discussion 1 and 2

Vice President, Business Publishing: Donna Battista Director of Portfolio Management: Stephanie Wall Portfolio Manager: Dan Tylman Editorial Assistant: Linda Siebert Albelli Vice President, Product Marketing: Roxanne McCarley Director of Strategic Marketing: Brad Parkins Strategic Marketing Manager: Deborah Strickland Product Marketer: Becky Brown Field Marketing Manager: Lenny Ann Kucenski Product Marketing Assistant: Jessica Quazza Vice President, Production and Digital Studio, Arts and Business: Etain O’Dea Director of Production, Business: Jeff Holcomb Managing Producer, Business: Ashley Santora Operations Specialist: Carol Melville Creative Director: Blair Brown Manager, Learning Tools: Brian Surette Content Developer, Learning Tools: Lindsey Sloan Managing Producer, Digital Studio, Arts and Business: Diane Lombardo Digital Studio Producer: Monique Lawrence Digital Studio Producer: Darren Cormier Digital Studio Producer: Alana Coles Full-Service Project Management and Composition: SPi Global Interior Design: SPi Global Cover Design: Laurie Entringer Cover Art: Jesus Sanz/Shutterstock Printer/Binder: R.R. Donnelly Cover Printer: R.R. Donnelly

Microsoft and/or its respective suppliers make no representations about the suitability of the information contained in the documents and related graphics published as part of the services for any purpose. All such documents and related graphics are provided “as is” without warranty of any kind. Microsoft and/or its respective suppliers hereby disclaim all warranties and conditions with regard to this information, including all warranties and conditions of merchantability, whether express, implied or statutory, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement. In no event shall Microsoft and/or its respective suppliers be liable for any special, indirect or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or profits, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tortious action, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of information available from the services.

The documents and related graphics contained herein could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Changes are periodically added to the information herein. Microsoft and/or its respective suppliers may make improvements and/or changes in the product(s) and/or the program(s) described herein at any time. Partial screen shots may be viewed in full within the software version specified.

Microsoft® and Windows® are registered trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation in the U.S.A. and other countries. This book is not sponsored or endorsed by or affiliated with the Microsoft Corporation.

Copyright © 2018, 2016, 2014 by Bovée & Thill, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. This publication is protected by copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise. For information regarding permissions, request forms, and the appropriate contacts within the Pearson Education Global Rights and Permissions department, please visit www.pearsoned.com/permissions/ (http://www.pearsoned.com/permissions/)

Acknowledgments of third-party content appear on the appropriate page within the text.

PEARSON, ALWAYS LEARNING, MYBCOMMLAB® are exclusive trademarks owned by Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, any third-party trademarks, logos, or icons that may appear in this work are the property of their respective owners, and any references to third-party trademarks, logos, icons, or other trade dress are for demonstrative or descriptive purposes only. Such references are not intended to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, authorization, or promotion of Pearson’s products by the owners of such marks, or any relationship between the owner and Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates, authors, licensees, or distributors.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on File 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN 13: 978-1-323-60762-6

7 Digital Media LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter, you will be able to

1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000307f#P7001012451000000000000000003083) Identify the major digital media formats available for business messages, and list nine compositional modes used in digital media.

2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000030fa#P70010124510000000000000000030FE) Describe the evolving role of email in business communication, and explain how to adapt the three-step writing process to email messages.

3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000031ce#P70010124510000000000000000031D2) Identify the advantages and disadvantages of business messaging systems.

4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003235#P7001012451000000000000000003239) Explain why organizing website content is so challenging, and explain the concept of information architecture.

5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000032bd#P70010124510000000000000000032C1) Explain how to adapt the three-step writing process to podcasting.

MyBCommLab®

Improve Your Grade!

More than 10 million students improved their results using Pearson MyLabs. Visit mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) for simulations, tutorials, and end-of-chapter problems.

COMMUNICATION CLOSE-UP AT Slack

slack.com (http://slack.com)

If there’s a business award for accidental success, Stewart Butterfield would surely be a leading contender for it. He has the unusual distinction of being the cofounder of two different video game companies that didn’t succeed at their original missions but wound up spinning off secondary software features that became massive business successes on their own. The first turned into the photo-sharing web service Flickr, which was once just a feature inside an online role- playing game.

After selling Flickr to Yahoo! for a tidy sum, Butterfield cofounded another video game company. Again, the game business didn’t work out, but he and his partners commercialized an instant messaging function the company had developed for internal use. That capability was expanded and became the Slack messaging system, and it is leading an upheaval in the world of business communication.

Slack cofounder and CEO Stewart Butterfield guides the development of a workplace messaging system that thousands of companies are using to improve team communication.

REUTERS/Mike Blake/Files

Slack offers several communication and information-management tools, but at its heart it is a workplace messaging system. Teams can set up a variety of channels to manage communication on specific topics, and individuals can configure alerts to make sure they get the messages they need without getting flooded by messages they don’t (one of the banes of email). All communication is automatically archived, so it’s easy for everyone on a team to find information. A key feature that Butterfield promotes with Slack is transparency, in that communication threads are no longer lost or hidden in private email exchanges but out in the open for everyone on a team to see and share.

To understand the appeal of Slack, one needs to understand the love/hate relationship many business professionals have with email. Email is so ubiquitous that it’s easy to forget what a revolutionary and disruptive medium it once was. In a world where internal memos could take hours to deliver and external letters could take days, nearly instantaneous email changed business communication forever, and it remains a vital communication tool.

However, email has long suffered from a serious case of too-much-of-a-good-thing. Many professionals complain of drowning in a flood of messages, with some getting dozens or hundreds of messages a day—even as they miss vital information when colleagues neglect to include them in message threads. Moreover, email is poorly suited to some of the tasks people use it for, such as project management, collaboration, information management, and other processes that require group communication and shared information access.

A variety of technologies that aim to overcome the disadvantages of email have recently entered the market, from basic instant messaging to full-featured collaboration systems. But few have caught on as quickly as Slack. Within a year of its 2013 launch, Slack had a half million daily users in 60,000 teams around the world and laid claim to being the fastest-growing business app in history. Within two years, the service had more than 2 million active users. Some describe it as more than a mere communication tool, calling it a radical way to transform how they work.

For many business communicators, Slack is clearly filling an unmet need. A majority of customers report greater productivity, more transparency, improved team culture, easier access to information, and a reduced need for meetings. On average, users say it has cut email use in their organizations almost in half, and many say it has nearly eliminated email entirely. By enabling communication and collaboration in ways that support how today’s professionals want and need to work,

Slack and other corporate messaging systems might finally be taming the dreaded email monster.1

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003304#P7001012451000000000000000003433)

7.1 Digital Media for Business Communication

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1 Identify the major digital media formats available for business messages, and list nine compositional modes used in digital media. The runaway success of Slack (profiled in the chapter-opening Communication Close-Up) highlights two important considerations in using digital media: choosing the best tools for the task at hand and using each tool wisely. This chapter offers advice on using tools you’re likely to encounter in any profession: email, messaging, websites, and podcasting. (Digital media with a social component are covered in Chapter 8 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003454#P7001012451000000000000000003454) .)

DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA OPTIONS

The considerable range of digital media available for business messages continues to grow as communication technologies evolve:

Business communicators use the full range of digital media options, from conventional email and messaging to social networking tools.

• Email. Conventional email has long been a vital medium for business communication, although in many instances it is being replaced by other tools that provide better support for instant communication and real-time collaboration.

• Messaging. From basic text messaging on mobile devices to multifunction group systems such as those offered by Slack, messaging in various forms now rivals or exceeds email in many companies.

• Web content. Websites are one of the most important digital media types, from small-business sites with a few pages to large corporate sites with hundreds or thousands of pages.

• Podcasting. Businesses use podcasts to replace or supplement some conference calls, newsletters, training courses, and other communication activities. • Social networks. Social networks have evolved into a major business communication technology, from well-known public networks to the private,

internal networks that many companies now use. • Information- and content-sharing sites. In addition to social networks, a variety of systems have been designed specifically for sharing content,

including user-generated content sites, media curation sites, and community Q&A sites. • Wikis. The collaborative nature of wikis—websites that can be expanded and edited by teams, user communities, or the public at large—make them a

natural fit for aggregating the knowledge of groups ranging from individual departments to the public at large. • Blogging and microblogging. The ability to update content quickly and easily makes blogs and microblogs (such as Twitter) a natural medium when

communicators want to get messages out in a hurry. • Online video. Digital and online video have transformed what used to be a fairly specialized tool into a mainstream business communication medium.

The first four of these—email, messaging, web content, and podcasting—are covered in this chapter. Digital media with a strong social element, from social networks to microblogs, are addressed in Chapter 8 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003454#P7001012451000000000000000003454) . Online video, along with other visual media, is covered in Chapter 9 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003806#P7001012451000000000000000003806) .

Note that the lines between these media often get blurred as systems expand their capabilities or people use them in new ways. Moreover, the mobile variants of all these technologies add another layer of challenges and opportunities for business communicators. For example, the ability to scan coded labels such as barcodes or the similar Quick Response (QR) codes attached to printed materials, products, or store windows (or the ability to pick up radio signals from near-field communication tags) gives smartphone users a way to get more information—from companies themselves and from other consumers providing reviews on social websites.

Most of your business communication is likely to be via digital means, but don’t overlook the benefits of printed messages. (For more on formatting printed letters and memos, see Chapter 6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000002ade#P7001012451000000000000000002ADE) and Appendix A (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000070ad#P70010124510000000000000000070AD) .) Here are several situations in which you should consider using a printed message rather than digital alternatives:

Even with the widespread use of digital media, printed memos and letters still play an important role in business communication.

• When you want to make a formal impression. For special messages, such as sending congratulations or condolences, the formality of printed documents usually makes them a much better choice than digital messages.

• When you are legally required to provide information in printed form. Business contracts and government regulations sometimes require that information be provided on paper.

• When you want to stand out from the flood of digital messages. If your audience’s computers are overflowing with Twitter updates, email messages, and messaging notifications, sometimes a printed message can stand out enough to get noticed.

• When you need a permanent, unchangeable, or secure record. Letters and memos are reliable. Once printed, they can’t be erased with a single keystroke or surreptitiously modified the way some digital messages can be. Printed documents also require more effort to copy and forward.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY READING THIS ARTICLE

Should you email, text, or pick up the phone?

These tips will help you make the best choice in various business situations. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

COMPOSITIONAL MODES FOR DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA

As you practice using various media and channels in this course, it’s best to focus on the fundamentals of planning, writing, and completing messages, rather than

on the specific details of any one medium or system.2

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003304#P7001012451000000000000000003435) Fortunately, the basic communication skills required usually transfer from one system to another. You can succeed with written communication in virtually all digital media by using one of nine compositional modes:

Communicating successfully with digital media requires a wide range of writing approaches.

• Conversations. Messaging is a great example of a written medium that mimics spoken conversation. And just as you wouldn’t read a report to someone sitting in your office, you wouldn’t use conversational modes to exchange large volumes of information or to communicate with more than a few people at once.

• Comments and critiques. One of the most powerful aspects of social media is the opportunity for interested parties to express opinions and provide feedback, whether by leaving comments on a blog post or reviewing products on an e-commerce site. Sharing helpful tips and insightful commentary is also a great way to build your personal brand. To be an effective commenter, focus on short chunks of information that a broad spectrum of other site visitors will find helpful. Rants, insults, jokes, and blatant self-promotion are of little benefit to others.

• Orientations. The ability to help people find their way through an unfamiliar system or subject is a valuable writing skill and a talent that readers greatly appreciate. Unlike summaries (see the next item), orientations don’t give away the key points in the collection of information but rather tell readers where to find those points. Writing effective orientations can be a delicate balancing act because you need to know the material well enough to guide others through it while being able to step back and view it from the inexperienced perspective of a “newbie.”

• Summaries. At the beginning of an article or webpage, a summary functions as a miniature version of the document, giving readers all the key points while skipping over details. At the end of an article or webpage, a summary functions as a review, reminding readers of the key points they’ve just read. A series of key points extracted from an article or webpage can also serve as a summary.

• Reference material. One of the greatest benefits of the Internet is the access it can provide to vast quantities of reference materials—numerical or textual information that people typically don’t read in a linear way but rather search through to find particular data points, trends, or other details. One of the challenges of writing reference material is that you can’t always know how readers will want to access it. Making the information accessible via search engines is an important step. However, readers don’t always know which search terms will yield the best results, so consider an orientation and organize the material in logical ways with clear headings that promote skimming.

• Narratives. The storytelling techniques covered in Chapter 4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001f59#P7001012451000000000000000001F59) can be effective in a wide variety of situations. Narratives work best when they have an intriguing beginning that ignites readers’ curiosity, a middle section that moves quickly through the challenges that an individual or company faced, and an inspiring or instructive ending that gives readers information they can apply in their own lives and jobs.

• Teasers. Teasers intentionally withhold key pieces of information as a way to pull readers or listeners into a story or other document. Teasers are widely used in marketing and sales messages, such as a bit of copy on the outside of an envelope that promises important information on the inside. In digital media, the space limitations and URL linking capabilities of Twitter and other microblogging systems make them a natural tool for the teaser approach. Although they can certainly be effective, teasers need to be used with respect for readers’ time and information needs. Be sure that the payoff, the information a teaser links to, is valuable and legitimate. You’ll quickly lose credibility if readers think they are being tricked into clicking through to information they don’t really want. (Tweetables are Twitter-ready bites of information extracted from a blog post or other messages. They often serve as teasers, although a series of them can make an effective summary as well.)

• Status updates and announcements. If you use social media frequently, much of your writing will involve status updates and announcements (see Figure 7.1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000307f#P70010124510000000000000000030CA) ). However, don’t post trivial information that only you are likely to find interesting. Post only those updates that readers will find useful, and include only the information they need.

• Tutorials. Given the community nature of social media, the purpose of many messages is to share how-to advice. Becoming known as a reliable expert is a great way to build customer loyalty for your company while enhancing your own personal value.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY READING THIS ARTICLE

Telling compelling stories on social media

Storytelling is an effective business communication strategy, and social media can be the ideal platform for it. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

As you approach a new communication task using digital media, ask yourself what kind of information audience members are likely to need, then choose the appropriate compositional mode. Of course, many of these modes are also used in written media, but over time, you may find yourself using all of them in various digital and social media contexts.

Figure 7.1 Compositional Modes: Status Updates and Announcements

Contests, such as this one featuring Fender musical equipment, are a popular message form on Facebook and other social media.

Courtesy Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.

OPTIMIZING CONTENT FOR MOBILE DEVICES

Chapters 5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000002445#P7001012451000000000000000002445) and 6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000002ade#P7001012451000000000000000002ADE) offer tips on writing and formatting messages for mobile devices. While keeping the limitations of the small screens of mobile devices and alternative input methods in mind, look for opportunities to take advantage of mobile-specific capabilities via apps and mobile-friendly websites. Mobile expands your options as a content creator, and it gives your audience members a wider range of engaging ways to consume your content:

Mobile offers a range of exciting ways to enhance the audience experience.

• Location-based services. Location-based social networking links the virtual world of online social networking with the physical world of retail stores and other locations. As mobile web use in general continues to grow, location-based networking promises to become an important business communication medium because mobile consumers are a significant economic force—through the purchases they make directly and through their

ability to influence other consumers.3

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003304#P7001012451000000000000000003437)

• Gamification. The addition of game-playing aspects to apps and web services, known as gamification, can increase audience engagement and encourage repeat use. The highlight box on page 27 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001390#page_27) has more on this intriguing business tool.

• Augmented reality. Superimposing data on live camera images can enrich experiences for consumers and supply useful information to business users (see Figure 7.2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000307f#P70010124510000000000000000030E9) on the next page). The Future of Communication (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003235#P7001012451000000000000000003243) box on page 213 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000353f#page_213) has more on augmented reality and virtual reality.

• Wearable technology. From virtual-reality goggles to smartwatches to body-movement sensors, wearable technology pushes the radical connectivity of mobile to the next level. Some of these items work as auxiliary screens and controls for other mobile devices, but others are meant for independent

use. One of the key promises of wearable technology is simplifying and enhancing everyday tasks for consumers and employees alike.4

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003304#P7001012451000000000000000003439)

• Mobile blogging. Smartphones and tablets are ideal for mobile blogs, sometimes known as moblogs. The mobile capability is great for workers whose jobs keep them on the move and for special-event coverage such as live-blogging trade shows and industry conventions.

Figure 7.2 Augmented Reality

The Maintenance Augmented Reality feature in Panasonic’s computer-integrated manufacturing software is a great example of using augmented reality for business communication. By simply pointing a mobile device at a machine, technicians can get detailed information needed for maintenance and repair.

Panasonic Corporation of North America

• Mobile podcasting. Similarly, smartphone-based podcasting tools make it easy to record audio on the go and post finished podcasts to your blog or website.

• Cloud-based services. Mobile communication is ideal for cloud-based services—digital services that rely on resources stored in the cloud.

7.2 Email

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

2 Describe the evolving role of email in business communication, and explain how to adapt the three-step writing process to email messages. Email has been a primary medium for many companies for several decades, and in the beginning it offered a huge advantage in speed and efficiency over the media it frequently replaced (printed and faxed messages). Over the years, email began to be used for many communication tasks simply because it was the only widely available digital medium for written messages and millions of users were comfortable with it. However, as Slack’s growth illustrates, other tools are taking over specific tasks for which they are better suited.

Overuse is one of the major complaints about email.

In addition to the widespread availability of better alternatives for many communication purposes, the indiscriminate use of email has lowered its appeal in the eyes of many professionals. In a sense, email is too easy to use—it’s too easy to send low-value messages to multiple recipients and to trigger long message chains that become impossible to follow as people chime in along the way. And because it is such a general-purpose tool, email gets used for everything from critically important messages to automated updates and confirmations with little or no value.

Email also suffers from an enormous problem with spam (unsolicited bulk email) and security risks such as computer viruses and phishing (fraudulent messages that prompt unwary users to divulge sensitivity information or grant access to protected networks). Spam accounts for roughly half of all email and requires great

effort to keep it from flooding users’ inboxes.5

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003304#P700101245100000000000000000343D) Most systems use spam and threat filters, but these filters are never 100 percent accurate and can also reject messages that are legitimate.

In spite of its shortcomings, email remains a major business communication medium.

Even with these drawbacks, email still has compelling advantages that will keep it in steady use in many companies. First, email is universal. Anybody with an email address can reach anybody else with an email address, no matter which systems the senders and receivers are on. Second, email is still the best medium for many private, short- to medium-length messages, particularly when the exchange is limited to two people. Unlike with microblogs or messaging, for instance, midsize messages are easy to compose and easy to read on email. Third, email’s noninstantaneous nature is an advantage when used properly. Email lets senders compose substantial messages in private and on their own schedule, and it lets recipients read those messages at their leisure.

PLANNING EMAIL MESSAGES

The solution to email overload starts in the planning step, by making sure every message has a valid, business-related purpose. Also, be aware that many companies now have formal email policies that specify how employees can use email, including restrictions against using the company email service for personal messages, sending confidential information, or sending material that might be deemed objectionable. In addition, many employers now monitor email, either automatically with software programmed to look for sensitive content or manually via security staff actually reading selected email messages. Regardless of formal policies, every email user has a responsibility to avoid actions that could cause trouble, from downloading virus-infected software to sending inappropriate photographs.

Cut down on message overload by making sure every email message you send has a valid business purpose.

