Innovate the hell out of that selfie: The 15 most used business buzzwords of 2014

Innovation, game-changer and Internet of Things were among the most used business buzzwords in 2014.

According to an analysis of online media publications and blogs by Meltwater, innovation or innovate was overwhelmingly the most-used business buzzword in the media last year, racking up more than 13 million mentions worldwide.

Innovation was also the most commonly used business term in Australian online media, with close to 280,000 instances of the word being used counted by Meltwater.

Coming in at second place on the Australian list was selfie, with 54,514 mentions, followed by cloud computing with 53,928 mentions and game-changer with 24,447 mentions.

Globally, cloud computing was the second most commonly used business buzzword with more than 1.6 million mentions, following by ‘big data’ with close to a million mentions and selfie, with approximately 820,000 mentions.

Online business media outlets were also keen to discuss the different generations that make up a workplace last year, with Baby Boomer, Gen Y, Generation X, Generation Z all making the cut. Even Generation Alpha – those born in 2010 and after – racked up 129 mentions globally and 80 mentions in Australia last year.

Luke Timbrell, managing director of Meltwater Group, told SmartCompany Meltwater collected the data from more than 250,000 online news sources over the 12-month period.

“Innovation or innovate bring together many of the other key words used during the course of 2014,” Timbrell says.

“Cloud computing and big data are all areas of increased innovation. Disruptive innovation was also a big reason why the word was popular last year, with companies like Uber having a huge year in 2014. That also accounts for terms such as game-changer coming in fourth on the Australian list.”

While selfie is a somewhat surprising inclusion in a list of business buzzwords, Timbrell says given selfies really took off in 2013, it “makes sense it would creep into business terms as companies look to use its popularity for their own marketing”.

Looking ahead to 2015, Timbrell predicts Internet of Things will rise up the ranks of popular business buzzwords this year.

“The Internet of Things came pretty late to the scene in 2014, with most mentions occurring in the second half of the year,” he says.

“That will continue to climb as the price of internet-connected devices in the home decreases and accessibility increases.”

The most used business buzzwords in Australian online media in 2014

The most used business buzzwords in international online media in 2014