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This script is the narration for the video, “Teaching Social Media and

Electronic Communication, Instructor Edition.”

Slide 1

Today's instructors are facing larger class sizes, heavier advising loads, and the need to prepare students for the ever-changing workplace. However, most business communication textbooks have not kept up with the times, which means instructors need to step in and do extra prep work for their classes. I plan to show you today how you can spend less time preparing for class and more time helping students. This presentation focuses specifically on tips and techniques, time-saving shortcuts, and ways to be more effective in teaching electronic communication and social media, topics of utmost importance for business communication instructors today. Slide 2 In this presentation, you’ll learn the answers to these questions:

What’s the difference between social media and electronic communication?

How is social media changing how we communicate?

How, specifically, might a new business use social media?

What types of social media and electronic communication should be taught in a business communication course today?

What should instructors be teaching about social media and electronic communication?

What are the best ways to teach social media and electronic communication effectively?

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What additional resources are recommended for teaching social media and electronic communication?

Slide 3

Electronic communication is any communication done electronically. All

social media are part of electronic communication, but not all

electronic communication is social media. For example, an Adobe PFD

document, a Word document, a PowerPoint presentation, or an RSS

newsfeed are all examples of electronic communication, but none are

considered part of social media, although there are many ways in which

you could use these tools in social media efforts.

Slide 4 Brian Solis, social media guru, answers the question in this chart: What I

is social media?

As you can see from this chart, there are many different types of social

media. For example, it can be sites where pictures are shared, such as

Flickr, or microblogging sites, such as Twitter, or social networking sites

such as Facebook, or wiki sites such as Twiki, or platforms for creating a

blog such as WordPress.

There are about two dozen different types of social media, and within

those types, there are hundreds of specific media.

Slide 5

In Bovee and Thill’s texts, this is how they` describe social media:

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Social media are electronic media that transform passive audiences into active participants in the communication process by allowing them to share content, revise content, respond to content, or contribute new content. Slide 6 In short, social media is a conversation supported by online tools. Slide 7

Tools like these: Facebook YouTube Twitter LinkedIn Flickr Digg, and Delicious

Slide 8

Facebook, a social networking site, is the #1 website worldwide with more page views than Google. If Facebook was a country, it would be #3 – after China and India. Facebook is a site where users can build a profile, add friends, send messages, become fans of pages, indicate they “Like” something at the click of a button, find out about events, and join groups. Users can also interact with businesses. More than 30,000 retailers and thousands of companies have Facebook pages. For example, people can order tickets for Delta Airlines right on Facebook.

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Slide 9 On YouTube, the average user spends 15 minutes a day on the site. 36 hours of video is loaded onto YouTube every minute. More video is uploaded to YouTube in 60 days than all 3 major U.S. networks created in 60 years. YouTube is translated into 51 languages by Google’s automatic speech recognition technology. Slide 10 A recent survey suggested that video company profiles on YouTube have more measurable impact than company profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other prominent sites. Slide 11 There are a number of microblogging tools. All require short messages. The most popular microblog is Twitter. On Twitter, messages must be 140 characters or less. Twitter has over 100 million registered users. It’s getting 300,000 new users a day. Users submit 600,000 million search queries a day to Twitter search engines. 37% of users update their status on a mobile phone. Twitter has many business uses, including research collaboration

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company updates coupons and notice of sales tips on product usage information from experts backchannel in meetings and presentations, and customer service with individuals Slide 12 Social networking and blogging sites are now the 4th most popular activity online, even ahead of personal e-mail. Slide 13 75% of Americans and 66% of the global Internet population visit social networks. Slide 14 93% of Americans believe that a company should have a presence on social media sites. 85% believe that these companies should use these services to interact with consumers. Slide 15 Social media is not a fad. It’s a fundamental shift in the way all of us communicate.

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Companies are no longer in control of their messages and must adapt to a world in which customers and other stakeholders demand to participate in and influence the conversation. Slide 16 The old communication model was a monologue. “We talk. You listen.”

Slide 17

The average person is exposed to an average of 3,000 advertising

messages a day.