Even with fairly short messages, spend a moment or two on the message planning tasks described in Chapter 4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001f59#P7001012451000000000000000001F59) : analyzing the situation, gathering necessary information for your readers, and organizing your message. You’ll save time in the long run because you will craft a more effective message on the first attempt. Your readers will get the information they need and won’t have to generate follow-up messages asking for clarification or additional information.

WRITING EMAIL MESSAGES

Business email messages are more formal than the email messages you send to family and friends.

Figure 7.3 Email for Business Communication

In this response to an email query from a colleague, Elaine Burgman takes advantage of her email system’s features to create an efficient and effective message.

MS Outlook 2013, © Microsoft.

Business email is a more formal medium than you are probably accustomed to with email for personal communication (see Figure 7.3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000030fa#P7001012451000000000000000003116) ). The expectations of writing quality for business email are higher than for personal email, and the consequences of bad writing or poor judgment can be much more serious. For example, email messages and other digital documents have the same legal weight as printed documents, and they are often used as evidence in lawsuits and

criminal investigations.6

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003304#P700101245100000000000000000343B)

The subject line is often the most important part of an email message because it can determine whether the message gets read.

The email subject line might seem like a small detail, but it is actually one of the most important parts of an email message because it helps recipients decide which messages to read and when to read them. To capture your audience’s attention, make your subject lines informative and compelling. Go beyond simply

describing or classifying your message; use the opportunity to build interest with keywords, quotations, directions, or questions.7

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003304#P700101245100000000000000000343F) For example, “July sales results” accurately describes the content of the message, but “July sales results: good news and bad news” is more intriguing. Readers will want to know why some news is good and some is bad.

In addition, many email programs display the first few words or lines of incoming messages, even before the recipient opens them. As noted by the social media public relations expert Steve Rubel, you can “tweetify” the opening lines of your email messages to make them stand out. In other words, choose the first few

words carefully to grab your reader’s attention.8

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003304#P7001012451000000000000000003441) Think of the first sentence as an extension of your subject line.

Attitudes about emoticons in business communication are changing; you’ll have to use your best judgment in every case.

As a lean medium, email can present challenges when you need to express emotional nuances, whether positive or negative. For years, users of email (as well as messaging and text messaging) have used a variety of emoticons to express emotions in casual communication. For example, to express sympathy as a way to take some of the sting out of negative news, one might use a “frowny face,” either the :( character string or a graphical emoticon such as or one of the colorful and

sometimes animated characters available in some systems.

DIGITAL + SOCIAL + MOBILE: TODAY’S COMMUNICATION ENVIRONMENT

Will Emoticons Give Your Career a Frowny Face?

Your project team has just been reprimanded by the boss for missing a deadline. Your colleagues left the meeting grumbling about being criticized in public after working nights and weekends, and you fear that morale will slip.

You could craft an inspirational message to soothe the bruised egos and get the team’s energy turned around in a positive direction. However, writing such a message could be risky because world-weary teammates might just brush it off as “happytalk” and resent you for trying to be a cheerleader.

Alternatively, you could suggest that your colleagues lighten up and stay focused on the ultimate goal of the project. However, you already know that telling grumpy people to cheer up is a surefire way to make most of them even grumpier.

Instead, you opt for a quick bit of gentle sarcasm, designed to help release the negative emotions in a collegial way. When you get back to your desk, you write the following instant message:

Well, let’s pick up the pieces of our shattered lives and move on ;-)

The over-the-top phrasing is a subtle way to remind everyone that the criticism wasn’t all that traumatic, and that winking emoticon tells everyone to lighten up without actually saying so. The apparent sarcasm connects with people who are marinating in their negative emotions, but it’s really a pep talk disguised as sarcasm.

Then you worry that the emoticon will seem unprofessional, so you replace it with a simple period:

Well, let’s pick up the pieces of our shattered lives and move on.

Oops. That one minor change to make the message more professional turned it into a statement of resigned sadness. You search your keyboard for any acceptable symbol that might help:

Well, let’s pick up the pieces of our shattered lives and move on!

Great, now you’ve managed to sound bitter and demanding at the same time.

Given the difficulty of communicating emotional nuance in lean media such as messaging and email, are emoticons really all that bad? The answer depends on the situation, your relationship with your audience, and the company culture. Until emoticons become more widely accepted in business communication, it’s wise to err on the side of caution.

CAREER APPLICATIONS

1. As a manager, what reaction would you have to job applicants who use emoticons in their email messages? 2. Are emoticons just a generational difference in perspective, or is there more to the issue? Explain your answer.

In past years, the use of emoticons was widely regarded as unprofessional and therefore advised against in business communication. Recently, though, an increasing number of professionals seem to be using them, particularly for communication with close colleagues, even as other professionals continue to view

them as evidence of lazy or immature writing.9

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003304#P7001012451000000000000000003443) In the face of these conflicting perspectives, the best advice is to use caution. Avoid emoticons for all types of external communication and for formal internal communication, and avoid those bright yellow graphical emoticons (and particularly animated emoticons) in all business communication.

COMPLETING EMAIL MESSAGES

Particularly for important messages, taking a few moments to revise and proofread might save you hours of headaches and damage control. The more important the message, the more carefully you need to proofread. Also, favor simplicity when it comes to producing your email messages. A clean, easily readable font, in black on a white background, is sufficient for nearly all email messages. Take advantage of your email system’s ability to include an email signature (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003304#P700101245100000000000000000330A) , a small file that automatically includes such items as your full name, title, company, and contact information at the end of your messages.

Think twice before hitting “Send.” A simple mistake in your content or distribution can cause major headaches.

When you’re ready to distribute your message, pause to verify what you’re doing before you click “Send.” Make sure you’ve included everyone necessary—and no one else. Don’t click “Reply All” when you mean to select “Reply.” The difference could be embarrassing or even career threatening. Don’t include people in the cc (courtesy copy or “carbon copy,” historically) or bcc (blind courtesy copy) fields unless you know how these features work. (Everyone who receives the message can see who is on the cc line but not who is on the bcc line.) Also, don’t set the message priority to “high” or “urgent” unless your message is truly urgent. And if you intend to include an attachment, be sure that it is indeed attached.

To review the tips and techniques for successful email, see Table 7.1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000030fa#P7001012451000000000000000003164) and “Checklist: Creating Effective Email Messages (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000030fa#P70010124510000000000000000031A0) ,” or select Chapter 7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003055#P7001012451000000000000000003055) at real- timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) .

TABLE 7.1 Tips for Effective Email Messages

Tip Why It’s Important

When you request information or action, make it clear what you’re asking for, why it’s important, and how soon you need it; don’t make your reader write back for details.

People will be tempted to ignore your messages if they’re not clear about what you want or how soon you want it.

When responding to a request, either paraphrase the request or include enough of the original message to remind the reader what you’re replying to.

Some businesspeople get hundreds of email messages a day and may need to be reminded what your specific response is about.

If possible, avoid sending long, complex messages via email. Long messages are easier to read as attached reports or web content.

Adjust the level of formality to the message and the audience. Overly formal messages to colleagues can be perceived as stuffy and distant; overly informal messages to customers or top executives can be perceived as disrespectful.

Activate a signature file, which automatically pastes your contact information into every message you create.

A signature saves you the trouble of retyping vital information and ensures that recipients know how to reach you through other means.

Don’t let unread messages pile up in your inbox. You’ll miss important information and create the impression that you’re ignoring other people.

Never type in all caps. ALL CAPS ARE INTERPRETED AS SCREAMING.

Don’t overformat your messages with background colors, multicolored type, unusual fonts, and so on.

Such messages can be difficult and annoying to read on screen.

Remember that messages can be forwarded anywhere and saved forever. Don’t let a moment of anger or poor judgment haunt you for the rest of your career.

Use the “return receipt requested” feature only for the most critical messages.

This feature triggers a message back to you whenever someone receives or opens your message; many consider this an invasion of privacy.

Make sure your computer has up-to-date virus protection. One of the worst breaches of “netiquette” is infecting other computers because you haven’t bothered to protect your own system.

Pay attention to grammar, spelling, and capitalization. Some people don’t think email needs formal rules, but careless messages make you look unprofessional and can annoy readers.

Use acronyms sparingly. Shorthand such as IMHO (in my humble opinion) and LOL (laughing out loud) can be useful in informal correspondence with colleagues, but avoid using them in more formal messages.

CHECKLIST Creating Effective Email Messages

A. Planning email messages • Make sure every email message you send is necessary. • Don’t cc or bcc anyone who doesn’t really need to see the message. • Follow company email policy; understand the restrictions your company places on email usage. • Practice good email hygiene by not opening suspicious messages, keeping virus protection up to date, and following other company

guidelines. • Follow the chain of command.

B. Writing email messages • Remember that business email is more formal than personal email. • Recognize that email messages carry the same legal weight as other business documents. • Pay attention to the quality of your writing and use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation. • Make your subject lines informative by clearly identifying the purpose of your message. • Make your subject lines compelling by wording them in a way that intrigues your audiences. • Use the first few words of the email body to catch the reader’s attention.

C. Completing email messages • Revise and proofread carefully to avoid embarrassing mistakes. • Keep the layout of your messages simple and clean, particularly for mobile recipients. • Use an email signature file to give recipients your contact information. • Double-check your recipient list before sending. • Don’t mark messages as “urgent” unless they truly are urgent.

7.3 Messaging

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

3 Identify the advantages and disadvantages of business messaging systems. The Slack profile at the beginning of the chapter highlights the rapid growth of messaging (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003304#P7001012451000000000000000003310) , a category of communication tools whose core focus is conversational exchanges. In contrast to email, which is a digital alternative to printed memos and letters, messaging is best thought of as a digital alternative to live voice conversation. Messaging technologies include text messaging on mobile phones, conventional instant messaging (IM) systems, online chat systems (such as those used by many companies for customer support), and workplace messaging systems such as Slack and its competitors.

A variety of digital messaging solutions are now available, from text messaging on mobile devices to private group messaging systems.

Messaging is a diverse category, and various systems offer a range of capabilities. They range from semipublic systems such as standard text messaging on mobile phones, in which anyone with your phone number can send you a message, to private systems that are closed to anyone other than invited members. Slack and other enterprise messaging systems are catching on with many businesses because they do a better job of enabling and capturing the communication flows that teams, departments, and other groups need in order to work together successfully. Messaging is also a function available on many collaboration platforms and social networks. And messaging isn’t strictly limited to human-to-human exchanges. As the Future of Communication box on page 278 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#page_278) in Chapter 10 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e00#P7001012451000000000000000003E00) points out, automated messaging bots can participate in simple conversational exchanges and assist users with various business tasks.

MOBILE APP

Telegram is a free messaging app that offers one-on-one and group chat capabilities.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF MESSAGING

Messaging offers several key benefits over email:

• The ability to mimic live conversation • Improved security • Instantaneous delivery

Messaging offers several key benefits over email for specific communication purposes, so it’s not surprising that it has been steadily replacing email in many applications in recent years. First, because it mimics voice conversation to a high degree, it is better suited to back-and-forth exchanges than email and other digital formats. If you’ve ever tried to carry on a conversation via email or Facebook comments, you know how agonizingly slow it can be to wait for the other person to respond. Second, with closed systems such as Slack, administrators can choose who is allowed to participate, which means they can block out all outside

distractions and threats.10

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003304#P7001012451000000000000000003445) Unlike email, which has no centralized control mechanism on the Internet, these private messaging systems spare users from many of the overload problems and security threats that plague mail. Third, the instantaneous nature of messaging makes it the best choice when senders want messages to be seen and acted on immediately. (Email systems can be set up with alerts to tell receivers about incoming messages, but the email messages still need to be opened before they can be read.)

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY READING THIS ARTICLE

The security worries behind the surge in business messaging

Find out why mobile messaging apps can be security risks. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

Messaging does have several potential drawbacks. First, for real-time conversational exchange, users of all systems are at the mercy of other users’ typing speed and accuracy, which can make messaging annoyingly slow in some cases. Second, messaging systems vary widely in their levels of security and privacy, and public IM systems aren’t as secure as private, enterprise-level systems. But even closed messaging systems such as Slack are at risk from security attacks. Third, like

email, messaging is a lean medium with little opportunity to convey nonverbal signals, which increases the chances of misinterpretation.11

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003304#P7001012451000000000000000003447)

Messaging is vulnerable to other people’s typing skills, systems are vulnerable to security attacks (although generally less vulnerable than email), and it is a lean medium with potential for miscommunication.

GUIDELINES FOR SUCCESSFUL MESSAGING

Although messages are often conceived, written, and sent within a matter of seconds, you can still apply key principles of the three-step process:

Although you don’t plan individual instant messages in the usual way, view important messaging exchanges as conversations with specific goals.

• Planning instant messages. View every exchange as a conversation; while you may not deliberately plan every individual statement you make or question you pose, take a moment to plan the overall exchange. If you’re requesting something, think through exactly what you need and the most effective way to ask for it. If someone is asking you for something, consider his or her needs and your ability to meet them before you respond. And although you rarely need to organize instant messages in the sense of creating an outline, try to deliver information in a coherent, complete way that minimizes the number of individual messages required.

• Writing instant messages. As with email, the appropriate writing style for business messaging is more formal than the style you may be accustomed to with personal IM or text messaging. You should generally avoid acronyms (such as FWIW for “for what it’s worth” or HTH for “hope that helps”) except when communicating with close colleagues. In the exchange in Figure 7.4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000031ce#P70010124510000000000000000031FC) , notice how the participants communicate quickly and rather informally but still maintain good etiquette and a professional tone. This style is even more important if you or your staff use messaging to communicate with customers and other outside audiences.

Figure 7.4 Instant Messaging for Business Communication

Instant messaging is widely used in business, but in most cases you should not use the same informal style of communication you probably use for messaging with your friends and family.

• Completing instant messages. One of the biggest attractions of messaging is that the completing step is so easy. You don’t have to produce the message in the usual sense, and distribution is as simple as hitting “Enter” or clicking a “Send” button. However, don’t skip over the revising and proofreading tasks. Quickly scan each message before you send it, to make sure you don’t have any missing or misspelled words and that your message is clear and complete. Keep in mind that many corporate messaging systems store every message, and systems such as Slack make them easily searchable, too, so even brief messages that you send in a hurry become part of a permanent record.

Regardless of the system you’re using, you can make messaging more efficient and effective by following these tips:12

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003304#P7001012451000000000000000003449)

Successful messaging starts with being thoughtful and courteous.

• Be thoughtful and courteous. People can be overloaded by messages just as easily as they can by emails and social media updates, so don’t waste time with chatter. When you want to start an exchange, ask the other person if he or she is free to chat, just as you would knock on someone’s office door and ask if this is a good time to talk. Introduce yourself if you’re messaging someone in your company for the first time.

• Make yourself unavailable when you need to focus on other work. You can reset your availability when a messaging conversation or meeting is scheduled.

• If you’re not on a secure system, don’t send confidential information. Your company’s security policies may prohibit certain types of communication on its messaging system.

• Be extremely careful about sending personal messages. They clutter communication channels meant for business, and they can embarrass recipients if they pop up at awkward moments.

• Don’t use messaging for impromptu meetings if you can’t verify that everyone concerned is available. You risk leaving important contributors out of the loop otherwise.

• Don’t use messaging for lengthy, complex messages. Email and other formats are better for those.

• Try to avoid carrying on multiple conversations at once. This minimizes the chance of sending messages to the wrong people or making one person wait while you tend to another conversation.

• Follow all security guidelines. These are designed to keep your company’s information and systems safe from attack.

To review the advice for effective messaging in the workplace, see “Checklist: Using Messaging Productively (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000031ce#P7001012451000000000000000003227) ” or select Chapter 7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003055#P7001012451000000000000000003055) at real- timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) .

CHECKLIST Using Messaging Productively

• Pay attention to security and privacy issues and be sure to follow all company guidelines. • Treat messaging as a professional communication medium, not an informal, personal tool; avoid using messaging slang with all but close colleagues. • Maintain good etiquette, even during simple exchanges. • Protect your own productivity by making yourself unavailable when you need to focus. • In most instances, don’t use messaging for complex or personal messages.

7.4 Website Content

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

4 Explain why organizing website content is so challenging, and explain the concept of information architecture. You probably won’t develop web content as often as you use email, social networks, and other media, but most companies have at least a basic website, and you might be involved in planning or expanding on it. Most of what you’re learning about using other digital media is relevant to website content as well, although the unique nature of websites presents some special challenges. (The information here applies to conventional web content. Blogs and wikis are covered in Chapter 8 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003454#P7001012451000000000000000003454) .)

ORGANIZING WEBSITE CONTENT

MOBILE APP

Weebly offers a simple way to create mobile-friendly websites.

The versatility of websites can be both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because a single web presence can serve multiple purposes for multiple audiences. For example, a company website can have sections for potential employees, investors, future customers, current customers, business partners, the media, and members of the local community. Anyone who wants to learn more about the company can visit the website and find what he or she needs.

THE FUTURE OF COMMUNICATION

Telepathic Communication

Mental telepathy—sending and receiving messages purely through the power of the mind—has long been a staple of science fiction and the province of psychics. However, some rudimentary experiments in technology-enabled telepathy show at least a hint of promise that telepathy could add an intriguing element to business communication in the future.

Using existing medical technologies for sensing and stimulating brain activity, scientists at the University of Washington demonstrated a simple video game in which one user’s thoughts controlled a second user’s physical motions. When the first user saw something on his screen and made a decision about how to react (without actually moving his hand), that brain activity was detected and transmitted to a second user. Using essentially the reverse technology, the decision the first user made would stimulate the brain of the second user and cause him to move his hand to implement the decision via his game controller. In a separate test, an international team of researchers showed it was possible to send simple verbal messages using a similar concept of encoding and decoding.

If the technology has practical applications, it is years away from being ready for the market. The potential is mindboggling to consider, though. Imagine just thinking up a message and having it appear on a colleague’s mobile screen or, better yet, directly in his or her mind. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has speculated on this very possibility.

Even if it never achieves mainstream use, technological telepathy could be a boon for people with sensory or motor issues that prevent them from using existing modes of sending and receiving messages. They could put the full power of their creative and analytical minds directly to work without being stymied by layers of input/output technology.

WHAT’S YOUR PREDICTION?

Look into the current research on technology-enabled telepathy. Is it getting close to practical application? Aside from the technological hurdles, what other hurdlers will need to be overcome to make this a practical tool for communication?

Sources: Caitlin Dewey, “Mark Zuckerberg Says the Future of Communication Is Telepathy. Here’s How That Would Actually Work,” Washington Post, 1 July 2015, www.washingtonpost.com (http://www.washingtonpost.com) ; University of Washington Neural Systems Laboratory, “Direct Brain-to-Brain Communication in Humans: A Pilot Study,” 12 August 2013, neural.cs.washington.edu; Corinne Iozzio, “Scientists Prove That Telepathic Communication Is Within Reach,” Smithsonian, 2 October 2014, smithsonianmag.com (http://smithsonianmag.com) .

That versatility can also be curse, however, because it makes websites more difficult to plan and organize than virtually any other type of communication. Each of the target audiences has unique information needs and possibly little interest in the other material that might be on the site. Visitors also enter the site at different points. Some will type in the top-level URL, some will link through to lower-level pages from other websites (a product review in a blog, for example), and many will land on specific pages after using a search engine.

The versatility of websites can make them a challenge to organize because different visitors want different types of information.

