Re:Ask HN: We just launched. Should we rework our messaaging?
by luxative on Monday August 02, 2010 @11:42PM
(#1570038)
Thanks! The fact that this is the first time you've heard the word conveys a lot. We're looking at amending the tagline at this time. Would you know if there's a one word equivalent to footfalls? I don;t think footsteps would do it.
Re:Ask HN: We just launched. Should we rework our messaaging?
by gojomo on Tuesday August 03, 2010 @01:28AM
(#1570228)
From web searches, it seems there are two senses to the word 'footfalls': the sound of footsteps, and the amount of foot traffic past a retail location.
And those are the most common wordings in en-US: 'footsteps' is also the sound, and 'foot traffic' is the common term for the quantity of people walking by a storefront.
Re:Ask HN: We just launched. Should we rework our messaaging?
by luxative on Tuesday August 03, 2010 @02:23AM
(#1570321)
Appreciate the inputs. I guess "Social foot traffic for your Local Business",while correct, doesn't quite pack a punch. Perhaps we'll just go with "Social traffic for your Local Business". Anyway, I'm relooking the headline too - so hopefully we'll change the copy to something much more clear.
Re:Ask HN: We just launched. Should we rework our messaaging?
by gojomo on Tuesday August 03, 2010 @04:13AM
(#1570480)
Happy to help. While I can say 'footfalls' is an unfamiliar word for a US reader, it might still have some curiosity-generating value for its novelty -- as long as you aren't expecting it to have explanatory value alone. (I might have thought it was a brandable word you made up, to describe some unique feature/metric of your product, had the context of your question not made clear it was a real word from elsewhere.)
It would work better as a product/service name -- then your efforts can fill in the details; its lack of a literal meaning to many Americans could even be a benefit. But as a tagline, it obscures rather than clarifies.