That doesn’t mean what you think it does

Don’t worry if you’re not a sports fan, this isn’t about sports.

But do try to muster a little empathy for a San Francisco Giants fan…

Long before their World Series runs of the last decade, they were a team that couldn’t catch a break.

An earthquake interrupted a series that saw them swept by the team across the Bay. Then, four years later, they had one of the best records in baseball.

The 1993 Giants won 103 games.

That’s over 63%. It’s really good.

At the time, there were two divisions: East and West. Only the best record in each division made the playoffs.

The Atlanta Braves won 104 games.

Not a problem, right? San Francisco is clearly in the West (it’s by the ocean, on the left side of the map). Atlanta must be in the East. Georgia touches the other ocean, after all!

And yet…

Before Atlanta, the Braves were in Milwaukee. Wisconsin can claim West in a way Georgia cannot. But nobody bothered to update the divisions and the Giants missed the playoffs.

“West” didn’t mean West.

You can find other misnomers in other sports.

Basketball, for example:

• The LA Lakers originated in Minnesota, the “Land-o-lakes”
• For its first five years, The Jazz played in New Orleans, which makes more sense than Utah
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Over time, using the wrong words starts to feel normal.

(“Decimated” means to decrease by only 10%, yet it’s used much more negatively.)

The way we talk about community can often miss the point, too…

For example, we often encounter teams that want to “create a community.” You can’t create a community, just like you can’t move Atlanta to the West Coast.

You can join existing communities.

You can attract an existing community to your product.

You can nurture a community that has already gathered around your product.

But you can’t create one.

That’s what makes authentic technical content such a powerful tool. It’s one your whole team needs to use.

Working with teams to better reach technical communities is one of the best parts of my work. We have a Technical Content Accelerator that is guaranteed to get you on the same page.

But we can only take so many teams.

If that’s something you need, please apply today. We’ll try to limit our sports metaphors, though sometimes we strike out.