But consumers aren’t listening anymore. Interruptive marketing has seen its day. Slide 18 The new communication model is a dialogue. It should be transparent, authentic, vibrant, and consumer-driven. Slide 19

In a social media environment, effective communication is no longer about broadcasting a tightly controlled message but rather about initiating conversations and participating in conversations started by customers and other stakeholders. Slide 20 This year Millenials/Gen Y-ers now outnumber Baby Boomers.

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Slide 21 Millenials spend 16 hours a week online. 96% have joined a social network. They have an average of 53 online friends. Slide 22 70% of them trust recommendations of consumers they don’t know. 90% of them trust recommendations by people they do know. Slide 23 In short, they don’t care about ads or sales presentations. They care about what their friends think. Slide 24 Millenials/Gen Y-ers also expect to be able to use social media on the job.

Slide 25

In applying what we’ve talked about so far, let’s take a look at the Artisan Flavors Ice Cream Shop, a recently opened and independently owned ice cream store with the ice cream made on the premises. Here is an example of how a new business is using social media tools.

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Using YouTube and Vimeo, which are known as user-generated content sites, the owner has posted videos of him making his unique flavors of ice cream, including Cherry Pepper Chocolate Truffle, Mint Licorice Delight, and Peach Mango Apricot. Using iTunes, he’s posted podcasts describing how to make specialty deserts with his ice cream, including using his peach/mango/apricot layered with white cake and whipped cream. Using PRNewswire to make announcements, such as the grand opening of his store, the start of his new blog, and a donation of ice cream to support a local charity. Using Google Maps in conjunction with the store’s website, so people can find their way to the store. Using Flickr, another user-generated content site, to post photos of the grand opening, including pictures of the store owner with local elected city officials and many local residents. Using Twitter to post status updates about events occurring in the owner’s daily life that other people might find interesting, including when a local grade school class made a field trip visit to see how ice cream is made, when the mayor stopped by for a scoop, and when he sold his 10,000th scoop of ice cream. Using Facebook, on which he’s set up both a personal page and a page for his business. More than 400 people have “Liked” his business page. Numerous comments have been made on its wall, including requests for new flavors. He’s also posted videos to his Facebook page taken in the kitchen, and a list of upcoming events, such as a Summer

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Celebration Week for which people can download a coupon (buy one scoop, get one free). Using a blog, he’s listed it in major blog directories to get attention, got a mention in his local online newspaper, and writes something in it at least once a day that he thinks his readers will find interesting, such as the workshop he attended at the National Ice Cream Association about how to determine and cater to local tastes. Using Yelp, his business is listed and he watches it regularly for customer comments. Someone recently posted a negative comment about his closing the store early one evening, and he responded by explaining he needed some plumbing work done when the business was closed, so he closed a little early one evening so the work could be completed. Slide 26 Other tools he’s considering using in the future include

online presentations, such as SlideShare, where you can create a PowerPoint presentation for anyone to see on how he makes his ice cream;

a customer service site, such as Crowdsound, where he could easily gather customer feedback. Users can comment, collaborate, and vote on his website;

collaboration software, once he opens additional stores, he may need a platform for capitalizing on his employees’ creativity, and they could be part of a discussion. This could be especially helpful in streamlining ideas from employees from how to improve store operations to developing new flavors;

for livecasting special events from his store, he could use ustream.tv;

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for store events, Zvents, which is an online service for promoting local events;

for communicating with employees and customers with texting, instant messaging, and videoconferencing for free, there’s Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk & Video Chat, or Skype.

Keep in mind that this owner has never spent any money on traditional advertising, and has no plans to do so. He gets all of his business through the use of social media, which is a demonstration of the power of the new communication model we discussed earlier. Slide 27 But not only is the communication model changing, what is being

taught in a typical business communication course should be changing,

too.

Slide 28

Memos and letters still have a role, to be sure, but they are being

replaced in many instances by a growing variety of electronic media.

Slide 29

These disruptive forces never stop, either. Some first-generation

electronic media are already be supplaned by new social media tools.

For example, in many instances microblogs, blogs, newsfeeds, and

social networking sites are replacing e-mail.

Slide 30

There are two fallacies about teaching social media and electronic

communication

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Slide 31

Fallacy #1: Instant messaging (IM), blogs, social networks, microblogs,

wikis, and other new media are social toys, not business tools.

