Stop using these words in your press releases
January 12, 2009 by ShannonCherry
Filed under Marketing
Drew Kerr’s insightful post on Ragan’s really got me thinking…
Sure, I agree PR people shouldn’t use the words “excited,” “thrilled” and “honored” in press releases because, as Drew points up, they are just fluff.
But I also think there plenty of marshmallow words that public relations writers whould ban from their news release vocabulary.
Words like:
- ‘solution’/ ’solutions’ - As in “This new solution provides the answer.” It appears more than thousands of times in Google News.
- ‘announces’ – “Company XYZ announces the…” First, a company cannot announce something. Only a person can announce. Second, surely there is a better way to beef up this kind of lede in a release.
- ’state of the art’ -“The state of the art system…” If something truly is state of the art, tell us why. Explain it so that a 5 year old understands why this is exciting and fresh.
- And while I’m at it, how about ’system’ – Does anyone know anymore what a system is? Look it up! And tell me more about the ’system’ not that it is one!
I am sure you have some words you’d like to see disappear as well. Please share them in the comments area!
Image credit: JOHNNYLACE, on Flickr
Working exclusively in the tech realm as we do, we’re privy to the repeat of the same buzz words ad nauseum. One of our consultants compiled a “top ten tech PR cliches” list late last year to address some of these.
Personally, the whole “2.0″ and now “3.0″ craze has bothered me. Yes, these terms have value and meaning in some instances, but every time you turn around it seems as though someone is announcing 2.0 this and 3.0 that, having absolutely no validation for using the terms! If you’re going to hop on a buzzword bandwagon, make sure that you can back it up.
Shannon, I like the idea, but how ever will I announce my state of the art solution system?
Kidding…
I’m all for banning the annoying and unnecessary.