I stumbled across a few things this week that illuminate the importance of language.

The first was a funny website put up by Kivi Leroux Miller on “Nonprofit Buzzword Bingo.” Buzzword Bingo has been around for a while–it was even featured in an IBM TV commercial. You hand out bingo cards with trite, over-used words or phrases on it and then mark them off as you listen to the CEO’s speech. Miller just put in terms that nonprofits like, such as partnerships, core values, and owning a decision.

Of course, I commented to Kivi on twitter that I have written some articles that probably would have instantly won her bingo game off one of the Gamesys Bingo Sites. And Jeffery Cuffaude commented on Ann Oliveri’s post about the subject that he can get cranky about conversations like this because “buzzwords to one person are often meaningful language to another.”

That’s an important point. It’s a both and. If we spend time trying to convince each other that “component” is a good or a bad word to describe a chapter or otherwise affiliated organization, I think we end up missing the point. Sometimes “component” is going to annoy people as jargaon, and sometimes it will please people with its precision and clarity.

One trick is knowing your audience. Part of where we get into trouble is hanging around people who think and talk like us (like among staff at your association), and then trying to write for an audience who is different (like the members). I think corporate buzzword bingo emerged from the reality that the executives spent their entire world in meetings with other exectuives discussing big picture strategies, where those words meant something, but when the rank and file hear them, they laugh. Those words just don’t have the same meaning in their world.

Language is important, so choose your words carefully and with intention. But make sure you have vehicles for feedback from your target audience, because choosing the perfect words matters less when your audience doesn’t understand them. It’s not about being right. It’s about making a difference. It’s not about answers. It’s about the conversation.