A buzzword is a word or phrase that has become popular through regular / overuse, particularly on social media sites and blogs. Buzzwords can exist within different industries too. Whilst looking at social media and blogging in the area of intranets I have noticed a pattern of buzzwords that occur and have been regularised amongst the topic. So what are these buzzwords and why are they used here?
Social – Before the rapid evolution of the digital world as we know it, social use to mean that you would often interact with others on a face to face basis or via phone to improve relationships and societal stance. This element of social has very much latched on to new methods of communication and interaction – with the Facebook apocalypse taking over the world and the tag line ‘The Social Network’, there has been an increase in the term throughout media and applications alike to drive the same notion of social elements. Social within intranets now refers to the methods of engaging with other users, perhaps via following, liking, favouriting and commenting on content and user profiles. Which brings me on to my next buzzword very nicely!
Engagement – Engagement is everywhere at all levels of business and discussion as it is seen as the driver for positive change. When concerning intranet systems and tools it is widely used to identify a solution to a problem many out-dated / redundant intranet systems failed to provide. They lacked the power and features that connected users and motivated them to actively interact with the software. Providing users of an intranet with multiple uses of diverse and simple intranet features seems to have positively impacted the frequency of engagement.
Digital / Workspace – Ever since the switch of analogue TV sets to digital occurred, the use of the word digital has catapulted itself forward. Now with every device, piece of software, hardware or physical computer component being labelled with this digital tag, its only foreseeable that it stamps its mark. The digital workspace is, i guess, a nicer way of saying intranet system. It implies there is a new discoverable element associated with said workspace that makes it feel kind of futuristic and exciting, and rightly so, things are moving quickly within the digital workspace.
Even writing this very short blog I have found it difficult to avoid the use of buzzwords. Which just proves their ability to catch on and infect an industry or period of time…after all, the idea is that we remain original and don’t copy or follow the crowd in order to push the barriers of our respected industries right? That leaves me with a question for you…are buzzwords a good thing or a negative thing in relation to topics or industries?