Slide 32

A year or two ago, one might have asked, “Who is using these new

media?” Today, the question is more like, “Who isn’t.”

But large companies aren’t the only ones using social media. Here are

just a few examples of small companies using social media as well.

Slide 33

Chaz Day has a Facebook page for her company, Flame Promotions.

And Laurel Delaney is on Twitter promoting her global trade company,

GlobalTrade.com.

Slide 34

Fallacy #2: Students already know how to use all these new media, so instructors don’t need to cover them in class.

Slide 35

Most students may know how to use these media, but only those with

significant work experience are likely to know how to use them in a

professional context. Students need to get practical advice on using all

of these media in ways that meet the expectations of the employers.

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Slide 36

Emphasizing the tools students will be expected to use on the job is critical, but even that is only part of the story. Even more important than the tools themselves is the profound shift that these tools have enabled, which needs to be explained to students.

Slide 37

Businesses that stick with the old “we talk, you listen” mode of unilateral communication increasingly find that nobody is willing to listen anymore. So, to succeed in this new business environment, business communicators must approach their tasks with a new mindset, in addition to these new tools. Slide 38 Echoing the shift from the Web’s 1.0’s unidirectional model to Web

2.0’s interactive, conversational model, Bovee & Thill call this new

approach Business Communication 2.0.

Slide 39

We encourage instructors to introduce students to this vitally

important way of thinking about communication, and instruct them in

the professional use of social media.

Slide 40

For the sake of instructors and students everywhere, we are pleased

that other textbooks are finally trying to catch up to the times with

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more coverage of the electronic media tools that have become central

to the practice of business communication.

However, many years of leading the market in presenting electronic

media usage have taught us that merely adding a chapter on electronic

media to a traditional textbook is not nearly enough. Electronic and

social media are pervasive in business today, so they need to be

thoroughly integrated in the business communication course. Just as

significantly, the fundamental changes wrought by new media need to

be integrated throughout the course as well, including the way social

media are changing the communication process, compositional modes,

relationships between senders and receivers, marketing strategies,

collaborative writing, oral presentations, job searches, and more.

For example, take the chapter on communicating in teams. For this chapter to be current, it should be discussing social networking. It should also be discussing wikis and having students develop their skills with a wiki editor, which we provide on our website. In the chapter on oral communication, we discuss using Twitter as a backchannel during presentations. And in the chapter on resumes, we discuss using Facebook and Twitter for finding a job.

We also teach students how to write a social media resume, which is important for attracting hiring managers directly without the applicant having to submit a resume to them blindly.

With a social media resume that includes various multimedia elements, sharing options, integrated social networking feeds and the same elements as in a traditional resume, the applicant is better equipped for success.

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Social media is allowing job seekers to reverse the recruiting process. Instead of submitting their resume, the resume becomes a billboard that can be shared, distributed to hiring managers, searched and more. It showcases applicants’ talents and what they’re looking for in a job, and recruiters become attracted to it and will approach the job hunters with the opportunities that they desire.

Slide 41

You students can succeed with written communication in social media

by using one of eight compositional modes when they write:

Conversations. IM in a great example of a written medium that mimics

spoken conversation. The ability to think, compose, and type relatively

quickly is important to maintaining the flow of an electronic

conversation.

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 it’s 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 a personal brand. To

be an effective commenter, teach students to focus on short chunks of

information that a broad spectrum of other site visitors will find helpful.

Orientations. With vast amounts of information presented in so many

different formats, the Internet can be an extremely confusing place,

even for knowledgeable professionals. 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,

orientations don’t give away the key points in the collection of

information but rather tell readers where to find those points. Writing

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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. We teach students that summaries can serve several

purposes: At the beginning of an article or webpage, it serves as a

miniature version of the document. In other instances, the up-front

summary helps a reader decide whether to invest the time needed to

read the full document. At the end of an article or webpage, a summary

functions as a review.

Reference materials. One of the greatest benefits of the Internet is the

access is can provide to vast quantities of reference materials—

numerical or textual information that people typically don’t read in a

linear sense but rather search through to find particular data points,

trends, or other specific elements. One of the challenges of writing

reference material is you can’t always know how readers will want to

access it. Making the information accessible via search engine is an

important step. However, readers don’t always know which search

terms will yield the best results, so we teach students to include an

orientation and organize the material in logical ways with clear

headings that promote skimming.

