A mystical bond

For all hub-bub about "new" marketing strategies, Faberge shampoo nailed the idea of social media about 30 years ago.



She told two friends, and she told two friends, and so on and so on and so on.

That is the foundation of user-generated content and social media marketing.

The only thing that has changed in 30 years is now, when "she" has something to say, she now tells thousands of friends, and they tell thousands ... and so on.

But still, at its core, social media is gossip.

As Theodore Bernstein notes in "The Careful Writer," though:

There is a tendency in specialized groups, for reasons of either establishing a kind of mystical bond or asserting a kind of self-importance, to employ esoteric or prententious words."

Of course, Bernstein is a writer, not a content marketing guru, or SEO maven, or digital whizkid.

But the next time a guru, maven, or whizkid starts using esoteric or pretentious words, they're covering the same ground Faberge covered 30 years ago.