In my professional life, I do a lot of writing (surprise, surprise). As a writer, I do a lot of reading, too. And by no means do I claim to be the best at what I do. I am, however, unflinchingly rigid in one area.
Respect.
Respect for your audience, community, customers, etc. Respect their intelligence and their time. Words mean things. And while I’m the first to admit that interpretations vary, the amount of hollow, jargon-riddled gibberish I encounter is astonishing. And gross. Truly, it’s gross.
“But businesses have to optimize copy for search engines! We have to get our audience hyped! This [INCREMENTAL PRODUCT UPDATE] is revolutionary, and we deserve to beat our chests a little!”
Does this approach actually have long-term success these days? Unless we’re talking about inexpensive impulse purchases, I’m going to say no. Of course, businesses and marketers aren’t the only parties guilty of conflating hype with hyperbole. In an Attention economy, it’s not surprising. It is, however, seemingly inescapable.
Remember when we used to be able to find what we were looking with relative ease, following a simple Google search? Now, people include “Googling” as a resume skill because it legitimately takes expertise to verify information accuracy and filter out the bullsh!t.
And although I primarily keep emotion out of my Southpaw Tales blogs, today we’re taking a brief vent-fueled detour into the world of terrible writing across the professional / business / marketing landscape.
Why? Because it’s everywhere. It’s annoying AF. And it’s trash writing. We can do better.
Let’s get to it.
My Top 5 List of unsolicited opinions around Hype vs. Hyperbole:
It doesn’t matter if you get first place in a competition no one cares about.
Claiming to be Number 1 / World’s Best / Industry Leader is meaningless without EARNED and VERIFIABLE proof.
If you look at your competition and you sound just like them, you’re the noise, not the signal.
Promoting technology that doesn’t *technically* exist as described is not the flex you think it is.
If you fear short-term failures more than you want long-term success, for better or worse, you’ll achieve neither.
That’s it. Enough with the meaningless claims of grandeur. They are condescending, out-of-touch, lifeless words that merely become good writing’s echo.
Editor’s note: This blog was first published on my alter ego blog, Ranty Em.