Because the web is a multidimensional medium, readers move around in any order they please; there often is no beginning, middle, or end. When organizing a website, you need to anticipate the various paths your readers will want to follow and make sure you provide the right hyperlinks in the right places to help readers explore successfully. Professional website designers use the term information architecture (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003304#P700101245100000000000000000330D) to describe the content structure, labeling, and navigational flow of all the parts of a website.

Thinking through the information architecture of a website is essential to creating a rewarding experience for all visitors.

In a sense, the information architecture is a three-dimensional outline of the site, showing (1) the vertical hierarchy of pages from the homepage down to the lower level, (2) the horizontal division of pages across the various sections of the site, and (3) the links that tie all these pages together, both internally (between various pages on the site) and externally (between the site and other websites).

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY VISITING THIS WEBSITE

Examples of effective one-page web design

One Page Love has a large gallery of single-page web designs. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

On simpler sites with few content categories, the information architecture is fairly straightforward. A recent trend toward one-page websites, in which all the content is presented on a single, scrolling page, represents the ultimate in website simplicity. These sites can be particularly good for mobile devices because navigating them requires nothing more than simple scrolling action by the user. Companies also use one-page designs for individual sections of a larger website.

However, on large corporate or organizational websites (such as your college or university’s website), the architecture can be extremely complex, and it is the information architect’s job to make each visitor’s experience as simple as possible.

To organize a site effectively, follow these tips:13

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003304#P700101245100000000000000000344B)

Start developing the information architecture by brainstorming how all your potential visitors will want to use the site.

• Brainstorm all the likely usage scenarios—who will visit the site, where will they be coming from, what will they be looking for, and what terms will they use to identify the information they need?

• Identify all the likely entry points to the site and the target information for each visitor segment. • Create a map or other visual tool (web designers refer to these as wireframes) that shows all the pathways between entry points and target information,

then organize the content and links in the simplest, most direct way possible. • Make sure visitors can always find their way back to the top level of the site, even if a search engine link plunked them onto a page deep within the site. • Give visitors options for finding what they want (see Figure 7.5

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003235#P700101245100000000000000000326E) ). Some will want to search by key terms, for example, whereas others will prefer to follow clearly defined paths that drill down into more specific information (such as Products ▶ Consumer Products ▶ Tools ▶ Handheld Power Tools, for example).

Figure 7.5 Reader-Friendly Web Design

This page from Zappos’s website shows how to organize content in ways that help readers find desired information quickly. The numbered list on the left side serves as both a high-level overview and a clickable table of contents, and selecting any item displays a one-sentence summary and a more detailed description. Readers can quickly explore all 10 values without bouncing around from page to page.

Courtesy of Zappos.

• Be consistent with labels and link behaviors, and use commonly accepted terminology. For example, web visitors now expect information about a company to be on a page titled “About Us.”

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY VISITING THIS WEBSITE

Intrigued by the challenge of designing effective websites?

The Information Architecture Institute can help you learn more about the IA profession. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real- timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

Think of your website as an information-delivery machine that visitors must learn how to operate in order to use efficiently. By making your machine as easy to use as possible, you’ll help visitors find what they want quickly and encourage them to come back for more.

DRAFTING WEBSITE CONTENT

Everything you know about effective writing applies to web content, but keep these extra points in mind as well (see Figure 7.6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003235#P700101245100000000000000000329A) ):

Figure 7.6 Writing for the Web

This page from the Google Help feature for Gmail demonstrates several important points about effective web writing.

© Google. All rights reserved.

With the inverted pyramid style, summarize the key points at the beginning of a webpage, then move on to provide details.

• Take special care to build trust with your intended audiences, as careful readers can be skeptical of online content. Make sure your content is accurate, current, complete, and authoritative.

• Wherever you can, use the inverted pyramid style, in which you briefly cover the most important information first and then gradually reveal successive layers of detail—letting readers choose to see those additional layers if they want to.

• Help readers absorb information by breaking it into small, self-contained, easily readable chunks that are linked together logically. Many readers don’t have the patience to read lengthy pages online.

• Present your information in a concise, skimmable format. Effective websites use a variety of means to help readers skim pages quickly, including lists, careful use of color and boldface, informative headings, and helpful summaries that give readers a choice of learning more if they want to.

• Use direct and concise link names that serve for both site navigation and content skimming. Above all else, clearly identify where a link will take readers. Don’t use cute wordplay that obscures the content, and don’t force readers to click through in order to figure out where they’re going.

• As much as possible, adapt your content for a global audience. Translating content is expensive, however, so some companies compromise by localizing the homepage while keeping the deeper, more detailed content in its original language.

7.5 Podcasting

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

5 Explain how to adapt the three-step writing process to podcasting. Podcasting (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003304#P7001012451000000000000000003313) is the process of recording audio or video files and distributing them online. Podcasting combines the media richness of voice or visual communication with the convenience of portability. Audiences can listen to or watch podcasts on a blog or website, or they can download them to phones or portable music players to consume on the go. Particularly with audio podcasts, the hands-off, eyes-off aspect makes them great for listening while driving or exercising.

UNDERSTANDING THE BUSINESS APPLICATIONS OF PODCASTING

Podcasting can be used to deliver a wide range of audio and video messages.

Podcasting is a good choice to replace existing audio and video messages, such as one-way teleconferences in which a speaker provides information without expecting to engage in conversation with the listeners. Training is another good use of podcasting; you may have already taken a college course via podcasts. Marketing departments can replace expensive printed brochures with video podcasts that demonstrate new products in action. Sales representatives who travel to meet with potential customers can listen to audio podcasts or view video podcasts to get the latest information on their companies’ products. Human resources departments can offer video tours of their companies to entice new recruits. Podcasts are also a useful feature on blogs to let audiences listen to or watch recordings of their favorite bloggers.

ADAPTING THE THREE-STEP PROCESS FOR SUCCESSFUL PODCASTING

The three-step process adapts quite well to podcasting.

Although it might not seem obvious at first, the three-step writing process adapts quite nicely to podcasting. First, focus the planning step on analyzing the situation, gathering the information you’ll need, and organizing your material. One vital planning step depends on whether you intend to create podcasts for limited use and distribution (such as a weekly audio update to your virtual team) or a podcasting channel (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003304#P7001012451000000000000000003316) with regular recordings on a consistent theme, designed for a wider public audience. If you intend to create a podcasting channel, be sure to think through the range of topics

you want to address over time to verify that you have a sustainable purpose.14

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003304#P700101245100000000000000000344D) If you bounce from

one theme to another, you risk losing your audience.15

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003304#P700101245100000000000000000344F) Maintaining a

consistent schedule is also important; listeners will stop paying attention if they can’t count on regular updates.16

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003304#P7001012451000000000000000003451)

Steering devices such as transitions, previews, and reviews are vital in podcasts.

As you organize the content for a podcast, pay close attention to previews, transitions, and reviews. These steering devices are especially vital in audio recordings because audio lacks the headings and other elements that audiences rely on in print media. Moreover, scanning back and forth to find specific parts of an audio or video message is much more difficult than with textual messages, so you need to do everything possible to make sure your audience successfully receives and interprets your message on the first try.

Plan your podcast content carefully; editing is more difficult with podcasts than with textual messages.

One of the attractions of podcasting is the conversational, person-to-person feel of the recordings, so unless you need to capture exact wording, speaking from an outline and notes rather than a prepared script is often the best choice. However, no one wants to listen to rambling podcasts that take several minutes to get to the topic or struggle to make a point, so don’t try to make up your content on the fly. Effective podcasts, like effective stories, have a clear beginning, middle, and end.

MOBILE APP

Mobile Podcaster lets you record audio podcasts on your iOS devices and instantly post them on your WordPress blog.

For basic podcasts, your computer and perhaps even your smartphone might have the hardware you already need, and you can download free recording software.

The completing step is where podcasting differs most dramatically from written communication, for the obvious reason that you are recording and distributing audio or video files. Particularly for more formal podcasts, start by revising your script or thinking through your speaking notes before you begin to record. The closer you can get to recording your podcasts in one take, the more productive you’ll be.

Most personal computers, smartphones (see Figure 7.7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000032bd#P70010124510000000000000000032DF) ), and other devices now have basic audio recording capability, including built-in microphones, and free editing software such as Audacity is available online. If you require higher production quality or greater flexibility, you’ll need additional pieces of hardware and software, such as an audio processor (to filter out extraneous noise and otherwise improve the audio signal), a mixer (to combine multiple audio or video signals), a better microphone, more sophisticated recording and editing software, and perhaps some physical changes in your recording location to improve the acoustics.

Figure 7.7 Mobile Podcasting

Mobile podcasting apps make it easy to record podcasts on location.

Courtesy of bossjock studio, www.bossjockstudio.com (http://www.bossjockstudio.com) .

Podcasts can be distributed in several ways, including through media stores such as iTunes, by dedicated podcast hosting services, or on a blog with content that supports the podcast channel.

For a quick review of the key points of business podcasting, see “Checklist: Planning and Producing Business Podcasts (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000032bd#P70010124510000000000000000032E9) .” For more news on podcasting, visit real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Chapter 7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003055#P7001012451000000000000000003055) .

CHECKLIST Planning and Producing Business Podcasts

• Consider podcasting whenever you have the opportunity to replace existing audio or video messages. • If you plan a podcast channel with a regular stream of new content, make sure you’ve identified a theme or purpose that is rich enough to sustain

your effort. • Pay close attention to previews, transitions, and reviews to help prevent your audience from getting lost. • Decide whether you want to improvise or speak from a written script. • If you improvise, do enough planning and organization to avoid floundering and rambling in search of a point. • Remember that editing is much more difficult to do with audio or video than with textual media, so plan your content and recording carefully.

COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES AT Slack

You work as a product manager in Slack’s San Francisco offices. In this role you lead a cross-functional team responsible for defining new features for the Slack platform and working with professionals in engineering, marketing, sales, and finance to bring these new capabilities to market. These people are geographically dispersed, so much of your communication takes place via written team messaging, not in-person or online meetings. Apply what you’ve learned about messaging to address these two challenges.

INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE: Software companies usually keep wish lists of new features, combining requests from customers, ideas submitted by insiders, and capabilities that are part of a long-term product plan. Choosing which of these ideas to implement for a given software update is no simple task and often requires trade-offs among time, cost, market demand, competitive moves, staffing, and other variables. Earlier this week, someone from the sales department said

customers are clamoring for a particular feature, but the engineers responded that it will take too long to implement for the next scheduled software update, so they proposed an interim capability that they acknowledge is a good but not truly great solution. The marketing people then chimed in with the concern that promoting a less-than-ideal feature set could dampen the product’s momentum in the marketplace. After this spirited discussion had been going on for several days, someone on the team from accounting wrote, quite bluntly, that it was time to stop all this chatter and make a decision already. He said he was under pressure to update the engineering and marketing budgets, and he couldn’t do his work if everyone else on the team was “wandering around in circles” without making a decision.

In your role as the leader of this team, write a brief response (no more than one paragraph). Be sure to consider the need to convey whatever information you intend to share and the need to smooth out the inevitable tension the accountant’s message has produced. Make up whatever information you need while imagining yourself in the role of a product manager.

TEAM CHALLENGE: With a team assigned by your instructor, discuss the scenario described in the individual challenge above and identify several other business scenarios in which important questions need to be batted around by various members of a team before they can reach a decision. As with many decision-making challenges, there is tension between needing to make a decision and making sure you’ve collected and analyzed all the information you need in order to make the best possible decision. Brainstorm a set of guidelines that teams in any company could use to handle these decision-making challenges. Produce a brief document that could be posted on a collaboration platform such as Slack.

Quick Learning Guide

KEY TERMS

email signature A small file that automatically includes such items as your full name, title, company, and contact information at the end of your messages

information architecture Plan or map of the content structure, labeling, and navigational flow of all the parts of a website

messaging Category of communication system in which users’ messages appear on each other’s screens instantly, without the need to be opened individually, as with email; includes phone-based text messaging, conventional instant messaging, and workplace messaging

podcasting Process of recording audio or video files and distributing them online

podcasting channel Series of regular recordings on a consistent theme

SUMMARY OF LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1 Identify the major digital media formats available for business messages, and list nine compositional modes used in digital media. Major digital media for business messages include email, messaging, web content, podcasting, social networks, information- and media-sharing sites, wikis, blogging and microblogging, and online video. The nine compositional modes used in digital communication are conversations, comments and critiques, orientations, summaries, reference materials, narratives, teasers, status updates and announcements, and tutorials.

2 Describe the evolving role of email in business communication, and explain how to adapt the three-step writing process to email messages. As the earliest widely available digital written medium, email was applied to a broad range of communication tasks—some it was well suited for and some it wasn’t. Over time, newer media such as instant messaging, blogs, and social networks have been taking over some of these tasks, but email remains a vital medium that is optimum for many private, short to medium-length messages.

The three-step process adapts easily to email communication. One of the most important planning decisions in crafting email is making sure every message has a valuable purpose. Any key planning decision should, in most instances, follow the chain of command in your organization; emailing over your boss’s head is a good way to stir up resentment. When writing email messages, bear in mind that the expectations of writing quality and formality are higher in business email. Also, pay close attention to the wording of an email message’s subject line; it often determines whether and when recipients open and read the message. Effective subject lines are both informative (concisely identifying what the message is about) and compelling (giving recipients a reason to read the message). Completing email messages is straightforward. Proof and revise messages (particularly important ones), stick with a clean design, make use of the email signature feature, and make sure you distribute the message to the right people.

3 Identify the advantages and disadvantages of business messaging systems. The benefits of messaging include its ability to mimic conversational exchanges, the ability to avoid many of the distractions and security threats that affect email, and its instantaneous nature. Messaging’s disadvantages include its dependency on individual users’ typing skills during real-time exchanges, some vulnerability to security threats, and the general disadvantages of lean media.

4 Explain why organizing website content is so challenging, and explain the concept of information architecture. The primary challenge in organizing website content is the medium’s extreme versatility. This versatility can be a blessing because a single web presence can serve multiple purposes for multiple audiences, but it also creates the challenge of providing an efficient and successful experience for all these unique visitors. The key to organizing a website is careful consideration of its information architecture, which is a map of the content structure, labeling, and navigational links and pathways in a website.

5 Explain how to adapt the three-step writing process to podcasting. Although you’ll be recording audio or video when creating podcasts, rather than writing messages, using the three-step process is an effective way to develop podcasts. Focus the planning step on analyzing the situation, gathering the information you’ll need, and organizing your material. If you plan to create a series of podcasts on a given theme (the equivalent of starting a radio or TV show), make sure you’ve identified a range of topics extensive enough to keep your podcasts going over time. As you organize and begin to think about the words or images you’ll use as content, pay close attention to previews, transitions, and reviews so that audiences don’t get lost while listening or watching. Before you record, think through what you plan to say or shoot so that you don’t ramble while trying to make your key points. Finally, consider the necessary level of production quality; good-quality podcasts usually require some specialized hardware and software.

MyBCommLab

Go to mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) to complete the problems marked with this icon .

Test Your Knowledge To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

7-1. What are the situations in which a printed memo or letter might be preferable to a digital message? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000307f#P7001012451000000000000000003081)

7-2. How do the compositional modes of orientations, summaries, and teasers differ? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000307f#P7001012451000000000000000003081)

7-3. Why are subject lines important in email messages? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000030fa#P70010124510000000000000000030FC)

7-4. What are the benefits of using messaging in business communication? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000031ce#P70010124510000000000000000031D0)

7-5. Should you ever plan a messaging exchange? Explain your answer. [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003235#P7001012451000000000000000003237)

7-6. What is information architecture? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003235#P7001012451000000000000000003237)

7-7. Why is it important to have a long-term, sustainable purpose in mind before you launch a podcast channel? [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000032bd#P70010124510000000000000000032BF)

7-8. Is it wise to speak “off the cuff,” with no notes or outline, when recording business podcasts? Why or why not? [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000032bd#P70010124510000000000000000032BF)

Apply Your Knowledge To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

7-9. What are three innovative ways you could optimize your college’s website for mobile devices? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000307f#P7001012451000000000000000003081)

7-10. If you wanted to get your employees’ attention about the need to reduce costs without starting up the rumor mill about the possibility of layoffs, would it be wise to send out an email with the subject line “To save everyone’s job, we must reduce costs now”? Explain your answer. [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000030fa#P70010124510000000000000000030FC)

7-11. Should you ever use emoticons in business email messages? Explain your answer. [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000030fa#P70010124510000000000000000030FC)

7-12. Communication on a major project is suffering because several team members are in the habit of writing cryptic or careless instant messages that often force recipients to engage in several rounds of follow-up messaging to figure out what the sender had in mind. As project leader, you’ve spoken with these team members about the need to write clearer messages, but they respond that careful planning and writing defeats the whole purpose of instant messaging. How should you handle the situation? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000031ce#P70010124510000000000000000031D0)

7-13. Your company’s webmaster has become a big fan of tagging, the practice of identifying web content with category labels to make it easy to later retrieve all the content on a particular topic. She thinks tags are so powerful, in fact, that there is no longer any need to organize a website in any conventional, structured way. By using tag filtering, she claims, people can find whatever they need. In an email message, explain to her why information architecture is still necessary. [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003235#P7001012451000000000000000003237) , [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003235#P7001012451000000000000000003237)

7-14. Imagine that you’ve been on the job for two or three decades, and you’ve amassed a deep store of leadership wisdom during the years. You’d like to share your wisdom with your 800 employees in a biweekly podcast. How should you go about planning this podcast series to make sure your employees will listen regularly? [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000032bd#P70010124510000000000000000032BF)

Practice Your Skills 7-15. Message 7.A: Media Skills: Messaging, Creating a Busi- nesslike Tone [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000031ce#P70010124510000000000000000031D0)

Review this messaging exchange and explain how the customer service agent could have handled the situation more effectively.

Agent: Thanks for contacting Home Exercise Equipment. What’s up? Customer: I’m having trouble assembling my home gym. Agent: I hear that a lot! LOL Customer: So is it me or the gym? Agent: Well, let’s see ?g?. Where are you stuck? Customer: The crossbar that connects the vertical pillars doesn’t fit. Agent: What do you mean doesn’t fit? Customer: It doesn’t fit. It’s not long enough to reach across the pillars. Agent: Maybe you assembled the pillars in the wrong place. Or maybe we sent the wrong crossbar. Customer: How do I tell? Agent: The parts aren’t labeled so could be tough. Do you have a measuring tape? Tell me how long your crossbar is.

7-16. Message 7.B: Media Skills: Podcasting, Planning: Outlining Your Content [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000032bd#P70010124510000000000000000032BF)

To access this message, visit real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) , select Student Assignments then Chapter 7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003055#P7001012451000000000000000003055) , Message 7.B to listen to this podcast. Identify at least three ways in which the podcast could be improved, and draft a brief email message that you could send to the podcaster, giving your suggestions for improvement.

Exercises

Each activity is labeled according to the primary skill or skills you will need to use. To review relevant chapter content, you can refer to the indicated Learning Objective. In some instances, supporting information will be found in another chapter, as indicated.

