CRM, FIPS, ROI, BI, IP, PIV.
S-T-O-P!
It has now been three months since leaving behind 15 years of newspaper reporting and editing to work in the high-tech PR world; the first thing I noticed was the alphabet soup that filled my head.
The life I formerly knew frowned upon, no despised, acronyms.
“You don’t speak in acronyms, so don’t put them in your story,” a former editor once barked at me.
As an editor, I turned them back into real words or deleted them from stories entirely. Then I grabbed the reporter and let him or her know in no uncertain terms they were not to use them.
Of course there were a few exceptions to the rule: USDA, ATF, FBI, AFL-CIO, etc.
I’ll have to retrain myself, because after just the first week, I noticed in the high-tech PR world that reporters, editors, marketing executives, just about everyone, speaks in acronyms.
H-O-L-Y M-O-L-Y!