Eassay
Social Media: Changing the World of Business Communication
Donna Greenwald Bowling Green State University
Every day on the radio and television we hear about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, MySpace, and YouTube and are asked to “follow” organizations through social media to provide feedback or stay up to date on news events or product releases. It seems social media are a driving new force that is affecting the way people communicate, both personally and professionally. Businesses are finding social media a great way to communicate with customers and their own employees in a more cost effective way. As business communication educators we may wonder how many people are actually using these sites and, out of those who are accessing social media, are they just young college-age people and computer “techies”? Are businesses adopting these new communication tools or are social media sites just a fad that will pass in a year or two? As we know, communication within a business setting drives course content for business communication classes. So, if businesses are using social media, then are business communication educators teaching it in their classes? If they are not, then should it be part of the curriculum? Review of Literature A thorough review about social media began in order to find answers to the questions posed. The first journal to be investigated was Business Communication Quarterly, since this is one of the primary publications for business communication educators. After searching through the past several years of issues, no articles about social media were found. However, there was one article about what content is taught in U.S. business communication courses. This would help to answer one of the main questions posed – Is social media being taught in U.S. business communication courses? According to a study published by Travis Russ late last year, the category of social media was not mentioned as course content by those business communication
Donna Greenwald Bowling Green State University
Every day on the radio and television we hear about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, MySpace, and YouTube and are asked to “follow” organizations through social media to provide feedback or stay up to date on news events or product releases. It seems social media are a driving new force that is affecting the way people communicate, both personally and professionally. Businesses are finding social media a great way to communicate with customers and their own employees in a more cost effective way. As business communication educators we may wonder how many people are actually using these sites and, out of those who are accessing social media, are they just young college-age people and computer “techies”? Are businesses adopting these new communication tools or are social media sites just a fad that will pass in a year or two? As we know, communication within a business setting drives course content for business communication classes. So, if businesses are using social media, then are business communication educators teaching it in their classes? If they are not, then should it be part of the curriculum? Review of Literature A thorough review about social media began in order to find answers to the questions posed. The first journal to be investigated was Business Communication Quarterly, since this is one of the primary publications for business communication educators. After searching through the past several years of issues, no articles about social media were found. However, there was one article about what content is taught in U.S. business communication courses. This would help to answer one of the main questions posed – Is social media being taught in U.S. business communication courses? According to a study published by Travis Russ late last year, the category of social media was not mentioned as course content by those business communication
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Message posted to http://www.corporate-eye.com/blog/index.php?s=johnson+and+johnson+want+ more+of+the+social+media+pie Young, E. (2009, November 5). Teaching the Facebook generation. BusinessWeek. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/print/bschools/content/nov2009/ bs2009115_016982.htm DONNA GREENWALD is an instructor in the College of Business and serves as an external communication consultant. Her primary instructional responsibilities include teaching business communication. She obtained a Master of Arts in English, specializing in technical writing, as well as a Master’s of Education in Career and Technology Education, both from Bowling Green State University. Proceedings of the 75th Annual Convention of the Association for Business Communication October 27-30, 2010 – Chicago, Illinois