7-17. Collaboration: Working in Teams; Planning: Selecting Media [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000307f#P7001012451000000000000000003081) Chapter 2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000015f4#P70010124510000000000000000015F4) For each of these message needs, choose a medium that you think would work effectively and explain your choice. (More than one medium could work in some cases; just be able to support your particular choice.)

a. A technical support service for people trying to use their digital music players b. A message of condolence to the family of an employee who passed away recently c. A message from the CEO of a small company to the employees of the firm, explaining that she is leaving the company to join a competitor d. A series of observations on the state of the industry, intended mostly for professionals within the industry e. A series of messages, questions, and answers surrounding the work of a team on a confidential company project

7-18. Media Skills: Writing Email Subject Lines [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000030fa#P70010124510000000000000000030FC) Using your imagination to make up whatever details you need, revise the following email subject lines to make them more informative:

a. New budget figures b. Marketing brochure—your opinion? c. Production schedule

7-19. Media Skills: Email [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000030fa#P70010124510000000000000000030FC) The following email message contains numerous errors related to what you’ve learned about planning and writing business messages. Using the information it contains, write a more effective version.

TO: Felicia August <[email protected] (http://[email protected]) >

SUBJECT: Those are the breaks, folks

Some of you may not like the rules about break times; however, we determined that keeping track of employees while they took breaks at times they determined rather than regular breaks at prescribed times was not working as well as we would have liked it to work. The new rules are not going to be an option. If you do not follow the new rules, you could be docked from your pay for hours when you turned up missing, since your direct supervisor will not be able to tell whether you were on a “break” or not and will assume that you have walked away from your job. We cannot be responsible for any errors that result from your inattentiveness to the new rules. I have already heard complaints from some of you and I hope this memo will end this issue once and for all. The decision has already been made.

Starting Monday, January 1, you will all be required to take a regular 15-minute break in the morning and again in the afternoon, and a regular thirty- minute lunch at the times specified by your supervisor, NOT when you think you need a break or when you “get around to it.”

There will be no exceptions to this new rule!

Felicia August

Manager, Billing and Accounting

7-20. Media Skills: Messaging, Creating a Businesslike Tone [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000031ce#P70010124510000000000000000031D0) Your firm, which makes professional-grade paint sprayers, uses messaging extensively for internal communication and frequently for external communication with customers and suppliers. Several customers have recently forwarded copies of messages they’ve received from your staff, asking if you know how casually some employees are treating this important medium. You decide to revise parts of several messages to show your staff a more appropriate writing style. Rewrite these sentences, making up any information you need, to convey a more businesslike style and tone. (Look up the acronyms online if you need to.)

a. IMHO, our quad turbo sprayer is best model 4U. b. No prob; happy2help! c. FWIW, I use the L400 myself & it rocks. d. Most cust see 20–30% reduct in fumes w/this sprayer—of course, YMMV.

7-21. Media Skills: Web Writing, Planning: Outlining Your Content [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003235#P7001012451000000000000000003237) Find the website of a small company or nonprofit organization; make sure it is a fairly small and simple website. Identify all the individual pages on the site, then as best you can, “reverse engineer” the site’s information architecture, identifying all the linkages between the individual pages. Draw a map of the architecture, showing how the various pages are linked together. (Hint: If the website has a “Site map” link, select that to see a hierarchical list of all the pages contained within the site.)

7-22. Media Skills: Podcasting, Planning: Outlining Your Content [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000032bd#P70010124510000000000000000032BF) You began recording a weekly podcast to share information with your large and far-flung staff. After a month, you ask for feedback from several of your subordinates, and you’re disappointed to learn that some people stopped listening to the podcast after the first couple of weeks. Someone eventually admits that many staffers feel the recordings are too long and rambling, and the information they contain isn’t valuable enough to justify the time it takes to listen. You aren’t pleased, but you want to improve. An assistant transcribes the introduction to last week’s podcast so you can review it. You immediately see two problems. Revise the introduction based on what you’ve learned in this chapter.

So there I am, having lunch with Selma Gill, who just joined and took over the Northeast sales region from Jackson Stroud. In walks our beloved CEO with Selma’s old boss at Uni-Plex; turns out they were finalizing a deal to co-brand our products and theirs and to set up a joint distribution program in

all four domestic regions. Pretty funny, huh? Selma left Uni-Plex because she wanted to sell our products instead, and now she’s back selling her old stuff, too. Anyway, try to chat with her when you can; she knows the biz inside and out and probably can offer insight into just about any sales challenge you might be running up against. We’ll post more info on the co-brand deal next week; should be a boost for all of us. Other than those two news items, the other big news this week is the change in commission reporting. I’ll go into the details in a minute, but when you log onto the intranet, you’ll now see your sales results split out by product line and industry sector. Hope this helps you see where you’re doing well and where you might beef things up a bit. Oh yeah, I almost forgot the most important bit. Speaking of our beloved CEO, Thomas is going to be our guest of honor, so to speak, at the quarterly sales meeting next week and wants an update on how petroleum prices are affecting customer behavior. Each district manager should be ready with a brief report. After I go through the commission reporting scheme, I’ll outline what you need to prepare.

Expand Your Skills Critique the Professionals

Check out the Twitter accounts of several companies that sell products or services you use or might use in the future. Find three teaser messages that attempt to persuade you to click through to another website. In a brief summary on your class blog or in an email message to your instructor, compare the effectiveness of the three teasers. Which was most effective, and which was least effective? Why? Were the payoffs for all three teasers satisfactory and in line with what you expected to see?

Sharpening Your Career Skills Online

Bovée and Thill’s Business Communication Web Search, at websearch.businesscommunicationnetwork.com (http://websearch.businesscommunicationnetwork.com) , is a unique research tool designed specifically for business communication research. Use the Web Search function to find a website, video, article, podcast, or presentation that offers advice on writing effective email and messages for mobile devices. Write a brief email message to your instructor, describing the item that you found and summarizing the career skills information you learned from it.

Cases

For all cases, feel free to use your creativity to make up any details you need in order to craft effective messages.

EMAIL SKILLS

7-23. Media Skills: Email; Message Strategies: Routine Messages [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000030fa#P70010124510000000000000000030FC) , Chapter 10 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e00#P7001012451000000000000000003E00) Team messaging apps are improving communication in all kinds of organizations, from small teams to entire companies to school groups and other nonbusiness entities.

Your task: Imagine that you are responsible for choosing an organization’s new messaging software. You can use an organization you are already a member of, such as a current or past employer, a nonprofit where you volunteer, or a project team in one of your classes. Alternatively, choose any real or imaginary organization in which at least a few people would need to coordinate their efforts using text-centric messaging.

Research the capabilities of Slack and two of its competitors, identifying the three or four most important features of each system. Write an email message (no more than four paragraphs) comparing these key features and recommending one of the systems for your chosen organization.

EMAIL SKILLS

7-24. Media Skills: Email; Message Strategies: Negative Messages [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000030fa#P70010124510000000000000000030FC) , Chapter 11 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004228#P7001012451000000000000000004228) Many companies operate on the principle that the customer is always right, even when the customer isn’t right. They take any steps necessary to ensure happy customers, lots of repeat sales, and a positive reputation among potential buyers. Overall, this is a smart and successful approach to business. However, most companies eventually encounter a nightmare customer who drains so much time, energy, and profits that the only sensible option is to refuse the customer’s business. For example, the nightmare customer might be someone who constantly berates you and your employees, repeatedly makes outlandish demands for refunds and discounts, or simply requires so much help that you not only lose money on this person but also no longer have enough time to help your other customers. “Firing” a customer is an unpleasant step that should be taken only in the most extreme cases and only after other remedies have been attempted (such as talking with the customer about the problem), but it is sometimes necessary for the well-being of your employees and your company.

Your task: If you are currently working or have held a job in the recent past, imagine that you’ve encountered just such a customer. If you don’t have job experience to call on, imagine that you work in a retail location somewhere around campus or in your neighborhood. Identify the type of behavior this imaginary customer exhibits and the reasons the behavior can no longer be accepted. Write a brief email message to the customer to explain that you will no longer be able to accommodate him or her as a customer. Calmly explain why you have had to reach this difficult decision. Maintain a professional tone and keep your emotions in check.

EMAIL SKILLS/TEAM SKILLS

7-25. Media Skills: Email; Collaboration: Team Projects [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000030fa#P70010124510000000000000000030FC) , Chapter 2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000015f4#P70010124510000000000000000015F4)

Colleges and universities are complex organizations that try to optimize results for students while wrestling with budgetary constraints, staffing issues, infrastructure concerns, limitations on available space, and a host of other issues. Even in the best-managed and most generously funded institutions, there are aspects of campus life that could be improved.

Your task: With a team assigned by your instructor, choose an issue of campus life that you think could and should be improved. It can be anything from transportation to housing to personal safety. Draft an email message that could be sent to your school’s administration. In your message concisely describe the problem, speculate on why the problem or situation exists, offer suggestions on how it could be solved or improved, and explain how addressing it would improve campus life. (Don’t send the message unless your instructor directs you to do so.)

EMAIL SKILLS/TEAM SKILLS

7-26. Media Skills: Email [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000030fa#P70010124510000000000000000030FC) Studying real-life examples is a great way to get a feel for how various companies communicate with customers and other stakeholders.

Your task: With teammates assigned by your instructor, select five email messages from the Just Good Copy website at www.goodemailcopy.com (http://www.goodemailcopy.com) . Evaluate them based on the criteria for effective email discussed in the chapter. Rank them from most effective to least effective and summarize your analysis in a presentation to your class or a post on your class blog.

EMAIL SKILLS/MOBILE SKILLS

7-27. Media Skills: Email [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000030fa#P70010124510000000000000000030FC) The size limitations of smartphone screens call for a different approach to writing (see page 144 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000027d4#page_144) ) and formatting (see page 168 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000002d6a#page_168) ) documents.

Your task: On the website of any company that interests you, find a news release (some companies refer to them as press releases) that announces the launch of a new product. Using Pages or any other writing app at your disposal, revise and format the material in a way that would be effective on smartphone screens.

MESSAGING SKILLS

7-28. Media Skills: Messaging; Compositional Modes: Tutorials [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000307f#P7001012451000000000000000003081) , [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000031ce#P70010124510000000000000000031D0) High-definition television can be a joy to watch—but, oh, what a pain to buy. The field is cluttered with competing technologies and arcane terminology that is meaningless to most consumers. Moreover, it’s nearly impossible to define one technical term without invoking two or three others, leaving consumers swimming in an alphanumeric soup of confusion. As a sales support manager for Crutchfield, a leading online retailer of audio and video systems, you understand the frustration buyers feel; your staff is deluged daily by their questions.

Your task: To help your staff respond quickly to consumers who ask questions via Crutchfield’s online IM chat service, you are developing a set of “canned” responses to common questions. When a consumer asks one of these questions, a sales adviser can simply select the ready-made answer. Visit www.crutchfield.com/Learn/ (http://www.crutchfield.com/Learn/) and conduct the research you need to write concise, consumer-friendly definitions of the following terms: 1080p, HDMI, 4K, and 3D TV.

WEB WRITING SKILLS/TEAM SKILLS

7-29. Message Strategies: Online Content; Collaboration: Team Projects [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003235#P7001012451000000000000000003237) , Chapter 2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000015f4#P70010124510000000000000000015F4) If you’re like many other college students, your first year was more than you expected: more difficult, more fun, more frustrating, more expensive, more exhausting, more rewarding—more of everything, positive and negative. Oh, the things you know now that you didn’t know then!

Your task: With several other students, identify five or six things you wish you would’ve realized or understood better before you started your first year of college. These can relate to your school life (such as “I didn’t realize how much work I would have for my classes” or “I should’ve asked for help as sooner”) and your personal and social life (“I wish I would’ve been more open to meeting people”). Use these items as the foundation of a brief informational report that you could post on a blog that is read by high school students and their families. Your goal with this report is to help the next generation of students make a successful and rewarding transition to college.

WEB WRITING SKILLS/MOBILE SKILLS/PORTFOLIO BUILDER

7-30. Message Strategies: Online Content [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003235#P7001012451000000000000000003237) Adapting conventional web content to make it mobile friendly can require rethinking the site’s information architecture to simplify navigation and content.

Your task: Choose the website of a company that makes products you find interesting. (Make it a conventional website, not one already optimized for mobile.) Analyze the section of the website that contains information about the company’s products and determine the best way to present that material on mobile device screens. Mock up at least two screens showing how you would reformat the content to make it mobile friendly. Create a brief presentation with “before” and “after” views to show how your redesign would benefit mobile site visitors.

WEB WRITING SKILLS

7-31. Message Strategies: Online Content [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003235#P7001012451000000000000000003237) As you probably experienced, trying to keep all the different schools straight in one’s mind while researching and applying for colleges can be rather difficult. Applicants and their families would no doubt appreciate a handy summary of your college or university’s key points as they relate to the selection and application process.

Your task: Adapt content from your college or university’s website to create a one-page “Quick Facts” sheet about your school. Choose the information you think prospective students and their families would find most useful. (Note that adapting existing content would be acceptable in a real-life scenario like this because you would be reusing content on behalf of the content owner. Doing so would definitely not be acceptable if you were using the content for yourself or for someone other than the original owner.)

PODCASTING SKILLS

7-32. Media Skills: Podcasting; Career Management: Personal Branding [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000032bd#P70010124510000000000000000032BF) , Prologue While writing the many letters and email messages that are part of the job search process, you find yourself wishing that you could just talk to some of these companies so your personality could shine through. Well, you’ve just gotten that opportunity. One of the companies that you’ve applied to has emailed you back, asking you to submit a two-minute podcast introducing yourself and explaining why you would be a good person to hire.

Your task: Identify a company that you’d like to work for after graduation and select a job that would be a good match for your skills and interests. Write a script for a two-minute podcast (roughly 250 words). Introduce yourself and the position you’re applying for, describe your background, and explain why you think you’re a good candidate for the job. Make up any details you need. If your instructor asks you to do so, record the podcast and submit the file.

PODCASTING SKILLS/PORTFOLIO BUILDER

7-33. Media Skills: Podcasting; Message Strategies: Marketing and Sales Messages [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000032bd#P70010124510000000000000000032BF) , Chapter 12 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004853#P7001012451000000000000000004853) With any purchase decision, from a restaurant meal to a college education, recommendations from satisfied customers are often the strongest promotional messages.

Your task: Write a script for a one- to two-minute podcast (roughly 150–250 words), explaining why your college or university is a good place to get an education. Your audience is high school juniors and seniors. You can choose to craft a general message—something that would be useful to all prospective students—or you can focus on a specific academic discipline, the athletic program, or some other important aspect of your college experience. Either way, make sure your introductory comments make it clear whether you are offering a general recommendation or a specific recommendation. If your instructor asks you to do so, record the podcast and submit the file.

MyBCommLab

Go to mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) for Auto-graded writing questions as well as the following Assisted-graded writing questions:

7-34. Why has email become overused and inappropriately used in many situations? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000030fa#P70010124510000000000000000030FC)

7-35. How can you use the inverted pyramid style of writing to craft effective website content? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003235#P7001012451000000000000000003237)

Endnotes

1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003055#rP7001012451000000000000000003433) . Slack website, accessed 1 April 2016, slack.com (http://slack.com) ; Adrienne Lafrance, “The Triumph of Email,” The Atlantic, 6 January 2016, www.theatlantic.com (http://www.theatlantic.com) ; Harry McCracken, “With 500,000 Users, Slack Says It’s The Fastest-Growing Business App Ever,” Fast Company, 2 December 2015, www.fastcompany.com (http://www.fastcompany.com) ; Farhad Manjoo, “Slack, the Office Messaging App That May Finally Sink Email,” New York Times, 11 March 2015, www.nytimes.com (http://www.nytimes.com) ; Alyson Shontell and Eugene Kim, “Slack, a 2-Year-Old Messaging Platform, Is Raising $200 Million at Nearly a $4 Billion Valuation Led by Thrive Capital,” Business Insider, 11 March 2016, www.businessinder.com (http://www.businessinder.com) ; Ellis Hamburger, “Slack Is Killing Email,” The Verge, 12 August 2014, www.theverge.com (http://www.theverge.com) .

2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000307f#rP7001012451000000000000000003435) . Richard Edelman, “Teaching Social Media: What Skills Do Communicators Need?,” in Engaging the New Influencers; Third Annual Social Media Academic Summit (white paper), accessed 7 June 2010, www.newmediaacademicsummit.com (http://www.newmediaacademicsummit.com) .

3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000307f#rP7001012451000000000000000003437) . Samantha Murphy, “Why Mobile Commerce Is on the Rise,” Mashable, 7 March 2012, mashable.com (http://mashable.com) .

4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000307f#rP7001012451000000000000000003439) . Christina “CK” Kerley, “Wearables,” AllThingsCK, accessed 6 April 2014, allthingsck.com (http://allthingsck.com) .

5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000030fa#rP700101245100000000000000000343B) . Maria Vergelis, Tatyana Shcherbakova, Nadezhda Demidova, and Darya Gudkova, “Kaspersky Security Bulletin. Spam and Phishing in 2015,” Securelist, 5 February 2016, securelist.com (http://securelist.com) .

6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000030fa#rP700101245100000000000000000343D) . Hilary Potkewitz and Rachel Brown, “Spread of Email Has Altered Communication Habits at Work,” Los Angeles Business Journal, 18 April 2005, labusinessjournal.com (http://labusinessjournal.com) ; Nancy Flynn, Instant Messaging Rules (New York: AMACOM, 2004), 47–54.

7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000030fa#rP700101245100000000000000000343F) . Mary Munter, Priscilla S. Rogers, and Jone Rymer, “Business Email: Guidelines for Users,” Business Communication Quarterly, March 2003, 26; Renee B. Horowitz and Marian G. Barchilon, “Stylistic Guidelines for Email,” IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 37, no. 4 (December 1994): 207–212.

8 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000030fa#rP7001012451000000000000000003441) . Steve Rubel, “Tip: Tweetify the Lead of Your Emails,” The Steve Rubel Stream blog, 20 July 2010, www.steverubel.com (http://www.steverubel.com) .

9 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000030fa#rP7001012451000000000000000003443) . Judith Newman, “If You’re Happy and You Know It, Must I Know, Too?” New York Times, 21 October 2011, www.nytimes.com (http://www.nytimes.com) .

10 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000031ce#rP7001012451000000000000000003445) . Eugene Kim, “The CEO of $2.8 Billion Slack Says It Has One Big Advantage over Facebook or LinkedIn,” Business Insider, 11 February 2016, www.businessinsider.com (http://www.businessinsider.com) .

11 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000031ce#rP7001012451000000000000000003447) . Martin Zwilling, “Texting is Killing Real Business Communication,” Business Insider, 13 January 2012, www.businessinsider.com (http://www.businessinsider.com) .

12 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000031ce#rP7001012451000000000000000003449) . Syndi Seid, “12 Tips for Instant Messaging in the Workplace,” Advanced Etiquette, 1 June 2014, www.advancedetiquette.com (http://www.advancedetiquette.com) ; Leo Babauta, “17 Tips to Be Productive with Instant Messaging,” Web Worker Daily, 14 November 2007, webworkerdaily.com (http://webworkerdaily.com) ; John Pallato, “Instant Messaging Unites Work Groups and Inspires Collaboration,” Internet World, December 2002, 14.

13 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003235#rP700101245100000000000000000344B) . Based in part on Shel Holtz, Writing for the Wired World (San Francisco: International Association of Business Communicators, 1999), 28–29.

14 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000032bd#rP700101245100000000000000000344D) . “Set Up Your Podcast for Success,” Feed For All website, accessed 4 October 2006, www.feedforall.com (http://www.feedforall.com) .

15 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000032bd#rP700101245100000000000000000344F) . “Set Up Your Podcast for Success.”