Narratives. The storytelling techniques we cover can be effective in a

wide variety of situations, from company histories to product reviews

and demonstrations. We teach students that narratives work best when

they have an intriguing beginning that piques a reader’s curiosity, a

middle section that moves quickly through the challenges that an

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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 electronic media, the space limitations and URL linking

capabilities of Twitter and other microblogging systems make them a

natural tool for the teaser approach. While they can certainly be

effective, teasers need to be used sparely and with respect for readers’

time and intelligence. We teach students that the payoff, the

information a teaser links to, should be valuable and legitimate and

that they’ll quickly lose credibility if readers think they are being tricked

into clicking through to information they don’t really want.

Status updates and announcements. If a person uses social media frequently, much of the writing will involve status updates and announcements. We tell students that being mindful of a criticism frequently leveled at personal users of social media will help them be a more effective business user of these media—namely, don’t post trivial information that only they 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. One of the biggest challenges with tutorials is gauging the level of understanding the target readers have about the subject so the writing can be at the appropriate level. Are the readers beginners, experts, or somewhere in between? In addition, the writer needs to make assumptions clear so readers can

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tell if the information is right for them. A good place to do this is in the titles, using phrases such as “getting started with” or “advanced techniques for” to alert readers about the level of the tutorial. Whatever level of information is provided, the advice needs to be clear, complete, and logically organized.

Slide 42

Students need more than just brief descriptions of social media tools.

They need detailed illustrations with annotations so that they feel a

familiarity and a connection to the tools they’ll be using on the job.

Slide 43 An example of a social networking site is Biznik. It has a number of photos of people, attention-getting headings, and brief description statements. This is an example of interactive web content. Keep in mind that businesses don’t invest time and money in social networking simply to gain fans, of course. The ultimate goal is profitable, sustainable relationships with customers, and attracting new customers is one of the primary reasons businesses use networks and other social media. However, the traditional notions of marketing and selling need to be adapted to the social networking environment because customers and potential customers don’t join a network merely to be passive recipients of advertising messages. They want to participate, to connect with fellow enthusiasts, to share knowledge about products, to communicate with company insiders, and to influence the decisions that affect the products they value. This notion of interactive participation is the driving force behind conversation marketing, in which companies initiate and facilitate conversations in a networked community of customers and other interested parties.

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Slide 44

Active learning is important, and correlating with the textual material

and illustrations should be exercises and cases. In this case, the student

is asked to write brief statements including an introduction, to give a

short description of educational background, and to list the types of

connections he or she would like to make on a social network.

Slide 45

This example of a blog provides annotations on each side of the blog

page that explains to students the typical elements and structure of a

business blog.

Slide 46

The caption for this figure showing a blog explains how blogs

sometimes replace the traditional news release so a company can

control and distribute such messages themselves. The strategically

placed annotations provide advice for how to write blog posts.

Slide 47

As the caption explains, with the addition of video, blogging becomes a

true multimedia experience that gives bloggers an easy way to share

insights and sounds with their audiences.

Slide 48

Moblogs are blogs adapted for display on mobile devices such as

phones.

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Slide 49

Students should be provided with a wide variety of opportunities to

write blog posts through both cases and exercises. Here are just two

examples.

Slide 50

The caption for this figure showing a business instant message gives

sound advice to readers about not using an informal style that students

might use for family and friends. The annotations analyze the elements

of the instant messaging window as well as the content.

Slide 51 And here is an exercise that is an exchange by way of instant messaging

in which the student is asked to explain how the customer service agent

could have handled a situation more effectively.

Slide 52

And here is an instant messaging case that asks students to rewrite an

IM in a more businesslike style and tone.

Slide 53

In this case, students are asked to compose a message (which must be

160 characters or less, since it’s a text message) to colleagues at a trade

show.

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Slide 54

Students can learn from this example of the Public Relations Wiki the

features typically used to create and edit wiki pages.

