v-Fluence Blog

Mastering the Language of the Internet—C’est Facile, non?

Languages have always been my thing. From a youthful fascination with hieroglyphics and sign language to a 15-year commitment to French and the "language of music" via singing and piano, I've always been drawn to new tongues, texts and methods of communication. As a current resident of France, where I live 100 percent in French and work 100 percent in English, I am thrilled to be able to continue improving my language skills. What's more, working for v-Fluence has challenged me to learn a new language, that of the Internet.

When I first joined the company and heard people speaking on conference calls about "content migration," "Search Engine Optimization (SEO)," and "RSS feeds," two frightening images came to mind. The first was of Sandra Bullock's hermit-esque character working at home in The Net-my introduction, albeit fictional, to "Web language" and the virtual office space. The second image was of a college friend's impossibly complicated computer science assignment-A Fibonacci generator-in my sophomore year of college. As someone who likes being outside, going out on the weekends and avoided computer science like the plague, it's understandable why these images didn't evoke warm, fuzzy feelings.

Thankfully, my fears were proved false upon meeting the voices I'd become accustomed to hearing every week on company calls. My colleagues were people who, like me, watched bad TV, enjoyed sports and, for some, appreciated a nice glass of red wine. The only difference between us was they were fluent speakers of Internet, while I dabbled with the equivalents of "bonjour" "merci" and occasionally, "qu'est-ce que c'est?" So, wanting to master "the lingo" I set to work using the same process I would to learn any other language; reading online publications and listening to colleagues' "e-term"-filled discussions. My next step: Employ that language into my own daily communications.

What I found was that, while my sentiments about Fibonacci and his generator remain unchanged, Internet language is worth understanding, even for those not working for a virtual company. There are a million Web pages online waiting to be discovered and played with, but you have to be able to speak the language to find them. Further, oddly-named online tools such as social bookmarking sound intimidating, but are actually simple in concept (not to mention really fun). Before I joined v-Fluence, had you asked me if I was interested in learning about social bookmarking, I might have been intimidated and run in the other direction. Now I know proper communication mixed with a little real world translation can win over those, like me, who were or are unfamiliar with tech-y Internet vocabulary. Who wouldn't want to learn about a system that allows you to save and share your favorite Web pages and articles?

This translation of Internet jargon to real world language is a common obstacle faced by those of us at v-Fluence. The most common example is what v-Fluence president Jay Byrne likes to call the "elevator conversation;" describing what we do to a stranger in the few seconds it takes to ride an elevator. It's a challenge-especially, I'm sure, for our OEO team. I smile imagining how our online marketing guru Chris Clark explains what some call the "geeky marketing tool called search engine optimization (SEO)" to the random guy at the sports bar. Maybe he says, "It's like fighting to be the No. 1 search result in Google, Yahoo, etc."

My spiel is always changing, but the last time I got it down it went something like, "We help companies understand, and establish a positive presence on the Internet."

I still have questions (plenty), and always will, as the Internet is ever-expanding and thus, so are the ways in which we talk about and engage it. The thing is, unlike sign language, music and French, this language is quickly becoming less of an option and more of an obligation (not to mention an eye-opening opportunity!).

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