16 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000032bd#rP7001012451000000000000000003451) . Nathan Hangen, “4 Steps to Podcasting Success,” Social Media Examiner, 14 February 2011, www.socialmediaexaminer.com (http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com) .

8 Social Media LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter, you will be able to

1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003480#P7001012451000000000000000003484) Identify seven key points for using social media in business communication.

2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#P70010124510000000000000000034B0) Describe the business communication applications of social networks.

3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000353f#P7001012451000000000000000003543) Explain how information- and content-sharing sites are used in business communication.

4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#P7001012451000000000000000003571) Describe the role of blogging in business communication today, and explain how to adapt the three-step writing process to blogging.

5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003607#P700101245100000000000000000360C) Describe the business uses of Twitter and other microblogging systems.

6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000367a#P7001012451000000000000000003680) Offer guidelines for becoming a valuable wiki contributor.

MyBCommLab®

Improve Your Grade!

Over 10 million students improved their results using Pearson MyLabs. Visit mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) for simulations, tutorials, and end- of- chapter problems.

COMMUNICATION CLOSE-UP AT Starbucks

www.starbucks.com (http://www.starbucks.com)

With its portfolio of worldwide locations pushing toward the 20,000 mark, Starbucks has a reputation for being nearby wherever and whenever anybody might be craving a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, its online communications follows the same strategy of being everywhere its customers might be. Its broadest presence is on Facebook, with more than 50 company-sponsored pages, including local pages in more than 40 countries. Typical posts include contests and other special promotions, enticing photos of various coffee drinks, instructional videos on making a great cup of coffee at home, and updates on community involvement projects. Two of the company’s most popular drinks, the Frappuccino and Pumpkin Spice Latte, even have their own social media accounts.

Starbucks also maintains several dozen Twitter accounts, many of which are country specific and tuned into local interests. In the Netherlands, for instance, fresh pastries are an essential part of the coffee experience, so employees alert customers on Twitter whenever a fresh batch is ready.

The company is active on a wide variety of other platforms as well, including Pinterest, YouTube, Foursquare, and Instagram. Although it is everywhere online, Starbucks takes care not to wear out its welcome. It posts new information relatively infrequently compared with many other major consumer brands. “They’re not cluttering up your newsfeed,” notes one industry observer.

Many companies use social media to offer digital coupons and sponsor online contests, but Starbucks takes things to an entirely new level. Its attention-getting efforts have included an online puzzle/scavenger hunt featuring Lady Gaga and an augmented-reality smartphone app that triggered animated movies when a phone was pointed at specially coded coffee cups.

Alexandra Wheeler, the company’s vice president in charge of global digital marketing, emphasizes that these social media efforts are about more than gaining fans and building awareness. “They can have a material impact on the business,” she says, citing one social media campaign that brought a million customers into Starbucks stores.

Coffee shops are community gathering places, and a team of Starbucks employees use social media to extend that community feel into the virtual realm by connecting with fans and customers on a variety of social platforms.

© Iain Masterton/Alamy Stock Photo

Like many companies still experimenting with social media as new tools and techniques emerge, Starbucks has had a stumble or two along the way. A notable example was a holiday Twitter hashtag campaign in the United Kingdom in which the company used a big-screen monitor at a national museum to display any tweet that included #spreadthecheer. Starbucks was embroiled in a public controversy over corporate taxes at the time, and some people used the opportunity of the unmonitored Twitter channel to post angry and occasionally obscene messages about the company.

This episode highlights one of the core dilemmas in social media: How much control should companies exercise over the social media channels they sponsor? If they try to exert too much control, they can stifle the very aspect of social engagement they’re aiming for. If they exert too little, even well-intentioned efforts can spin out of control and lead to embarrassing public spectacles. As social media continue to reshape business communication, finding the right balance of

conversation and control promises to be a never-ending challenge.1

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037BB)

8.1 Writing Strategies for Social Media

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1 Identify seven key points for using social media in business communication. Starbucks’s use of social media (profiled in the chapter-opening Communication Close-Up) may seem like an obvious move, but these media represent a fundamental shift in the way companies handle business communication. The shift is still taking place, as more consumers adopt social media and more businesses experiment with the best ways to integrate these media and to adapt their internal and external communication practices.

Readers of social media expect to have a more engaged relationship with writers, so creating content for social media requires a new approach to writing.

No matter what media or compositional mode you are using for a particular message, writing for social media requires a different approach than for traditional media. Social media have changed the relationship between sender and receiver, so the nature of the messages needs to change as well. Whether you’re writing a

blog or posting a product demonstration video to YouTube, consider these tips for creating successful content for social media:2

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037BD)

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY READING THIS ARTICLE

How social media have changed business communication

Katie Wagner highlights immediacy, access, connection, and research. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

• Remember that it’s a conversation, not a lecture or a sales pitch. One of the great appeals of social media is the feeling of conversation, of people talking with one another instead of one person talking at everyone else (see Figure 8.1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003480#P7001012451000000000000000003493) ). For all their technological sophistication, in an important sense social media provide a new spin on the age-old practice of word-of-mouth communication. As more and more people gain a voice in the marketplace, companies that try to maintain the old “we talk, you listen” mindset are likely to be ignored in the social media landscape. People generally join social networks for the chance to interact, and you can help stimulate conversations by asking followers

for their ideas, options, and feedback.3

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037BF)

• Write informally but not carelessly. Write as a human being, not as a cog in a faceless corporate machine. At the same time, don’t get sloppy; no one wants to slog through misspelled words and half-baked sentences to find the message.

Readers—and search engines—don’t like spending time trying to figure out clever puns and other wordplay; make your headlines clear and direct.

• Create concise, specific, and informative headlines. Avoid the temptation to engage in clever wordplay with headlines. This advice applies to all forms of business communication, of course, but it is essential for social media. Readers don’t want to spend time and energy figuring out what your witty headlines mean. Search engines won’t know what they mean, either, so fewer people will find your content.

• Get involved and stay involved. Social media understandably make some businesspeople nervous because they don’t permit a high level of control over messages. However, don’t hide from criticism—it can be valuable feedback. Take the opportunity to correct misinformation or explain how mistakes will be fixed.

• If you need to promote something, do so indirectly. Just as you shouldn’t impose on people with a sales pitch during an informal social gathering, refrain from blatant promotional efforts in social media.

• Be transparent and honest. Honesty is always essential, of course, but a particular issue that has recently tripped up a few companies is hiding behind an online persona—either a fictitious character whose writing is actually done by a corporate marketing specialist or a real person who fails to disclose an affiliation with a corporate sponsor.

• Think before you post! Individuals and companies have been sued because of careless Twitter updates, employees have been fired for inappropriate Facebook posts, vital company secrets have been leaked, and business and personal relationships have been strained. To be safe, assume that every message you post will be read by people far beyond your original audience.

A momentary lapse in judgment while writing messages for social media can cause tremendous damage to your career or your company.

Figure 8.1 Community Building via Social Media

Customer-affiliation groups can be an effective way to build stakeholder support for a company and its products. Indian Motorcycles used this Google+ post to spur interest in its rider groups.

Courtesy Polaris Industries. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc., used with permission.

8.2 Social Networks

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

2 Describe the business communication applications of social networks. Social networks (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000036C0) , online services that help people and organizations form connections and share information, have recently become a major force in both internal and external business communication. In addition to Facebook, a variety of public and private social networks are used by businesses and professionals. These can be grouped into three categories:

Business communicators make use of a wide range of specialized and private social networks, in addition to public networks such as Facebook and Google+.

• Public, general-purpose networks. Facebook and Google+ are the largest and best-known of these networks. Additionally, regionally focused

networks have significant user bases in some countries, such as China’s Renren and Kaixin001.4

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037C1)

• Public, specialized networks. Whereas Facebook and Google+ serve a wide variety of personal and professional needs, other networks focus on a particular function or a particular audience. The most widely known is LinkedIn, with its emphasis on career- and sales-related networking. Other networks address the needs of entrepreneurs, small-business owners, specific professions, product enthusiasts, and other narrower audiences.

• Private networks. Some companies have built private social networks for internal use, either as standalone systems or as part of broader collaboration and communication systems (such as Cemex’s Shift, profiled in Chapter 2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000015f4#P70010124510000000000000000015F4) ). The Red Robin restaurant chain, for example, uses the Yammer social network to share information across the organization nationwide and up and down the corporate ladder. While many companies have found success with internal social networks, a recurring problem is getting enough people in an organization to use them. When top executives are visible participants and use the networks to share vital information, employees are more likely to

stay active on them as well.5

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037C3)

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY LISTENING TO THESE PODCASTS

Get daily tips on using social media in your business

These brief podcasts focus on marketing applications of social media. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

Regardless of the purpose and audience, social networks are most beneficial when all participants give and receive information, advice, support, and introductions—just as in offline interactions. The following two sections describe how social networks are used in business communication and offer advice on using these platforms successfully.

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION USES OF SOCIAL NETWORKS

MOBILE APP

The social media management app SocialOomph lets you monitor multiple social media sites, schedule updates, and perform other time-saving tasks.

With their ability to reach virtually unlimited numbers of people through a variety of digital formats, social networks are a great fit for many business communication needs. Here are some of the key applications of social networks for internal and external business communication:

• Integrating company workforces. Just as public networks can bring friends and families together, internal social networks can help companies grow closer, including helping new employees navigate their way through the organization by finding experts, mentors, and other important contacts; encouraging workforces to jell after reorganizations or mergers; and overcoming structural barriers in communication channels, bypassing the formal communication system to deliver information where it is needed in a timely fashion.

• Fostering collaboration. Networks can play a major role in collaboration by identifying the best people, both inside the company and at other companies, to collaborate on projects; finding pockets of knowledge and expertise within the organization; giving meeting or seminar participants a way to meet before an event takes place and to maintain relationships after events; accelerating the development of teams by helping team members get to know one another and identify individual areas of expertise; and sharing information throughout the organization.

Community building, both within companies and with customers and other external parties, is an important function of social networking.

• Building communities. Social networks are a natural tool for bringing together communities of practice, people who engage in similar work, and communities of interest, people who share enthusiasm for a particular product or activity. Large and geographically dispersed companies can benefit greatly from communities of practice that connect experts who may work in different divisions or different countries. Communities of interest that form around a specific product are sometimes called brand communities (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000036B1) , and nurturing these communities can be a vital business communication task. Some communities spring up spontaneously when product enthusiasts connect online, whereas others are more formal organizations established by companies to help customers use their products more successfully and engage with like-minded individuals. The SAP Community Network, for instance, set up by the enterprise software company SAP, has more than 2.5

million members.6

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037C5)

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY READING THIS PDF

Starbucks’s social media guidelines

The coffee giant’s guidelines for its employees offer good advice for all business communicators. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real- timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

Socializing a brand is becoming an increasingly important element of marketing and public relations strategies.

• Socializing brands and companies. According to one survey of company executives, socialization now accounts for more than half of a company’s or

brand’s global reputation.7

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037C7) Brand socialization (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000036B4) is a measure of how effectively a company engages with its various online stakeholders in a mutually beneficial exchange of information. The game and doll maker Mattel engages its Twitter followers by answering product questions, reposting fan videos, and acknowledging enthusiastic praise from

customers.8

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037C9)

• Understanding target markets. With hundreds of millions of people expressing themselves via social media, you can be sure that smart companies are listening. When asked about the value of having millions of Facebook fans, Coca-Cola’s CEO Muhtar Kent replied, “The value is you can talk with them.

They tell you things that are important for your business and brands.”9

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037CB) In addition, a number of tools now exist to gather market intelligence from social media more or less automatically. For example, sentiment analysis and reputation analysis tools use advanced language-analysis algorithms to assess the reputations of companies and individuals, measure the emotional

quality of online conversations, identify outrage “hot spots” on social media, and uncover trending topics of interest.10

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037CD)

Social networks are vital tools for distributing information as well as for gathering information about the business environment.

• Recruiting employees and business partners. Companies use social networks to find potential employees, short-term contractors, subject-matter experts, product and service suppliers, and business partners. A key advantage here is that these introductions are made via trusted connections in a professional network. On LinkedIn, for example, members can recommend each other based on current or past business relationships, which helps remove the uncertainty of initiating business relationships with strangers.

• Connecting with sales prospects. Salespeople on networks such as LinkedIn can use their network connections to identify potential buyers and then ask for introductions through those shared connections. Sales networking can reduce cold calling, telephoning potential customers out of the blue—a practice that few people on either end of the conversation find pleasant.

• Supporting customers. Customer service is another one of the fundamental areas of business communication that have been revolutionized by social media. Social customer service involves using social networks and other social media tools to give customers a more convenient way to get help from the company and to help each other.

• Extending the organization. Social networking is also fueling the growth of networked organizations, sometimes known as virtual organizations, where companies supplement the talents of their employees with services from one or more external partners, such as a design lab, a manufacturing firm, or a sales and distribution company.

• Crowdspeaking. Companies, nonprofits, musicians, authors, and others can use crowdspeaking to “boost a signal.” Crowdspeaking services such as Thunderclap and HeadTalker work in much the same manner as Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites. Someone with a message to spread sets a campaign goal, such as recruiting 100 supporters to help share the message. If that goal is reached, the message is “triggered” and automatically sent to all the followers in all those supporters’ social networks. By taking advantage of the social reach of their supporters, communicators can reach hundreds

or thousands of times as many people as they could on their own.11

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037CF)

BUSINESS COMMUNICATORS INNOVATING WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

Companies in virtually every industry use social media and continue to experiment with new ways to connect with customers and other stakeholders. From offering helpful tips on using products to helping customers meet each other, these companies show the enormous range of possibilities that new media continue to bring to business communication.

Recruiting and Business-Focused Social Networks

Marketo, a developer of digital marketing software, maintains a profile in LinkedIn, as do hundreds of its employees.

Courtesy of Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.

Tweetups

A powerful capability of online social media is bringing people with similar interests together offline. Tweetups, for example, are in-person meetings planned and organized over Twitter.

Monkey Business/Fotolia

Value-Added Content via Social Networks

Thousands of companies are on social networking platforms, but blatantly promotional posts are not always welcome by fans and followers. Instead, companies such as Whole Foods use social networks to share information of interest, such as recipes and nutritional advice.

Courtesy Whole Foods Market.

Value-Added Content via Blogging

One of the best ways to become a valued member of a network is to provide content that is useful to others in the network. The Quizzle personal finance blog offers a steady stream of articles and advice that help people manage their finances.

© Quizzle.

Value-Added Content via Online Video

Lie-Nielsen Toolworks of Warren, Maine, uses its YouTube channel to offer valuable information on choosing and using premium woodworking tools. By providing sought-after information for both current and potential customers free of charge, these videos help Lie-Nielsen foster relationships with the worldwide woodworking community and solidify its position as one of the leaders in this market. Animal Planet, Best Western, and Taco Bell are among the many other companies that make effective use of branded channels on YouTube.

© 2013 by Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, Inc. Used by permission.

Employee Recruiting

Zappos is one of the many companies now using Twitter as a recruiting tool. The company’s @InsideZappos account gives potential employees an insider’s look at the company’s offbeat and upbeat culture.

Courtesy of Zappos.

STRATEGIES FOR BUSINESS COMMUNICATION ON SOCIAL NETWORKS

Social networks offer attractive opportunities for business communication, but they must be used with the same care as other professional media. Follow these

guidelines to make the most of social networks for both personal branding and company communication:12

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037D1)

Choose the best composition mode (see Chapter 7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003055#P7001012451000000000000000003055) ) for every message type you post on social networks.

• Choose the best compositional mode for each message, purpose, and network. As you visit various social networks, take some time to observe the variety of message types you see in different parts of each website. For example, the informal status update mode works well for Facebook posts but would be less effective for company overviews and mission statements.

• Offer valuable content to members of your online communities. People don’t join social networks to be sales targets. They join looking for connections and information. Content marketing is the practice of providing free information that is valuable to community members but that also helps

a company build closer ties with current and potential customers.13

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037D3)

• Join existing conversations. Search for online conversations that are already taking place. Answer questions, solve problems, and respond to rumors and misinformation.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY READING THIS INFOGRAPHIC

Social shaming in today’s business landscape

See how today’s consumers use the power of social media to get satisfaction from companies. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real- timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

• Anchor your online presence in your hub. Although it’s important to join those conversations and be visible where your stakeholders are active, it’s equally important to anchor your presence at your own central hub—a web presence you own and control. (Control is important because trying to use Facebook, Twitter, or another service as a hub leaves you at the mercy of changes in design, terms of service, and other variables.) The hub can be a

conventional website or a combination of a website, a blog, and a company-sponsored online community, for example.14

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037D5) Use the hub to connect the various pieces of your online “self” (as an individual or a company) to make it easier for people to find and follow you. For example, you can link to your blog from your LinkedIn profile or automatically announce new blog posts on Twitter.

• Facilitate community building. Make it easy for customers and other audiences to connect with the company and with each other. For instance, you can use the group feature on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social networks to create and foster special-interest communities within your networks. Groups are a great way to connect people who are interested in specific topics, such as owners of a particular product.

Products can be promoted on social networks, but it needs to be done in a low-key, indirect way.

• Restrict conventional promotional efforts to the right time and right place. Persuasive communication efforts are still valid for specific communication tasks, such as regular advertising and the product information pages on a website, but efforts to inject blatant “salespeak” into social networking conversations are usually not welcome.

• Maintain a consistent personality. Each social network is a unique environment with particular norms of communication.15

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037D7) As a strictly business-oriented network, for example, LinkedIn has a more formal “vibe” than Facebook and Google+ which cater to both consumers and businesses. While adapting to the expectations of each network, however, be sure to maintain a consistent personality across all the networks in which

you are active.16

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037D9)

See “Writing Promotional Messages for Social Media (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004a7a#P7001012451000000000000000004AC2) ” in Chapter 12 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004853#P7001012451000000000000000004853) (pages 344 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004a7a#page_344) –346 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004a7a#page_346) ) for more tips on writing messages for social networks and other social media.

8.3 Information- and Content-Sharing Sites

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

3 Explain how information- and content-sharing sites are used in business communication. Social networks allow members to share information and media as part of the networking experience, but a variety of systems have been designed specifically for sharing content. Though the field is diverse and still evolving, the possibilities can be divided into user-generated content sites, content curation sites, and community Q&A sites.

THE FUTURE OF COMMUNICATION

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

Augmented reality and virtual reality (VR) are two intriguing technologies that are starting to change the way employees perform a variety of job tasks, from training to research and development to customer service. Augmented reality provides a layer of digital information that enhances the immediate physical reality a person sees. This information can be as simple as text that displays on a mobile or wearable device pointed at a particular location or item, or as elaborate as 3D graphics that overlay whatever live scene the user is looking at through a device. For example, using an augmented reality app, technicians can point a smartphone or tablet at a machine and get information about its operation and repair. Travelers can use mobile devices to get additional information about environments they’re moving through—everything from reviews of a restaurant they’re walking past to details about the various businesses in an office building.

In contrast, VR creates a simulation in which the person experiences the sensation of being in an environment, even though that environment is entirely computer-generated. (Holograms, in which 3D representations of real people are projected into a physical space, are explored on page 487 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#page_487) .) For training applications, for example, if it is difficult, expensive, or dangerous to put trainees in a real-life situation, a VR simulation can let employees experience the sensation of being there and doing whatever tasks are required. VR can also help people experience a product or structure before it is built. Ford uses VR to get feedback from drivers by letting them sit in and experience prototype designs before the cars are manufactured, and Audi lets buyers experience a virtual car with the options they’d like to order. The home improvement chain Lowes uses VR to let customers walk through rooms they want to build or redecorate in their homes. These simulated experiences can communicate much more powerfully than video, photos, or other conventional media.

