Gorilla Marketing

Yes, you read that right: gorilla marketing.

It’s something a client asked me once. We were discussing social media strategy and this client asked about gorilla marketing. “You know, like commenting on posts and liking other pages with my business account?”

I tried to explain that this isn’t gorilla marketing, and it certainly isn’t guerilla marketing, which on social media is usually defined as something more viral but still low-cost.

However, the client proceeded to tell me how wrong I was and that I really needed to be doing more gorilla marketing to get better engagement online. While I informed them that I was in fact interacting on social media, this is more of a baseline for best account practices rather than an additional strategy for extending and improving reach and engagement.

And this dear reader is the premise for my next rant. Buzzwords. I hate buzzwords. Not a day goes by where someone doesn’t ask me if I’ve ever heard of or tried “xyz” before. In reality, “xyz” is an age old marketing tactic that’s been given a facelift with a new, flashy name. This new name then reaches people who have little to no experience where they begin to tout the importance of “xyz”, shouting it from the rooftops like its some life changing piece of information for marketers.

Aside from my bout with “gorilla marketing”, I continue to hear about geo-fencing. Now, anyone who has ever run a Google ad, or an ad on social media knows that location targeting is a must. But those who don’t have as much experience in the digital realm are easily taken in by these buzzwords. They hear “geofencing” and think its the next big trend. They ask everyone they know in marketing if they do geofencing and push it on every new person to work on their campaigns.

And the truth is that most of the time, nobody will correct them.

Buzzwords are trendy, here one minute and gone the next. So why do we get so fixated on them? And why do they seem the most ingrained with people who actually don’t even know what they mean or how they apply in real world settings?

The gist of it is that people want to sound smart. If I had a nickel for every time I heard someone say “I know enough to be dangerous”, I’d be set for life.

If only these people knew how true their words were. Not knowing what you don’t know can be dangerous. It can lead to people following the trends and chasing the buzzwords until their campaigns get driven right into the ground because they weren’t customized and optimized to fit the  unique needs and capabilities of the organization running them.

The moral of the story is this: research your buzzwords, learn what they mean, learn how they fit into the real world, and learn how to actually apply what they mean into your marketing. If you learn that they actually don’t apply, don’t use them. You don’t have to keep up with the trends if it isn’t effective for your business.

At the end of the day, what works for your business works for your business. It may not always line up with what works for everyone else’s business, and that’s okay. You don’t have to stick to the trends, and you certainly don’t have to try and work a buzzword into every single conversation you have with a marketer. Seriously.

So next time you feel like using a buzzword, ask yourself this, “Do I know what this buzzword means and does it actually apply to this situation?” I promise, you’ll save yourself from looking dumb.

Thanks for reading. I hope you’ve enjoyed the musings of the Sparkle Team Blog. If you’ve got a good example of some marketing that didn’t exactly sparkle, send us an email and we’ll get your story featured in the blog. And make sure to give us your best buzzwords!

-STB