Recently, I was at a business card exchange and was doing what comes so unnaturally to most folks. I was talking to a young owner of Astera Video Productions, located in the suburbs of Philadelphia and, of course, networking and exchanging business cards. Usually, it’s the status-quo, the friendly banter and pleasantries and both parties go their separate ways. But Tony from Astera was different, he engaged me in a conversation about my business, he examined my card and asked me geniune questions about my business. Where do I find my clients? What services do you offer them? Pretty standard stuff. But then he asked me about the words on my business card. Why did you name your company RavenWood Creative? (see my previous post for an explanation) I then stopped Tony and asked him “well first tell me me where Astera came from?” He laughed and said I do a lot of business from the Yellow Pages and I used to have a name that began with “S” so I looked in a book for an “A” name and formed Astera which is a play on the Latin word astrum meaning star.

As Senator Obama has reminded us lately, we put a lot of thought and, most of the time, meaning behind our words. “We the People … All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others,” or, one of my favorites, ”Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.’”

There’s power in our words.

And as Gerry McGovern has pointed out in his work on the power of the web, words are the foundation of the internet, albiet in digital form of 0s and 1s. The combination of 0s and 1s form the stirring stories of our lives, our businesses, our hopes and dreams. When was the last time you looked at the word you use on your site? What do they say about you and your business or interests? Is your navigation or the word you use clear to the viewer or are they some words only people within your company use. With everything online, customers don’t have much time or more importantly patience to decifer “your langauage” to find what they want. Brevity is king on the net, but clarity is the Queen.

What are your thoughts? Write me some words in the Comments. Until next time, Tim