WHAT’S YOUR PREDICTION?

Research an augmented or VR system that is currently used for business purposes (not games or other entertainment systems, in other words). Write a one- paragraph summary of how this technology is more effective than conventional business media and offer your prediction on whether it will enter the mainstream of business usage.

Sources: Peter Ray Allison, “Augmented Reality Business Applications Start to Get Real,” ComputerWeekly, May 2015, www.computerweekly.com (http://www.computerweekly.com) ; Nicole Laskowski, “Augmented and Virtual Reality Make a Play for the Enterprise,” TechTarget, February 2016, www.techtarget.com (http://www.techtarget.com) ; Leo King, “Ford, Where Virtual Reality Is Already Manufacturing Reality,” Forbes, 3 May 2014, www.forbes.com (http://www.forbes.com) ; Jack E. Gold, “Augmented-Reality Technology May Transform Work As We Know It,” TechTarget, June 2015, www.techtarget.com (http://www.techtarget.com) ; Lowe’s Innovation Labs, accessed 23 February 2016, www.lowesinnovationlabs.com/holoroom (http://www.lowesinnovationlabs.com/holoroom) .

USER-GENERATED CONTENT SITES

YouTube and other user-generated content sites are now important business communication channels.

YouTube, Flickr, Yelp, and other user-generated content (UGC) sites (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000036C6) , in which users, rather than website owners, contribute most or all of the content, have become serious business tools. On YouTube, for example, companies post everything from product demonstrations and TV commercials to company profiles and technical support explanations.

Moreover, the business communication value of sites such as YouTube goes beyond the mere ability to deliver content. The social aspects of these sites, including

the ability to vote for, comment on, and share material, encourage enthusiasts to spread the word about the companies and products they endorse.17

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037DB)

Companies can also encourage UGC submissions on their own websites or through other social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook. Burberry,

Starbucks, and Belkin are among the companies that generated thousands of responses when they invited customers to submit photos and other media.18

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037DD)

The “voice of the crowd,” which is enabled through social media sites, can dramatically influence the way businesses are managed.

As one example of the way these sites are changing business communication, Yelp has become a major and sometimes controversial influence on consumer

behavior at a local level by aggregating millions of reviews of stores, restaurants, and other businesses across the United States.19

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037DF) With the voice of

the crowd affecting consumer behavior, businesses need to (1) focus on performing at a high level so that customers reward them with positive reviews and (2) get involved on Yelp (the site encourages business owners to tell potential customers about themselves as well). These efforts could pay off much more handsomely than advertising and other conventional communication efforts.

CONTENT CURATION SITES

In many fields of business, so much original content is already available that sometimes the biggest value a communicator can offer audiences is guiding them to the best of what’s out there, rather than creating new content. Similar to what museum curators do when they decide which pieces in their collection to display, business communicators can find and share valuable material with the audiences through content curation (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000036BA) .

Content curation is the process of collecting and presenting articles, videos, and other material on a particular topic in a way that makes it convenient for target readers.

At its simplest, content curation can involve sharing links to useful articles or video via blogs or social media accounts. Companies can also set up dedicated websites that publish links to original content in a variety of topic categories. The authors’ Business Communication Headline News (bchn.businesscommunicationnetwork.com (http://bchn.businesscommunicationnetwork.com) ), for instance, is one of the earliest examples of content curation in the field of business communication. As an alternative, a number of websites offer ready-made content curation solutions. Pinterest and Scoop.it, for example, make it easy to assemble attractive online magazines or portfolios on specific topics.

Curating content for a target audience can be a great way to add value and stand out as an expert in your field. Not only can you save readers the time it would take to find material on their own, but you can use your knowledge to locate and present the most useful articles, videos, and other media on a given topic.

All content curators need to be aware of two key ethical concerns. First, you must not plagiarize, which is presenting someone else’s content as your own. Second, you are promoting yourself as an expert when you curate content, and people will expect you to do a competent job of finding and filtering materials. As with any

communication task, make sure you understand the needs of your target audience so that you can provide the best material possible to meet their needs.20

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037E1)

COMMUNITY Q&A SITES

Community Q&A sites (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000036B7) , on which visitors answer questions posted by other visitors, are a contemporary twist on the early ethos of computer networking, which was people helping each other. (Groups of like-minded people connected online long before the World Wide Web was even created.) Community Q&A sites include dedicated customer support communities such as those hosted on Get Satisfaction and public sites such as Quora and Yahoo! Answers.

Community Q&A sites offer great opportunities for building your personal brand.

Responding to questions on Q&A sites can be a great way to build your personal brand, to demonstrate your company’s commitment to customer service, and to counter misinformation about your company and its products. Keep in mind that when you respond to an individual query on a community Q&A site, you are also “responding in advance” to every person who comes to the site with the same question in the future. In other words, you are writing a type of reference material in addition to corresponding with the original questioner, so keep the long time frame and wider audience in mind.

8.4 Blogging

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

4 Describe the role of blogging in business communication today, and explain how to adapt the three-step writing process to blogging. Blogs (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000036AE) , online journals that are easier to personalize and update than conventional websites, are a major force in business communication. To maintain a positive connection with target audiences, business bloggers should follow several important guidelines:

MOBILE APP

The Feedly reader app gathers fresh content from all your favorite websites.

Writing in a personal, authentic voice is key to attracting and keeping blog readers.

• Communicate with personal style and an authentic voice. Traditional business messages designed for large audiences tend to be carefully scripted and written in a “corporate voice” that is impersonal and objective. In contrast, successful business blogs tend to exhibit the personal style of their authors. Audiences relate to this fresh approach and often build closer emotional bonds with the blogger’s organization as a result.

• Deliver new information quickly. Blogging tools let you post new material as soon as you create or find it. This feature not only allows you to respond quickly when needed—such as during a corporate crisis—but also lets your audiences know that active communication is taking place. Blogs that don’t offer a continuous stream of new and interesting content are quickly ignored in today’s online environment.

• Choose topics of peak interest to audiences. Successful blogs cover topics that readers care about, and they emphasize useful information while

downplaying product promotion.21

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037E3) These topics don’t need to be earthshaking or cutting edge—they just need to be things that matter to target readers.

Most business blogs invite readers to leave comments as a way to encourage participation among stakeholders.

• Encourage audiences to join the conversation. Not all blogs invite comments, but many bloggers consider comments to be an essential feature. These comments can be a valuable source of news, information, and insights. In addition, the relatively informal nature of blogging seems to make it easier for company representatives to let their guards down and converse with their audiences. Of course, not all comments are helpful or appropriate, which is why many bloggers moderate comments, previewing them before allowing them to be displayed.

DIGITAL + SOCIAL + MOBILE: TODAY’S COMMUNICATION ENVIRONMENT

Community Manager: Keeping a Company Connected to Its Stakeholders

In the narrowest sense, a community manager is the social media interface between a company and its external stakeholders. More broadly, some community managers also plan and manage corporate events and oversee customer support operations. In smaller firms the community manager might be the sole voice in a company’s social media presence (running its Twitter account and Facebook pages, for example). In larger firms the job often entails supervising a team of people who carry out a broad range of audience-engagement activities.

Not surprisingly, communication skills are essential for community managers, from handling the nuts and bolts of effectively using social media to fostering a sense of community and inspiring people to be passionate about a company and its brands. In addition, community management is a data-intensive job in many companies; managers are expected to make full use of analytical tools to measure the effects of social interaction and to use those results to plan new initiatives. Community managers also have to be well versed in their company’s product and service offerings.

On a personal level, the job requires high energy, resilience, a thick skin for handling negative comments, and a willingness to be connected far beyond the limits of a 40-hour week. You are “the face of the brand,” as Adobe’s community manager Rachael King describes it, and when major events hit, social managers are expected to respond in real time.

If the attractions and challenges of this job sound appealing to you, be sure to add community manager to the list of career paths to explore as you get closer to graduation.

CAREER APPLICATIONS

1. Would someone with limited work experience but a long personal history of using social media be a good candidate for a community manager position? Why or why not?

2. What are the risks of having a single person be the voice of a company? How should companies address these risks?

Sources: Lindsay Kolowich, “What the Best Social Media Community Managers Actually Do in Their Jobs,” HubSpot blog, 8 July 2015, blog.hubspot.com (http://blog.hubspot.com) ; Don Power, “In Their Own Words: What Community Managers Do Every Day,” SproutSocial, 7 March 2013, sproutsocial.com (http://sproutsocial.com) ; Ryan Lytle, “10 Qualities of an Effective Community Manager,” Mashable, 27 January 2013, mashable.com (http://mashable.com) ; Jennifer Grayeb, “The 4 Pillars of Community Management,” Forbes, 25 December 2013, www.forbes.com (http://www.forbes.com) ; Tim McDonald, “Community Manager: Key to the Future of Business,” Huffington Post, 27 January 2014, www.huffingtonpost.com (http://www.huffingtonpost.com) .

UNDERSTANDING THE BUSINESS APPLICATIONS OF BLOGGING

Blogs are a potential solution whenever you have a continuing stream of information to share with an online audience—and particularly when you want the

audience to have the opportunity to respond. Here are some of the many ways businesses are using blogs:22

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037E5)

The business applications of blogs include a wide range of internal and external communication tasks.

• Anchoring the social media presence. As noted earlier, the multiple threads of any social media program should be anchored in a central hub that the company or an individual owns and controls. Blogs make an ideal social media hub.

• Project management and team communication. Using blogs is a good way to keep project teams up to date, particularly when team members are geographically dispersed.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY VISITING THIS WEBSITE

Big companies that blog well

Explore 10 blogs from such major brands as Coca-Cola and Disney. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

• Internal company news. Companies can use blogs to keep employees informed about general business matters, from facility news to benefit updates. By reducing the need for grapevines to spring up, blogs can enhance communication across all levels of a company.

• Customer support. Customer support blogs answer questions, offer tips and advice, and inform customers about new products. Also, many companies

monitor the blogosphere (and Twittersphere), looking for complaints and responding with offers to help dissatisfied customers.23

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037E7)

• Public relations and media relations. Many company employees and executives now share company news with both the general public and journalists via their blogs.

• Recruiting. Using a blog is a great way to let potential employees know more about your company, the people who work there, and the nature of the company culture. In the other direction, employers often find and evaluate the blogs and microblogs of prospective employees, making blogging a great way to build a name for yourself within your industry or profession.

• Policy and issue discussions. Executive blogs in particular provide a public forum for discussing legislation, regulations, and other broad issues of interest to an organization.

• Crisis communication. Using blogs is an efficient way to provide up-to-the-minute information during emergencies, to correct misinformation, or to respond to rumors.

• Market research. Blogs are a clever mechanism for soliciting feedback from customers and experts in the marketplace. In addition to using their own blogs for research, today’s companies need to monitor blogs that are likely to discuss them, their executives, and their products. Negative product reviews, rumors, and other information can spread across the globe in a matter of hours, and managers need to know what the online community is saying—whether it’s positive or negative.

• Brainstorming. Online brainstorming via blogs offers a way for people to toss around ideas and build on each others’ contributions. • Employee engagement. Blogs can enhance communication across all levels of a company, giving senior managers a channel they can use to

communicate with employees and giving employees the chance to offer comments and ask questions. • Customer education. Blogs are a great way to help current and potential customers understand and use your products and services. Doing so can also

improve sales and support productivity by reducing the need for one-on-one communication. • Word-of-mouth marketing. Bloggers and microbloggers often make a point of providing links to other blogs and websites that interest them, giving

marketers a great opportunity to have their messages spread by enthusiasts. Word-of-mouth marketing is often called viral marketing in reference to the transmission of messages in much the same way that biological viruses are transmitted from person to person. However, viral marketing is not

really an accurate metaphor. As author Brian Solis puts it, “There is no such thing as viral marketing.”24

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037E9) Real viruses spread from host to host on their own, whereas word-of-mouth marketing requires “hosts” to spread messages voluntarily. The distinction is critical because you need to give people a good reason—good content, in other words—to pass along your message.

• Influencing traditional media news coverage. According to the social media consultant Tamar Weinberg, “The more prolific bloggers who provide valuable and consistent content are often considered experts in their subject matter” and are often called upon when journalists need insights into

various topics.25

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037EB)

• Community building. Blogging is a great way to connect people with similar interests, and popular bloggers often attract a community of readers who connect with one another through the commenting function.

The possibilities of blogs are almost unlimited, so be on the lookout for new ways to use them to foster positive relationships with colleagues, customers, and other important audiences (see Figure 8.2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#P70010124510000000000000000035C1) ).

Figure 8.2 Business Applications of Blogging

This Xerox blog illustrates the content, writing style, and features that make an effective, reader-friendly company blog.

Source: Courtesy of Xerox Corporation. Hero Images/Getty Images

ADAPTING THE THREE-STEP PROCESS FOR SUCCESSFUL BLOGGING

The three-step writing process is easy to adapt to blogging. The planning step is particularly important if you’re considering starting a blog because you’re planning an entire communication channel, not just a single message. Pay close attention to your audience, your purpose, and your scope.

Before you launch a blog, make sure you have a clear understanding of your target audience, the purpose of your blog, and the scope of subjects you plan to cover.

• Audience. Except with team blogs and other efforts that have an obvious and well-defined audience, defining the target audience for a blog can be challenging. You want an audience that is large enough to justify the time you’ll be investing but narrow enough that you can provide a clear focus. For instance, if you work for a firm that develops computer games, would you focus your blog on “hardcore” players, the types who spend thousands of dollars on super-fast PCs optimized for video games, or would you broaden the reach to include all video gamers? The decision often comes down to business strategy.

• Purpose. A business blog needs to have a business-related purpose that is important to your company and to your chosen audience. Moreover, the purpose has to “have legs”—that is, it needs to be something that can drive the blog’s content for months or years—rather than focus on a single event or an issue of only temporary interest. For instance, if you’re a technical expert, you might create a blog to give the audience tips and techniques for using your company’s products more effectively—a never-ending subject that’s important to both you and your audience. This would be the general purpose of your blog; each post would have a specific purpose within the context of that general purpose. Finally, if you are not writing an official company blog but rather blogging as an individual employee, make sure you understand your employer’s blogging guidelines. IBM, for example, gives its employees 12 specific social computing guidelines, such as identifying their role as IBM employees if they are discussing matters related to the company

and respecting intellectual property laws.26

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037ED)

• Scope. Defining the scope of your blog can be a bit tricky. You want to cover a subject area that is broad enough to offer ongoing discussion possibilities but narrow enough to have an identifiable focus. With a clear purpose in mind, you’ll have a better idea of how wide or narrow your subject can be.

After you begin writing your blog, careful planning needs to continue with each message. Unless you’re posting to a restricted-access blog, such as an internal blog on a company’s intranet, you can never be sure who might see your posts or when other bloggers might link to them.

The ideal writing style for blog posts is personal and comfortable—but not careless.

Use a comfortable, personal writing style. Blog audiences don’t want to hear from your company; they want to hear from you. Bear in mind, though, that comfortable does not mean careless. Sloppy writing annoys readers and damages your credibility.

Successful blog content also needs to be interesting, valuable to readers, and as brief as possible.27

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037EF) In addition, although audiences expect you to be knowledgeable in the subject area your blog covers, you don’t need to know everything about a topic. If you don’t have all the information yourself, provide links to other blogs and websites that supply relevant content. In fact, content curation (see page 213 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000353f#page_213) ) is one of the most valuable aspects of blogging.

As with email subject lines, compelling headlines for blog posts are an essential tool to draw in readers. A headline needs to grab the reader’s attention in a split second by promising something useful, surprising, challenging, or otherwise different from what he or she already knows. Headlines should be as short as possible and suggest that the information in the post will be easy to read and use. “List” headlines that cut right to the heart of something readers care about, such as “10 Reasons You Didn’t Get That Promotion” or “Seven Ways to Save Money with Your Smartphone,” are particularly popular among bloggers.

Completing messages for your blog is usually easy. Evaluate the content and readability of your message, proofread to correct any errors, and post it. Most blogging systems have built-in newsfeed options (often called RSS newsfeeds) so that your audience can automatically receive new posts from you.

Finally, make your material easier to find by tagging (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000036C3) it with descriptive words. Your readers can then select these “content labels” to find additional posts about those topics. Tags are usually displayed with each post, and they can also be grouped in a tag cloud display, which shows all the tags in use on your blog.

“Checklist: Blogging for Business” summarizes some of the key points to remember when creating and writing a business blog.

CHECKLIST Blogging for Business

• Consider creating a blog or microblog account whenever you have a continuing stream of information to share with an online audience. • Identify an audience that is broad enough to justify the effort but narrow enough to have common interests. • Identify a purpose that is comprehensive enough to provide ideas for a continuing stream of posts. • Consider the scope of your blog carefully; make it broad enough to attract an audience but narrow enough to keep you focused. • Communicate with a personal style and an authentic voice, but don’t write carelessly. • Deliver new information quickly. • Choose topics of peak interest to your audience. • Encourage audiences to join the conversation. • Consider using Twitter or other microblog updates to alert readers to new posts on your regular blog.

8.5 Microblogging

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

5 Describe the business uses of Twitter and other microblogging systems. A microblog (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000036BD) is a variation on blogging in which messages are sharply restricted to specific character counts. Twitter is the best known of these systems, but many others exist. Some companies have private microblogging systems for internal use only, either as standalone services or as part of broader collaboration systems.

MOBILE APP

The mobile app for Twitter helps you stay connected with your followers and the accounts you follow.

Many of the concepts of regular blogging apply to microblogging as well, although the severe length limitations call for a different approach to composition. Microblog messages often involve short summaries or teasers that provide links to more information. In addition, microblogs tend to have a stronger social

aspect that makes it easier for writers and readers to forward messages and for communities to form around individual writers.28

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037F1)

The business communication uses of microblogging extend well beyond the publication of brief updates.

Like regular blogging, microblogging quickly caught on with business users and is now a mainstream business medium. Microblogs are used for virtually all of the blog applications mentioned on pages 215 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#page_215) –216 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#page_216) . In addition, microblogs are frequently used for providing company updates, offering coupons and notices of sales, presenting tips on product usage, sharing relevant and interesting information from experts, announcing the headlines of new blog posts, engaging with customers (see Figure 8.3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003607#P7001012451000000000000000003618) ), and serving as the backchannel in meetings and presentations (see page 477 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#page_477) ). By following top names in your field, you can

also customize Twitter as your own real-time news source.29

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037F3)

Customer service is also becoming a popular use for Twitter, thanks to its ease and speed and the option of switching between public tweets and private direct

messages as the situation warrants.30

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037F5) Even if a company doesn’t want to use Twitter as a customer service channel, it should monitor the system to look for complaints or questions from customers, many of whom use Twitter these days to ask for help or publicize their disappointment.

Figure 8.3 Business Applications of Microblogging

Mathews, a small manufacturer of archery products, uses Twitter to foster relationships with customers and other interested parties. Notice how every tweet in this time line is part of a conversation.

Courtesy of Mathews Archery, Inc.

