Some people love jargon, and litter every utterance that befalls the ears of the unfortunate listener with worn-out buzzwords that call more attention to their ridiculousness than their ability to inform and enrich.
Jargon can impede understanding, disguise a lack of knowledge and ultimately wreck what could otherwise be a good blog post. The job of a content marketer is to communicate – so it falls to us to push jargon to the edge of extinction, and gleefully boot it into the distance.
Are you using jargon to disguise your lack of expertise?
If you’ve decided to write on a tricky topic, you may find that once you get stuck into some research you’re left more baffled than before. It can be tempting to fall back on jargon to make it appear as though you know what you’re talking about, but be warned that readers will see straight through this.
Perhaps you do understand the ins and out of every jargon-esque word and phrase you inject into your content. Great – but it may come across as the complete opposite to readers. Overuse of jargon can point to a lack of knowledge in a certain subject, where it is often used as a crutch to cover up the fact that you don’t have the foggiest.
Too much jargon makes Jack a dull boy
If you confine yourself to using certain words and phrases, you are giving yourself less of a chance to be creative. Readers are looking for fresh, unique content or an eye-catching angle that puts a new spin on a familiar idea. Resorting to jargon might mean you consistently end up ‘playing it safe’ and creating content that just doesn’t capture the reader’s imagination, let alone stimulate their desire to share their ‘discovery’ on social media platforms.
If you want to demonstrate thought leadership in your field and be seen as the go-to resource for relevant and engaging information and fresh thinking in the industry, you need to make sure your content has a high readability level. Readers will be put off by posts that are difficult to understand – your job is to demystify the unknown and encourage people to bookmark your site or come back for a visit at a later date.
