Okay, I will admit that I am not tops at coming up with brilliant names, headlines, sub-heads and so forth, but I definitely know a clunker when I see one. MediaBistro is starting up a blog that will allow their AvantGuild members to showcase some of their work, comment on the media fields in which they work, etc., and currently their chosen blog title is… TK.
That’s right, TK. For those not in the media, “TK” is what you write in a piece when you think “Hmm, there should be a fact or figure here, but I don’t happen to have it right now, so I will have to go look it up later.” It’s a placeholder meaning “to come” that makes it easier to return to the spot in your manuscript once you have the info, or else it acts as a reminder that you have to look something up. It’s perfectly helpful and reasonable for a writer to use TK in their drafts, but as the title for a blog, it stinks. Total name fail.
Here’s why:
- It implies that the people writing the blog don’t actually know anything, because they will have to go look it up later (as this is what TK literally means)
- It looks like the name of the blog is, itself, a placeholder, which implies that the people who started it have no idea what to call it and have given up
- It’s trying to play on some “insider” knowledge, but TK is pretty low on the list of things an insider would need to know to get ahead in the field
- Seth Godin (writer, speaker and agent of change) says you should never use a placeholder name for your blog, as people will fall in love with it, and then changing it will be impossible. Please, for the love of dog, listen to Seth Godin!
That being said, it’s better than all their other idiotic suggestions, which include 4UXU (“for you by you”), The Mediabistro Bump (supposedly “an homage to Stephen Colbert’s The Colbert Bump”), UFTW (“you for the win”), and the possibly-maybe facetious “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Blogorium.” Seriously.
I know media types love puns (hell, I sure do), and riffing on already-famous titles, song lyrics, etc., but 4UXU? UFTW? These are pathetic. We can do better… can’t we?
In the comments section, there were a few good suggestions. Greg Vogel suggested “BistroVision,” and Ed Cohen went for “In Communicado.” These are both far better than “TK.” As I said in my comment, the blog needs something that suggests its connection to MediaBistro, something that’s clever but not precious, and avoids being a lame variant on “for us, by us.” I certainly don’t think “BistroBlog” is the most original name in the world, but at least it’d be honest.
So what would you name a MediaBistro blog?
I will argue only this:
Google “mediabistro“
now Google “tk”
Exactly! Idiots.