The social networking aspect of Twitter and other microblogs also makes them good for crowdsourcing research questions: asking one’s followers for input or

advice.31 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037F7) Finally, the ease of retweeting, the practice of forwarding messages from other Twitter users, is the microblogging equivalent of sharing other content from other bloggers via content curation.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY READING THIS ARTICLE

Tips for ensuring a positive Twitter experience

Twitter offers advice for getting the most from the service while avoiding common blunders. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real- timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

In addition to its usefulness as a standalone system, Twitter is integrated with other social media systems and a variety of publishing and reading tools and services. Many of these make use of the informal Twitter feature known as the hashtag (the # symbol followed by a word or phrase), which makes it easy for people to label and search for topics of interest and to monitor ongoing Twitter conversations about particular topics. As Starbucks discovered, however,

hashtags can turn into “bashtags” when members of the public use a hashtag campaign to ridicule or criticize a company32

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037F9) (see page 205 (M11_C08.xhtml#page_205) ).

Don’t let the speed and simplicity of microblogging lull you into making careless mistakes; every message should support your business communication objectives.

Although microblogs are designed to encourage spontaneous communication, when you’re using the medium for business communication, don’t just tweet whatever pops into your head. Make sure messages are part of your overall communication strategy. Twitter followers consider tweets that are entertaining, surprising, informative, or engaging (such as asking followers for advice) as the most valuable. In contrast, the least-valuable tweets tend to be complaints,

conversations between the Twitter account owner and a specific follower, and relatively pointless messages such as saying “good morning.”33

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037FB)

Table 8.1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003607#P7001012451000000000000000003636) summarizes the advice for successful blogging and microblogging in business.

TABLE 8.1 Tips for Effective Business Blogging and Microblogging

Tip Why It’s Important

Don’t blog without a clear plan. Without a clear plan, your blog or Twitter feed is likely to wander from topic to topic and fail to build a sense of community with your audience.

Post frequently, but don’t overwhelm your readers.

If you won’t have a constant supply of new information or new links, create a traditional website instead. On the other hand, blogging or tweeting too often can overwhelm your followers.

Make it about your audience and the issues important to them.

Readers want to know how your blog will help them, entertain them, or give them a chance to communicate with others who have similar interests.

Write in an authentic voice; never create an artificial character who supposedly writes a blog.

Flogs, or fake blogs, violate the spirit of blogging, show disrespect for your audience, and will turn audiences against you as soon as they uncover the truth. Fake blogs that are used to promote products are now illegal in some countries.

Link and retweet generously—but carefully. Providing interesting links to other blogs and websites is a fundamental aspect of blogging, but make sure the links will be of value to your readers, and don’t point to inappropriate material. Similarly, retweeting is a good way to share interesting content and build relationships with other Twitter users, but retweeting too often can annoy your followers.

Keep blog posts brief. Most online readers don’t have the patience to read lengthy reports. Rather than writing long, report-style posts, you can write brief posts that link to in-depth reports.

Don’t post or tweet anything you wouldn’t want the entire world to see.

Future employers, government regulators, competitors, journalists, and community critics are just a few of the people who might eventually see what you’ve written.

Minimize marketing and sales messages. Even product enthusiasts and motivated shoppers don’t want to be “sold to” on company blogs. They want information about how products and services will meet their needs.

Take time to write compelling, specific headlines for your posts.

Readers usually decide within a couple of seconds whether to read a post; boring or vague headlines will turn them away instantly.

Tip Why It’s Important

Pay attention to spelling, grammar, and mechanics.

No matter how smart or experienced you are, poor-quality writing undermines your credibility with intelligent audiences.

Respond to criticism openly and honestly. Hiding sends the message that you don’t have a valid response to the criticism. If your critics are wrong, patiently explain why you think they’re wrong. If they are right, explain how you’ll fix the situation.

Listen and learn. If you don’t take the time to analyze the comments people leave on your blog or the comments other bloggers make about you, you’re missing out on one of the most valuable aspects of blogging.

Respect intellectual property. Improperly using material you don’t own is not only unethical but can be illegal as well.

Be scrupulously honest and careful with facts. Honesty is an absolute requirement for every ethical business communicator, of course, but you need to be extra careful online because inaccuracies (both intentional and unintentional) are likely to be discovered quickly and shared widely.

If you review products on your blog, disclose any beneficial relationships you have with the companies that make those products.

Bloggers who receive free products or other compensation from companies whose products they write about are now required to disclose the nature of these relationships.

8.6 Wikis

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

6 Offer guidelines for becoming a valuable wiki contributor. As Chapter 2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000015f4#P70010124510000000000000000015F4) points out, using wikis is a great way for teams and other groups to collaborate on writing projects, from brief articles to long reports and reference works. The benefits of wikis are compelling, but they do require a unique approach to writing.

UNDERSTANDING THE WIKI PHILOSOPHY

To be a valuable wiki contributor, keep these points in mind:34

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037FD)

Being an effective wiki collaborator requires a different mindset when writing.

• Let go of traditional expectations of authorship, including individual recognition and control. • Encourage all team members to improve each other’s work. • Use page templates and other formatting options to make sure your content matches the rest of the wiki. • Many wikis provide both editing and commenting capabilities, and participants should use the appropriate tool for each. In other words, don’t insert

comments or questions into the main content; use the “talk page” or other commenting feature if you want to discuss the content. • Take advantage of the sandbox, if available; this is a “safe,” nonpublished section of the wiki where team members can practice editing and writing.

Wikis often have guideline pages to help new contributors integrate their work into the group’s ongoing effort. Be sure to read and understand these guidelines, and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

ADAPTING THE THREE-STEP PROCESS FOR SUCCESSFUL WIKI WRITING

You can easily adapt the three-step writing process for wikis, depending on whether you are creating a new wiki, adding new material to an existing wiki, or revising existing material on a wiki.

If you are creating a new wiki, think through your long-term purpose carefully, just as you would with a new blog or podcast channel. Doing so will help you craft appropriate guidelines, editorial oversight, and security policies.

Make sure you understand how a new wiki page will fit in with the existing content.

If you are adding a page or an article to an existing wiki, figure out how this new material fits in with the existing organization. Determine whether any similar material already exists; it might be better to expand an existing article or add a subpage than to create a new item. Also, learn the wiki’s preferred style for handling incomplete articles. For example, on the wiki that contains the user documentation for the popular WordPress blogging software, contributors are

discouraged from adding new pages until the content is “fairly complete and accurate.”35

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P70010124510000000000000000037FF)

If you are revising or updating an existing wiki article, use the checklist on page 157 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000002b0a#page_157) in Chapter 6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000002ade#P7001012451000000000000000002ADE) to evaluate the content before you make changes. If you don’t agree with published content and plan to revise it, you can use the wiki’s discussion facility to share your concerns with other contributors. The wiki environment should encourage discussions and even robust disagreements, as long as everyone remains civil and respectful.

For the latest advice on using social media in business, visit real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Chapter 8 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003454#P7001012451000000000000000003454) .

COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES AT Starbucks

You’ve joined Alexandra Wheeler’s social media team. Use what you’ve learned in the course so far to solve these communication dilemmas.

INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE: You’ve written a blog entry describing an upcoming competition in which the small town that submits the most creative “community spirit” video will win a $50,000 makeover of a park or community center. Write a tweet of no more than 140 characters that could serve as a teaser to persuade your Twitter followers to click through to the blog post.

TEAM CHALLENGE: One member of the social media team is retiring, and you’ve been asked to recruit her replacement, whose primary responsibility will be blogging. Your plan is to send an email message to everyone in the company, providing a brief reminder of the blog’s purpose, describing the writing style you’re looking for, and inviting interested writers to submit sample blog entries for evaluation. (This message is for employees only; it won’t be seen by the public.) With a team assigned by your instructor, brainstorm the ideal qualities of writer for the Starbucks blog, then draft the email invitation.

Quick Learning Guide

KEY TERMS

blog An easily updatable online journal; short for weblog

brand communities Groups of people united by their interest in and ownership or use of particular products

brand socialization A measure of how effectively a company engages with its various online stakeholders in a mutually beneficial exchange of information

community Q&A sites Websites on which visitors answer questions posted by other visitors or by company representatives

content curation The practice of collecting, filtering, and republishing material on a particular topic

microblog A variation on a blog in which messages are restricted to specific character counts; Twitter is the best-known example

social networks Online services that enable individual and organizational members to form connections and share information

tagging Attaching descriptive terms to blog posts and other articles to facilitate searching

user-generated content (UGC) sites Websites on which users, rather than website owners, contribute most or all of the content

SUMMARY OF LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1 Identify seven key points for using social media in business communication. Seven key points for using social media are (1) remember that it’s a conversation, not a lecture or a sales pitch; (2) write informally but not carelessly; (3) create concise, specific, and informative headlines that don’t force readers to solve clever wordplay puzzles; (4) get involved and stay involved with conversations that concern your company; (5) promote your company and products indirectly; (6) be transparent and honest; and (7) think before you post to avoid problems caused by careless messages.

2 Describe the business communication applications of social networks. Businesses now use a variety of social networks, including well-known public networks such as Facebook and business-oriented networks such as LinkedIn, as well as a variety of specialized networks, single-company networks for customers, and internal employee-only networks. The business communication applications of social networks are important and diverse; major uses include collaborating, gathering market intelligence, recruiting employees, connecting with business partners, marketing, and fostering brand communities.

3 Explain how information- and content-sharing sites are used in business communication. User-generated content sites such as YouTube allow companies to host media (such as videos) that customers and other stakeholders can view, comment on, and share. Content curation sites allow professionals and consumers with expertise or interest in a particular field to collect and republish material on a particular topic. Community Q&A sites give individuals the opportunity to build their personal brands by providing expertise, and they give companies the chance to address customer complaints and correct misinformation.

4 Describe the role of blogging in business communication today, and explain how to adapt the three-step writing process to blogging. Blogs are used in numerous ways in business today, such as for project management and team communication, company news, customer support, public relations and media relations, employee recruiting, policy and issue discussions, crisis communication, market research, brainstorming, employee engagement, viral marketing, influencing traditional media news coverage, and community building.

The three-step writing process adapts readily to blogging. When planning, be particularly careful in defining your audience, identifying the overall purpose of your blog and the specific purposes of each post, and establishing a scope that is narrow enough to be focused but broad enough to afford a steady supply of topics. Be sure to write in a personal, authentic style, without slipping into overly familiar or careless writing. Completing messages involves the usual tasks of proofing and revising before posting, along with the particular tasks needed to distribute your posts via newsfeeds.

5 Describe the business uses of Twitter and other microblogging systems. Microblogs such as Twitter are used for many of the same purposes as conventional blogging, along with digital coupons, sale announcements, one-on-one customer service queries, and customized news channels created by following experts of interest. Microblogs can also serve as the backchannel during meetings and presentations.

6 Offer guidelines for becoming a valuable wiki contributor. To become a valuable wiki contributor, let go of traditional expectations of authorship, including individual recognition and control; don’t be afraid to edit and improve existing content; use page templates and other formatting options to make sure your content is formatted in the same style as the rest of the wiki; keep edits and comments separate by using the “talk page” to discuss content, rather than inserting comments directly into the text; take advantage of the sandbox to learn how use the wiki’s writing and editing tools; and understand and follow the wiki’s contributor guidelines.

MyBCommLab

Go to mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) to complete the problems marked with this icon .

Test Your Knowledge To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

8-1. Why are straightforward, informative headlines better for social media than headlines with witty wordplay? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003480#P7001012451000000000000000003482)

8-2. How have social media tools spurred the growth of communities of practice? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#P70010124510000000000000000034AE)

8-3. What does it mean to anchor your social media presence in a hub? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#P70010124510000000000000000034AE)

8-4. What is content curation? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000353f#P7001012451000000000000000003541)

8-5. How can blogs help with so-called viral marketing efforts? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#P700101245100000000000000000356F)

8-6. Why is it important to have a long-term, sustainable purpose in mind before you launch a blog? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#P700101245100000000000000000356F)

8-7. How can Twitter be used to crowdsource research? [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003607#P700101245100000000000000000360A)

8-8. How does the use of hashtags on Twitter help people find information of interest? [LO- (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003607#P700101245100000000000000000360A) 5]

8-9. Why is it important to abandon traditional notions of ownership when writing on a wiki? [LO-6] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000367a#P700101245100000000000000000367E)

Apply Your Knowledge To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

8-10. Can your company stay in control of its messages if it stays off social media? Why or why not? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003480#P7001012451000000000000000003482)

8-11. Is leveraging your connections on social networks for business purposes ethical? Why or why not? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#P70010124510000000000000000034AE)

8-12. If one of the benefits of blogging and microblogging is the personal, intimate style of writing, is it a good idea to limit your creativity by adhering to conventional rules of grammar, spelling, and mechanics? Why or why not? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#P700101245100000000000000000356F)

8-13. What are some of the ways the president of a hiking equipment company can use Twitter to engage potential customers without being overtly promotional? [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003607#P700101245100000000000000000360A)

8-14. If you know that most readers of your management advice blog access it on mobile devices, should you switch to Twitter instead so the shorter messages would be easier to read on small screens? Why or why not? [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003607#P700101245100000000000000000360A)

Practice Your Skills 8-15. Message for Analysis 8.A: Media Skills: Blogging, Creating a Businesslike Tone [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#P700101245100000000000000000356F) Revise this blog post based on what you’ve learned in this chapter.

[headline]

We’re DOOMED!!!!!

[post]

I was at the Sikorsky plant in Stratford yesterday, just checking to see how things were going with the assembly line retrofit we did for them last year. I think I saw the future, and it ain’t pretty. They were demo’ing a prototype robot from Motoman that absolutely blows our stuff out of the water. They wouldn’t let me really see it, but based on the 10-second glimpse I got, it’s smaller, faster, and more maneuverable than any of our units. And when I asked about the price, the guy just grinned. And it wasn’t the sort of grin designed to make me feel good. I’ve been saying for years that we need to pay more attention to size, speed, and maneuverability instead of just relying on our historical strengths of accuracy and payload capacity, and you’d have to be blind not to agree that this experience proves me right. If we can’t at least show a design for a better unit within two or three months, Motoman is going to lock up the market and leave us utterly in the dust. Believe me, being able to say “I told you so” right now is not nearly as satisfying as you might think!!

8-16. Message 8.B: Revising Web Content with a “You” Attitude [LO-6] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000367a#P700101245100000000000000000367E) To access this wiki exercise, visit real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) , select Student Assignments, then select Chapter 8 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003454#P7001012451000000000000000003454) , Message 8.B. Follow the instructions for evaluating the existing content and revising it to make it more reader oriented.

8-17. Message 8.C: Improving the Effectiveness of a Wiki Article [LO-6] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000367a#P700101245100000000000000000367E) To access this wiki exercise, go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) , select Student Assignments, then select Chapter 8 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003454#P7001012451000000000000000003454) , Message 8.C. Follow the instructions for evaluating the existing content and revising it to make it clear and concise.

Exercises

Each activity is labeled according to the primary skill or skills you will need to use. To review relevant chapter content, you can refer to the indicated Learning Objective. In some instances, supporting information will be found in another chapter, as indicated.

8-18. Media Skills: Social Networking [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#P70010124510000000000000000034AE) Pick a company in any industry that interests you. Imagine you are doing strategic planning for this firm, and identify one of your company’s key competitors. (Hint: You can use the free listings on www.hoovers.com (http://www.hoovers.com) to find several top competitors for most medium-size and large companies in the United States.) Now search through social media sources to find three strategically relevant pieces of information about this competitor, such as the hiring of a new executive, the launch of a major new product, or a significant problem of some kind. In a post on your class blog, identify the information you found and the sources you used. (If you can’t find useful information, pick another firm or try another industry.)

8-19. Media Skills: Social Networking [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#P70010124510000000000000000034AE) Joining an ongoing social media conversation, such as a comment thread on Facebook, requires a delicate touch if you work for a company that has a commercial interest in the subject at hand. Imagine you work for a company that makes audiophile-quality headphones, acoustic guitars, or electronic drum kits (choose whichever product interests you most). While monitoring a Facebook group for enthusiasts of this product category, you see an active thread in which people are complaining about the quality of one of your competitor’s products. You know that for years this company had a reputation for making high-quality equipment, but after a poorly executed plan to outsource manufacturing in order to cut costs, quality has suffered. A similar product that your company offers is slightly more expensive but has significantly higher quality, according to a recent survey conducted by a respected and impartial industry website. Draft a brief comment that you could use to join the conversation. Decide what information you’ll include and whether you will disclose your company affiliation. Assume that representatives from various companies do occasionally make posts and leave comments in this group, but overt selling is explicitly forbidden by the group’s moderator. 8-20. Media Skills: Blogging, Creating a Businesslike Tone; Mobile Skills [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#P700101245100000000000000000356F) The members of the project team you lead have enthusiastically embraced blogging as a communication medium. Unfortunately, as emotions heat up during the project, some of the blog posts are becoming too casual, too personal, and even sloppy. Because your boss and other managers within the company also read this project blog, you don’t want the team to seem unprofessional. Revise the following blog post so that it communicates in a more businesslike manner while retaining the informal, conversational tone of a blog. In addition, break it into smaller paragraphs that are more compatible with mobile devices. (Be sure to correct any spelling and punctuation mistakes you find as well.)

[post]

Well, to the profound surprise of absolutely nobody, we are not going to be able meet the June 1 commitment to ship 100 operating tables to Southeast Surgical Supply. (For those of you who have been living in a cave the past six month, we have been fighting to get our hands on enough high-grade chromium steel to meet our production schedule.) Sure enough, we got news, this morning that we will only get enough for 30 tables. Yes, we look like fools for not being able to follow through on promises we made to the customer, but no, this didn’t have to happpen. Six month’s ago, purchasing warned us about shrinking supplies and suggested we advance-buy as much as we would need for the next 12 months, or so. We naturally tried to followed their advice, but just as naturally were shot down by the bean counters at corporate who trotted out the policy about never buying more than three months worth of materials in advance. Of course, it’ll be us—not the bean counters who’ll take the flak when everybody starts asking why revenues are down next quarter and why Southeast is talking to our friends at Crighton!!! Maybe, some day this company will get its head out of the sand and realize that we need to have some financial flexibility in order to compete.

8-21. Media Skills: Blogging [LO-4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#P700101245100000000000000000356F) ] Find a current political issue that could have a direct effect on business, such as immigration law, Internet sales tax, product safety, or international trade policy. Identify a company that is affected by this issue, and assume you are the president or CEO and want to speak out about it. Write a three- paragraph blog post that summarizes the issue, explains how it could affect your company, and urges a particular action from political leaders.

8-22. Media Skills: Microblogging [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003607#P700101245100000000000000000360A) Busy knitters can go through a lot of yarn in a hurry, so most keep a sharp eye out for sales. You’re on the marketing staff of Knitting-Warehouse, and you like to keep your loyal shoppers up to date with the latest deals. Visit the Knitting-Warehouse website at www.knitting-warehouse.com (http://www.knitting-warehouse.com) , choose any on-sale product that catches your eye, and compose a tweet that describes the product and the sale. (Unless you are working on a private Twitter account that is accessible only by your instructor and your classmates, don’t actually tweet this message. Email it to your instructor instead.)

8-23. Media Skills: Microblogging [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003607#P700101245100000000000000000360A) Choose a product you purchased recently or something you’re considering purchasing. Compose a three-tweet sequence that (1) introduces the product, (2) lists two or three important advantages, and (3) identifies which groups of consumers can benefit from it. Email your tweets to your instructor rather than posting them on Twitter.

