The “Buzz” in 2013, Part 1

January 16, 2013 - David Hall
Category: Technology

Mashable recently published an article, 12 Buzzwords You’ll Hear in 2013, that I thought deserved some reflection. These are words that aren’t actually words yet, but “experts” are forecasting their prolific use in the coming year. Of course, since they came from Mashable, all the worlds are related to technology and digital marketing. OK, here I go:

1. Advertainment — “Advertising is no longer about interrupting what people are interested in, it’s about being what people are interested in.” I take this to mean that advertisements are finally going to be entertaining.  Does this mean that commercials will soon be better than the show I’m watching? I foresee a lot of TV shows and news stories being sponsored entirely by a single marketing entity. Corporations will sponsor a program and just bombard us with product placement. Buzzfeed already does sponsored news stories with the stories being somewhat related to the the product being marketed. See:

Talking to new people isn’t hard. Seriously! Anyone can do it if they build up a little courage. So swish some Scope, and let’s start making friends!

 

Scope BuzzFeed Partner

This kind of reporting may seem unorthodox but the results have impressed several news outlets. Buzzfeed is now an official partner of the New York Times. It looks like marketing people are going to be producing more and more of the content we see everyday. A marriage between information, advertising, and story line. Wait that’s illegal.

2. Phablets — A mixture of a smartphone and tablet.  This is the most obvious one on the list even though it sounds funny. Smartphones are basically mini computers anyways so these are just phones with a slightly bigger screen and more capabilities. Samsung’s Galaxy Note is a prime example of a “phablet”. Rumor has it that Apple is developing one as well. I predict we’re all going to look very silly talking into our computers while driving.

3. Growth hacker — “A role that replaces traditional marketing roles in fast-growing businesses.” Does anybody else think this term reeks of hipster pretentiousness? This one wasn’t immediately clear to me so I got some help from Quora:

“The best way to understand growth hacking and what growth hackers do is to first understand what is meant by the term hacker. A hacker is someone who is more concerned with achieving an objective than following a prescribed process. In other words, hackers care more about what needs to get done than how it should get done. As a result, hackers often come up with innovative ways to get things done.”

Mattan Griffel, Partner at GrowHack

Thank you Mattan for putting that so eloquently because at first this sounded like someone who was brought in to be a jack-of-all-trades. Now I get it.

4. Social learning — “An individual’s learning a skill through observation, without necessarily changing their behaviors or on-the-job performance.”  Learning through observation certainly doesn’t sound like anything new. Don’t we start doing this the day we are born? The emphasis in the definition is put on the workplace but after researching that all I got was a reference to employees learning to stay on top of a fast moving world through social media. In my hypothesis, social learning referred to making online classes at universities a more social experience. Now that I think of it, Google Hangouts would be a good application for online learning.

5. Alphanista — “Successful women in powerful positions having it all.” I don’t know why this is on the list. And the term we prefer is “Wonderwoman” thank you.

6. Acqui-hire — “A blend of acquired and hired.” I think this word makes the most sense at least linguistically because it flows nicely and I can actually imagine people saying it. This happens when big companies, usually in the tech field, shop around for new talent. Who better to hire than a person or team with the experience and ingenuity of building their own great little product? A person with tech talent combined with the imagination to build products consumers want is very rare and valuable indeed. So,  you offer them an exorbitant amount of money for their company and absorb them into your own.

There are six more on Mashable’s list so “Part 2” will continue on Friday. Don’t forget to check back!