Definitions
When I was growing up, I was always told that if I didn’t know what a word meant then I either shouldn’t use it or I should learn what it meant. I firmly believe this lesson holds true for things too – that if you don’t know what something is, then you shouldn’t use it. Or, better yet, learn how to use something properly, then start using it.
Have you ever seen a 4 year old try and use the word facetious?? Unless the 4 year old is John Von Neuman, it’s not going to work well, right? What about a business owner trying twitter for the first time, without any idea what it is or what it can do? Probably not going to work well either.
Unfortunately, this is a lesson that thousands of people who join social networks for business or start blogging for business have to learn everyday. Why? Because rather than take the time to learn what the tool is, how to use it and what it is for, they just join the trend and jump in. This is not only slightly frustrating to those who know how to use the tools effectively, but downright dangerous to your brand. First, it can be frustrating because newcomers tend to forget proper courtesy, and immediately start spamming everyone else with their business messages. With your brand, a social networking profile for your business needs to represent everything that your business stands for – from the look to the word choices. If you forget this, or worse, don’t even know this, your brand is at risk every time you log in.
Just like with words, when you understand what something actually means, you can use it more effectively. Do you understand the tools you use?
Want more on definitions? Rick Calvert wrote a great post about trying to define a blog to his daughter so she could write about what her Dad did for work. He found it difficult because there are so many definitions for what a blog is and what a blog can be. Rather than just give her the standard “technical” definition, he broke it down into what it is for him (which is a pretty good definition).
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