Expand Your Skills Critique the Professionals

On Twitter, find two companies in the same industry and review a dozen recent tweets from each. Considering the tweets from the perspective of a potential customer, which company does a better job of engaging your attention and building your interest in its products? Using whatever medium your instructor requests, write a brief analysis of the two companies’ Twitter activity, and explain why one is using the social network more effectively than the other.

Sharpening Your Career Skills Online

Bovée and Thill’s Business Communication Web Search, at websearch.businesscommunicationnetwork.com (http://websearch.businesscommunicationnetwork.com) , is a unique research tool designed specifically for business communication research. Use the Web Search function to find a website, video, article, podcast, or presentation that offers advice on using social media in business. In a brief email message to your instructor, describe the item that you found and summarize the career skills information you learned from it.

Cases

For all cases, feel free to use your creativity to make up any details you need in order to craft effective messages.

SOCIAL NETWORKING SKILLS

8-24. Media Skills: Social Networking; Media Skills: Microblogging [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#P70010124510000000000000000034AE) [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003607#P700101245100000000000000000360A) Foursquare is one of the leading providers of location-based social networking services. Millions of people use Foursquare for social engagement and friendly competition, and many business owners are starting to recognize the marketing potential of having people who are on the move in local areas broadcast their locations and share information about stores, restaurants, clubs, and other merchants.

Your task: Review the information on Foursquare’s Merchant Platform at business.foursquare.com (http://business.foursquare.com) . Now write four brief messages, no more than 140 characters long. The first should summarize the benefits to stores, restaurants, and other “brick-and-mortar” businesses of participating in Foursquare; the next three messages should convey three compelling points that support that overall benefit statement. If your class is set up with private Twitter accounts, use your private account to send your messages. Otherwise, email your four messages to your instructor or post them on your class blog, as your instructor directs.

SOCIAL NETWORKING SKILLS

8-25. Media Skills: Social Networking; Online Etiquette [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#P70010124510000000000000000034AE) , Chapter 2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000015f4#P70010124510000000000000000015F4) Employees who take pride in their work are a priceless resource for any business. However, pride can sometimes manifest itself in negative ways when employees receive criticism—and public criticism is a fact of life in social media. Imagine that your company has recently experienced a rash of product quality problems, and these problems have generated some unpleasant and occasionally unfair criticism on a variety of social media sites. Someone even set up a Facebook page specifically to give customers a place to vent their frustrations.

You and your public relations team jumped into action, responding to complaints with offers to provide replacement products and help customers who have been affected by the quality problems. Everything seemed to be going as well as could be expected, until you were checking a few industry blogs one evening and discovered that a couple of engineers in your company’s product design lab have been responding to complaints on their own. They identified themselves as company employees and defended their product design, blaming the company’s production department and even criticizing several customers for lacking the skills needed to use such a sophisticated product. Within a matter of minutes, you see their harsh comments being retweeted and reposted on multiple sites, only fueling the fire of negative feedback against your firm. Needless to say, you are horrified.

Your task: You manage to reach the engineers by private message and tell them to stop posting messages, but you realize you have a serious training issue on your hands. Write a post for the internal company blog that advises employees on how to respond appropriately when they are representing the company online. Use your imagination to make up any details you need.

SOCIAL NETWORKING SKILLS/TEAM SKILLS

8-26. Media Skills: Social Networking [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#P70010124510000000000000000034AE) Social media can be a great way to, well, socialize during your college years, but employers are increasingly checking the online activities of potential hires to avoid bringing in employees who may reflect poorly on the company.

Your task: Team up with another student and review each other’s public presence on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and any other website that an employer might check during the interview and recruiting process. Identify any photos, videos, messages, or other material that could raise a red flag when an employee is evaluating a job candidate. Write your teammate an email message that lists any risky material.

BLOGGING SKILLS

8-27. Media Skills: Blogging; Compositional Modes: Tutorials [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#P700101245100000000000000000356F) Studying abroad for a semester or a year can be a rewarding experience in many ways—improving your language skills, experiencing another culture, making contacts in the international business arena, and building your self-confidence.

Your task: Write a post for your class blog that describes your college’s study abroad program and summarizes the steps involved in applying for international study. If your school doesn’t offer study abroad opportunities, base your post on the program offered at another institution in your state.

BLOGGING SKILLS

8-28. Media Skills: Blogging [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#P700101245100000000000000000356F) Comic-Con International is an annual convention that highlights a wide variety of pop culture and entertainment media, from comic books and

collectibles to video games and movies. From its early start as a comic book convention that attracted several hundred fans and publishing industry insiders, Comic-Con has become a major international event with more than 130,000 attendees.

Your task: Several readers of your pop culture blog have been asking for your recommendation about visiting Comic-Con in San Diego next summer. Write a two- or three-paragraph post for your blog that explains what Comic-Con is and what attendees can expect to experience at the convention. Be

sure to address your post to fans, not industry insiders.36

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P7001012451000000000000000003801)

BLOGGING SKILLS/MOBILE SKILLS

8-29. Media Skills: Blogging; Compositional Modes: Tutorials; Mobile Skills [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#P700101245100000000000000000356F) Tumblr has become a popular “short-form” blogging platform by combining the simplicity of Twitter with the ability to share photos and other media easily.

Your task: Write a 300- to 400-word mobile-friendly post for your class blog that explains how to set up an account on Tumblr and get involved in the Tumblr community. The help pages on Tumblr are a good place to get more information about the service.

BLOGGING SKILLS

8-30. Media Skills: Blogging [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#P700101245100000000000000000356F) Credit card debt can be a crippling financial burden with myriad side effects, from higher insurance rates to more expensive loans to difficulty getting a job or a promotion. Unfortunately, credit debt is also frighteningly easy to fall into, particularly for young people trying to get started in life with limited cash flow.

Your task: Write a three- to five-paragraph blog post that warns college students about the dangers of credit card debt. Be sure to cite the sources you find in your research.

MICROBLOGGING SKILLS

8-31. Media Skills: Microblogging; Compositional Modes: Summaries [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003480#P7001012451000000000000000003482) [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003607#P700101245100000000000000000360A) A carefully constructed series of tweets can serve as a summary of a blog post, video, or other message or document.

Your task: Find any article, podcast, video, or webpage on a business topic that interests you. Write four to six tweetables that summarize the content of the piece. Restrict the first tweetable to 120 characters to allow for a URL. Email the series to your instructor or publish them on Twitter if your instructor directs. If you quote phrases from the original directly, be sure to put them in quotation marks.

MICROBLOGGING SKILLS

8-32. Media Skills: Microblogging; Compositional Modes: Teasers [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003607#P700101245100000000000000000360A) Twitter updates are a great way to alert people to helpful articles, videos, and other online resources.

Your task: Find an online resource (it can be a website quiz, a YouTube video, a PowerPoint presentation, a newspaper article, or anything else appropriate) that offers some great tips to help college students prepare for job interviews. Write a teaser of no more than 120 characters that hints at the benefits other students can get from this resource. If your class is set up with private Twitter accounts, use your private account to send your message. Otherwise, email it to your instructor.

MICROBLOGGING SKILLS

8-33. Media Skills: Microblogging; Compositional Modes: Updates and Announcements [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003607#P700101245100000000000000000360A) JetBlue is known for its innovations in customer service and customer communication, including its pioneering use of the Twitter microblogging system. Nearly 2 million JetBlue fans and customers follow the company on Twitter to get updates on flight status during weather disruptions, facility upgrades,

and other news.37

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#P7001012451000000000000000003803)

Your task: Write a message of no more than 140 characters that announces the limited-time availability of flights and travel packages—flights plus hotel rooms, for example—at JetBlue’s store on eBay. The key selling point is that travelers may be able to purchase flights they want at steep discounts. If your class is set up with private Twitter accounts, use your private account to send your message. Otherwise, email it to your instructor.

WIKI SKILLS

8-34. Media Skills: Wiki Writing; Evaluating the Work of Other Writers [LO-6] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000367a#P700101245100000000000000000367E) Evaluating existing content is a vital step in making improvements to a wiki.

Your task: Find an article on Wikipedia that needs to be updated, corrected, or otherwise improved. You can use an article that has been flagged by Wikipedia editors or find an article on a subject you are familiar with, such as the profile of a favorite musical artist. To keep the project at a manageable

size, feel free to select a portion of a longer article (roughly 500 to 1,000 words). Using the guidelines on page 157 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000002b0a#page_157) for evaluating the work of other writers, evaluate the quality of the article and identify the steps you would take to improve it. Revise the piece and post your version on your class blog or email it to your instructor. Include a brief summary of the changes you made and your reasons for making them. (Do not edit the Wikipedia entry as part of this assignment.)

MyBCommLab

Go to mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) for Auto-graded writing questions as well as the following Assisted-graded writing questions:

8-35. Why is “viral marketing” a misleading description? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#P700101245100000000000000000356F)

8-36. Why does a personal style of writing help blogs build stronger relationships with audiences? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#P700101245100000000000000000356F)

Endnotes

1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003454#rP70010124510000000000000000037BB) . Starbucks website, accessed 11 February 2016, www.starbucks.com (http://www.starbucks.com) ; “How Starbucks Social Media Team Captures the Personality of a Beverage,” Starbucks news release, 6 May 2015, news.starbucks.com (http://news.starbucks.com) ; David Moth, “How Starbucks Uses Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Google+” Econsultancy, 6 March 2013; Melissa Allison, “Starbucks Presses Social Media Onward,” Seattle Times, 27 April 2013; Bethany Simpson, “3 Insane Starbucks Campaigns,” iMedia Connection, 29 March 2012, www.imediaconnection.com (http://www.imediaconnection.com) ; Starbucks U.S. and U.K. pages on Facebook, accessed 14 June 2013; Margaret Rhodes, “Most Creative People 2013: 12. Luz Muller,” Fast Company, 13 May 2013.

2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003480#rP70010124510000000000000000037BD) . Catherine Toole, “My 7 Deadly Sins of Writing for Social Media—Am I Right?” Econsultancy blog, 19 June 2007, www.econsultancy.com (http://www.econsultancy.com) ; Muhammad Saleem, “How to Write a Social Media Press Release,” Copyblogger, accessed 16 September 2008, www.copyblogger.com (http://www.copyblogger.com) ; Melanie McBride, “5 Tips for (Better) Social Media Writing,” Melanie McBride Online, 11 June 2008, accessed 16 September 2008, melaniemcbride.net (http://melaniemcbride.net) .

3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003480#rP70010124510000000000000000037BF) . “Tips for Effective Social Media Writing,” MBO Partners, accessed 12 February 2016, www.mbopartners.com (http://www.mbopartners.com) .

4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#rP70010124510000000000000000037C1) . Renren website, accessed 11 February 2016, renren-inc.com (http://renren-inc.com) ; Jon Russell, “Why ‘Going Global’ Makes No Sense for China’s Social Networks, for Now,” The Next Web, 14 May 2012, thenextweb.com (http://thenextweb.com) .

5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#rP70010124510000000000000000037C3) . Charlene Li, “Why No One Uses the Corporate Social Network,” Harvard Business Review, 7 April 2015, hbr.com (http://hbr.com) .

6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#rP70010124510000000000000000037C5) . Patrick Hong, “10 Exceptional Examples of Brand Communities,” Momentology, 15 January 2015, www.momentology.com (http://www.momentology.com) .

7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#rP70010124510000000000000000037C7) . Todd Wasserman, “What Drives Brand Socialability?” Mashable, 12 October 2011, mashable.com (http://mashable.com) .

8 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#rP70010124510000000000000000037C9) . Michelle Manafy, “Stop Acting Like a Robot and Start Socializing Your Brand,” Inc., 29 June 2015, www.inc.com (http://www.inc.com) ; Mattel Twitter account, accessed 12 February 2016, twitter.com/mattel (http://twitter.com/mattel) .

9 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#rP70010124510000000000000000037CB) . Muhtar Kent, “Shaking Things Up at Coca-Cola,” Harvard Business Review, October 2011, 94–99.

10 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#rP70010124510000000000000000037CD) . Evolve24 website, accessed 10 February 2016, www.evolve24.com (http://www.evolve24.com) .

11 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#rP70010124510000000000000000037CF) . “The Top 20 Social Media Trends in 2016, According to the Experts,” Bitly, 16 December 2015, blog.bitly.com (http://blog.bitly.com) ; HeadTalker website, accessed 12 February 2016, headtalker.com (http://headtalker.com) .

12 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#rP70010124510000000000000000037D1) . Christian Pieter Hoffmann, “Holding Sway,” Communication World, November–December 2011, 26–29; Josh Bernoff, “Social Strategy for Exciting (and Not So Exciting) Brands,” Marketing News, 15 May 2009, 18; Larry Weber, Marketing to the Social Web (Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2007), 12–14; David Meerman Scott, The New Rules of Marketing and PR (Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2007), 62; Paul Gillin, The New Influencers (Sanger, Calif.: Quill Driver Books, 2007), 34–35; Jeremy Wright, Blog Marketing: The Revolutionary Way to Increase Sales, Build Your Brand, and Get Exceptional Results (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006), 263–365.

13 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#rP70010124510000000000000000037D3) . Sonia Simone, “What’s the Difference Between Content Marketing and Copywriting?” Copyblogger, accessed 4 June 2012, www.copyblogger.com (http://www.copyblogger.com) .

14 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#rP70010124510000000000000000037D5) . Matt Rhodes, “Build Your Own Community or Go Where People Are? Do Both,” FreshNetworks blog, 12 May 2009, www.freshnetworks.com (http://www.freshnetworks.com) .

15 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#rP70010124510000000000000000037D7) . Brian Solis, Engage! (Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2010), 13.

16 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000034ac#rP70010124510000000000000000037D9) . Zachary Sniderman, “5 Ways to Clean Up Your Social Media Identity,” Mashable, 7 July 2010, mashable.com (http://mashable.com) .

17 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000353f#rP70010124510000000000000000037DB) . Vanessa Pappas, “5 Ways to Build a Loyal Audience on YouTube,” Mashable, 15 June 2010, www.mashable.com (http://www.mashable.com) .

18 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000353f#rP70010124510000000000000000037DD) . Eric Siu, “10 User Generated Content Campaigns That Actually Worked,” HubSpot blog, 12 March 2015, blog.hubspot.com (http://blog.hubspot.com) .

19 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000353f#rP70010124510000000000000000037DF) . “About Us,” Yelp, accessed 10 February 2016, www.yelp.com (http://www.yelp.com) ; Lisa Barone, “Keynote Conversation with Yelp Chief Operating Officer Geoff Donaker,” Outspoken Media, 5 October 2010, outspokenmedia.com (http://outspokenmedia.com) .

20 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000353f#rP70010124510000000000000000037E1) . Ben Betts and Allison Anderson, “Diamond in the Rough,” TD: Talent Development, January 2016, 30–34.

21 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#rP70010124510000000000000000037E3) . Amy Porterfield, “10 Top Business Blogs and Why They Are Successful,” Social Media Examiner, 25 January 2011, www.socialmediaexaminer.com (http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com) .

22 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#rP70010124510000000000000000037E5) . Debbie Weil, “Why Your Blog Is the Hub of Social Media Marketing,” Social Media Insights blog, 12 January 2010, debbieweil.com (http://debbieweil.com) ; Ross Dawson, “A List of Business Applications for Blogging in the Enterprise,” Trends in the Living Network blog, 7 July 2009, rossdawsonblog.com (http://rossdawsonblog.com) ; Fredrik Wackå, “Six Types of Blogs—A Classification,” CorporateBlogging.Info website, 10 August 2004, www.corporateblogging.info (http://www.corporateblogging.info) ; Stephen Baker, “The Inside Story on Company Blogs,” BusinessWeek, 14 February 2006, www.businessweek.com (http://www.businessweek.com) ; Jeremy Wright, Blog Marketing (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006), 45–56; Paul Chaney, “Blogs: Beyond the Hype!” Radiant Marketing Group blog, 26 May 2005, radiantmarketinggroup.com (http://radiantmarketinggroup.com) .

23 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#rP70010124510000000000000000037E7) . Solis, Engage!, 314.

24 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#rP70010124510000000000000000037E9) . Solis, Engage!, 86.

25 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#rP70010124510000000000000000037EB) . Tamara Weinberg, The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web (Sebastopol, Calif.: O’Reilly Media, 2009), 89.

26 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#rP70010124510000000000000000037ED) . “IBM Social Computing Guidelines,” IBM website, accessed 10 February 2016, www.ibm.com (http://www.ibm.com) .

27 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000356d#rP70010124510000000000000000037EF) . Joel Falconer, “Six Rules for Writing Great Web Content,” Blog News Watch, 9 November 2007, accessed 14 February 2008, www.blognewswatch.com (http://www.blognewswatch.com) .

28 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003607#rP70010124510000000000000000037F1) . Dion Hinchcliffe, “Twitter on Your Intranet: 17 Microblogging Tools for Business,” ZDNet, 1 June 2009, www.zdnet.com (http://www.zdnet.com) .

29 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003607#rP70010124510000000000000000037F3) . B. L. Ochman, “Why Twitter Is a Better Brand Platform Than Facebook,” Ad Age, 1 June 2012, adage.com (http://adage.com) .

30 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003607#rP70010124510000000000000000037F5) . Leon Widrich, “4 Ways to Use Twitter for Customer Service and Support,” Social Media Examiner, 12 April 2012, www.socialmediaexaminer.com (http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com) .

31 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003607#rP70010124510000000000000000037F7) . Paul André, Michael Bernstein, and Kurt Luther, “What Makes a Great Tweet,” Harvard Business Review, May 2012, 36–37.

32 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003607#rP70010124510000000000000000037F9) . Tom Hays and Jake Pearson, “Bashtag: NYPD Twitter Campaign Backfires,” Seattle Times, 23 April 2014, www.seattletimes.com (http://www.seattletimes.com) .

33 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003607#rP70010124510000000000000000037FB) . André et al., “What Makes a Great Tweet.”

34 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000367a#rP70010124510000000000000000037FD) . “Codex: Guidelines,” WordPress website, accessed 10 February 2016, wordpress.org (http://wordpress.org) ; Michael Shanks, “Wiki Guidelines,” Traumwerk website, accessed 18 August 2006, metamedia.stanford.edu/projects/traumwerk/home (http://metamedia.stanford.edu/projects/traumwerk/home) ; Joe Moxley, M. C. Morgan, Matt Barton, and Donna Hanak, “For Teachers New to Wikis,” Writing Wiki, accessed 18 August 2006, writingwiki.org (http://writingwiki.org) ; “Wiki Guidelines,” Psi, accessed 18 August 2006, psi-im.org (http://psi-im.org) .

35 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000367a#rP70010124510000000000000000037FF) . “Codex: Guidelines.”

36 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#rP7001012451000000000000000003801) . Comic-Con website, accessed 27 February 2016, www.comiccon.org (http://www.comiccon.org) ; Tom Spurgeon, “Welcome to Nerd Vegas: A Guide to Visiting and Enjoying

Comic-Con International 2014,” The Comics Reporter, 25 May 2014, www.comicsreporter.com (http://www.comicsreporter.com) ; Rebecca Winters Keegan, “Boys Who Like Toys,” Time, 19 April 2007, www.time.com (http://www.time.com) .

37 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000036a8#rP7001012451000000000000000003803) . JetBlue Twitter page, accessed 3 February 2011, twitter.com/JetBlue (http://twitter.com/JetBlue) .