like “our unique and seamless integration leverages our leveraged integration seamlessly and uniquely.” Huh?

I’m to the point where I edit those words out in every document I see. It is probably a futile effort to ween folks off of them, but I’m not giving up the fight.

For all of use who have launched really technical products, here’s a vid you might find humorous. Jargon to the ‘nth degree.

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