From a week showered with trending events, people, places and hashtags (check out Topsy , Google Trends Top Charts and RiteTag), there is a lesson in the choice of two words used by Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush: stuff happens. It happened, all right, a social stream frenzy of hashtags, memes and commentary in the wake of the Oregon college shooting.
In the Slate.com article, “Stuff Happens” Roseburg Quote Was Bad, staff writer Jim Newell described the frenzy this way:
Two words from Jeb Bush were enough to bring Politics Twitter to an exhausting semantic analysis Friday afternoon—just the sort of tedious debate the world looks forward to before sailing into the weekend.
This sparked a relatively cross-partisan debate about Bush’s meaning. Was he shrugging off the massacre, in a what a crazy world we live in, whatcha gonna do sense? Or was he—as conservatives like Frank Luntz as well as liberals like the New Republic’s Brian Beutler and the Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald suggested—implying that the “stuff” was tragic, but it’s best to react cautiously lest hastily thought-out public policy decisions are made?
The social posts were fast, furious and trending. According to RiteTag, by the close of the weekend, #stuffhappens continued to generate four unique tweets and 246 views per hour.
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/650309177093570560
Jeb Bush has neither apologized for nor acknowledged his insensitive use of “stuff happens.” In fact, he stands by his choice of words. But in this writer’s opinion, how he said them minimized the seriousness of gun violence tragedies in our communities.
Here’s the lesson. Whether or not you’re running for office or running a small business, speaking off-the-cuff, going off-script and making flubs have viral consequences. In a post for Ketchum.com, Shawn Paul Wood put together an excellent list of five public speaking missteps you need to avoid. One, in particular, we’d like to share here:
Using jargon. It sometimes feels as if we all have a secret sheet of “Buzzword Bingo” hidden in our desks in the hope that using buzzwords and corporate jargon makes us sound like experts. As much as “moving the needle” and plucking that “low-hanging fruit” makes you feel like the superhero of the PR galaxy, it can sound amateurish on stage or in a boardroom. You are better than that. Abstain from the clichés and build your argument on a foundation of insight and clarity. You’ll be a better person for it.
What were some of your most memorable posts from last week? What marketing lessons can we learn? Comment below or visit LGK on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, G+, and share!
GB O’Brien
LGK Principal
For daily marketing communications news online, subscribe to LGK’s free MarCom Digest. Maximize your momentum!
Photo credit: Frau Hölle / Foter / CC BY-SA