What Do "Best Practices" Mean?

Often I find myself in situations where people return my comments with blank stares. This is usually because I am using some marketing "buzzword" that's not mainstream vernacular.

And I am realizing that the average doesn't know what it means to follow "best practices."

This simply means that you don't have to re-invent the wheel. "Best practices" means following that which is statistically proven to work best.

There are best practices for design. Writing. Teaching. Athletics. Entrepreneurship.

Unless you're Mozart, don't reinvent music. Figure out the system. Imitate the best. And you'll be fine.