Whether you’re sending a text message or an actual letter, stop and think before you use a set of initials in place of words.
Even the common ones used in real estate, such as NAR and MLS, might not mean anything to a recent immigrant or to someone who has never paid much attention to real estate in the past. Then when you get into individual states, it can get worse. Will someone from Minnesota automatically know that CAR stands for the California Association of REALTORS®?
If you’re writing to another member of your profession, abbreviations and jargon are fine because you both understand the meaning (at least if you're in the same State). When you’re writing to anyone else, they may or may not know what you're trying to say.
Initials that stand for organizations aren’t the only ones causing confusion. Now that so many are texting, text abbreviations are sneaking into their other written communication. And I suppose that’s OK, but only if they know that the person they’re writing to is also familiar with texting abbreviations and will know what they mean. Even recently, I've had people ask me if I had any idea what LOL means, because they sure didn't know.
I harp a lot about being careful with word usage and proofreading carefully to avoid putting stop signs in the middle of your marketing messages.
Unexplained initials are huge stop signs.
Not long ago I received an “urgent message” from an organization that identified itself only through its initials. They simply assumed that I would know who they are and what they stand for. I got a pretty good idea of what they were about by skimming the message – but I still don’t know their name.
I wasn't curious enough to try Googling those initials to get a clue. In the past, when one of my agent bio clients used them when answering my questionnaire, I've tried using Google. What I found was that it is far too time consuming, and I still might not get an answer. For any given set of initials there are dozens, if not hundreds of organizations, text abbreviations, or “jargon” usages. Those who are determined to find the meaning can go through all of them and try to find the one that fits the context of whatever they were reading. I don't even try any more – I just write and ask.
So – your reader might be able to figure it out, but if they take the time to try it will interrupt the flow, and then… the message you were trying to convey will be forgotten.
If you really don’t want to take the time to write out the words throughout your message, or if writing them out would make the message lose its rhythm, give your readers a break. Define the initials the first time you use them. For instance, if referring to the National Association of REALTORS® simply put NAR in parentheses following the name.
And as for texting abbreviations – save them for texting.
Remember that when you’re writing to the general public or prospecting to a niche market, there are still people who do not text. They won’t have the first clue what you’re talking about, so your letter will go quickly to the round file.
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