Slide 55

But just showing a webpage of a wiki is not nearly enough. Students

should experience using a wiki. That’s why we offer on our website a

wiki simulator to give students hands-on experience using a real, live

wiki editor.

Slide 56

We suggest you should show the podcasting process, but then go a step

further by having your students listen to podcasts on our books’

websites so they can analyze and critique them for more in-depth

learning of the podcasting process.

Slide 57

We encourage instructors to assign students podcasting cases. In this example, students are asked to revise the introduction of a podcast script based on what they’ve learned in the electronic communication chapter that includes a section on podcasting.

Slide 58

As I mentioned earlier, Twitter is the most popular microblogging tool, but there are a number of others, including microblogging tools specifically for business enterprises.

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Slide 59 Teach microblogging skills with cases, such as this example in which students are asked to write an update to JebBlue’s Twitter fans about fare auctions on eBay.

Slide 60

Students can expect to participate in many online meetings during their

careers. Web-based meeting systems offer powerful tools for

communication, and students need to be proficient at using these tools

to be effective during an online meeting.

Slide 61

Students should know that many companies are now using Second Life

as a virtual meeting place. This is an example of Cranial Tap, whose

online headquarters is shown here.

Slide 62

Teach students that videoconferencing provides many of the same

benefits as in-person meetings at a fraction of the cost. Advanced

systems feature telepresence, in which the video images are life-sized

and extremely realistic.

Slide 63

Today it’s common practice for students to prepare e-portfolios to tell

potential employers about their qualifications and skills.

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Slide 64

The cases you have your students complete should also be useful as

portfolio builders, an with this e-mail case, which is a potential example

for a student’s portfolio.

Slide 65

Students should be taught that shared workspaces, such as this

example from Microsoft’s Office Live Workspace system will give virtual

teams instant access to the documents, calendars, and other files and

information needed for successful collaboration.

Slide 66 Community Q&A sites, such as Yahoo Answers, are sites on which visitors answer questions posted by other visitors, and they’re a contemporary twist on the early stages of computer networking, which was people helping each other. Community Q&A sites include dedicated customer support communities such as those hosted on Get Satisfaction, public sites such as Yahoo! Answers, and member-only sites such as LinkedIn Answers. Responding to questions on Q&A sites can be a great way for people to build their personal brand, to demonstrate their company’s commitment to customer service, and to counter misinformation about their company and its products. Keep in mind that when a person responds to an individual query on a community Q&A site, the individual is also “responding in advance” to every person in the future who comes to the site with the same question. In other words, the

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writer is writing a type of reference material in addition to corresponding with the original questioner, so the writer should keep the long timeframe and wider audience in mind.

Slide 67

Aggregators, sometimes called newsreaders, automatically collect

information that can be automatically published as blog posts.

Businesses are also now sending some messages to both internal and

external audiences via RSS newsfeeds instead of e-mail.

Slide 68

Audiences get involved in the communication process when they find

and recommend online content through tagging and bookmarking sites

such as Digg and Delicious.

Slide 69

Internets and blogs are now commonly used to distribute meeting

minutes.

Slide 70

In teaching your business communication course, show social media

and electronic communication by using online video, PowerPoints, and

podcasts to demonstrate these tools In action.

We have a feature we call “Learn More” that appears more than 50

times throughout Business Communication Today and Excellence in

Business Communication, and it will appear in the 5th edition of

Business Communication Essentials. Here are just two examples:

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Slide 71

All examples and illustrations of social media and electronic tools as

well as the exercises and cases shown in this presentation were taken

directly from Bovee & Thill’s business communication textbooks.

Slide 72

For a rich array of resources for teaching social media and electronic

communication, go to Business Communication Headline News, look

under “Categories” in the left-hand column, and select the topics in

which you’re interested.

www.businesscommunicationheadlinenews.com

Slide 73

For teaching tips and techniques, often about social media and

electronic communication, go to Bovee & Thill’s blog:

www.boveeandthillbusinesscommunication.com.

Slide 74

For more than 175 PowerPoint programs, many dealing with social

media and electronic communication, go to Real-Time Updates and

select “Instructor Media.” www.real-timeupdates.com

Slide 75

If you want to reach me, you can e-mail me at

cbovee@businesscommunicationblog.com.