Stop chasing bullet points

We care so much about tasks, and seemingly so little about the big picture.

Here’s what I mean by the headline: the idea of “chasing bullet points” means that, instead of doing actual work that moves forward the organizational purpose or the bottom line in some way, you’re looking for stats/numbers/some other concept that you can slap next to a bullet point and please either (a) your boss or (b) some audience you’re speaking to — or both. It’s patently useless as a concept, and yet, people do it every minute in offices all over the world.

A good example for some would be “media impressions.” This number essentially means very little. It’s kind of like social engagement. We love to measure it, but it doesn’t even mean that much — “272 shares!” doesn’t translate to brand loyalty, it doesn’t translate to money, it doesn’t translate to brand awareness, etc. Hell, it doesn’t even translate to “272 people read this.”

We chase big numbers — especially for bulleted presentations — because we think they’re more impressive to the people we need to impress (“gotta keep the client happy!”), even if they mean nothing. You’d much rather than 200 people read your content and act on it (i.e. chase your offer) than 2 million “impressions.” Marketing, as a field, is all about “The Temple of Big Numbers” but…