Picking on the words: campaign

Sometimes, when I comment (okay, rant) on a specific word choice, some of my friends (who shall remain nameless in hopes that they will remain my friends) will say I’m focusing on semantics or that I’m just picking on the words.

Exactly.

People, words are important. We should take care when picking the words we use, especially in this digital-first world where it’s likely people will ‘meet’ you online long before they do so in-person (if that ever happens).

Ironically, even as images and video become increasingly prevalent, the words you choose become even more important — because they represent you.

As Ann Handley says in her book, Everyone Writes, “Words matter. Your words (what you say) and style (how you say it) are your most cherished (and, yet, undervalued) assets.”Agreed (you should pick up her book, by the way).

Which brings me to the word for this time — campaign. Those of us who are self-proclaimed ‘purists’ of content marketing believe that content marketing is not a campaign, because a campaign has a beginning and an end.

Content marketing is ongoing, so to talk about a ‘content marketing campaign’ is akin to referring to ‘military intelligence’ or ‘jumbo shrimp’ — it just doesn’t make any sense.

Campaigns still exist, of course. There are political campaigns and advertising campaigns, both of which have a beginning and an end. And, remarkably, these kinds of campaigns aren’t going anywhere, even as consumers look for and find new ways to avoid both on an almost-daily basis.

Content marketing, on the other hand, isn’t about interrupting. It’s simply about helping. Or, what author and speaker Jay Baer calls Youtility in his book by the same name. Jay says, “The difference between helping and selling is just two letters. But those two letters are critically important to the success of business today.”

Content marketing doesn’t have an end because it’s merely an extension of your business (which hopefully doesn’t have an end, either). So the next time you find yourself talking about a ‘content marketing campaign,’ please,choose one or the other because they are very different things.

Want to nominate a word for next time? Please feel free to do so in the comments!