Intergenerational Communication Made Simple

In my office is a large box full of articles pertaining to the complex issue of intergenerational communication. Since my life's work is exploring communication and how it affects the workplace, part of my job is to diligently research and design ways to communicate these issues to you, the reader. In this article I've provided some basic profiles of the generations working in the U.S. today and what communicators' concerns for the future should be.

Condon, Kathy. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Business Communication

Internal and External Brand: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Internal branding is alive and well, and continues to evolve as more people realize how powerful it is as a business tool. You may hear it called by different names, such as employer branding, employee branding or employee value propositioning, but whatever the term, it is an important and useful concept.

Covill, Simon. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Workplace

Internal Blogging and the Rules of Disclosure: An IR-Reconciliable Difference?

We are hearing and reading a lot these days about the new age of transparency, in which organizations must go beyond traditional, tightly controlled communication and engage in a "naked conversation" with their customers, communities, employees and other stakeholders.

Shewchuk, Ron. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Workplace>Blogging

Internal Branding: Communicating and Measuring the Impact

A recent Gallup poll showed that 69 percent of employees are disengaged at work. A survey of human resources managers by PricewaterhouseCoopers in the U.K. found that only 26 percent of employees demonstrated brand values in their day-to-day behavior. These figures suggest that internal branding efforts are perhaps not producing the desired effect. "Living the brand" initiatives cannot work when the majority of employees are not tuned in at work. Great brands are built by consistently delivering on the brand promise, which requires employee engagement with that brand.

Venkat, Ramesh. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Workplace

Internal Communication: Let's Be Clear

Internal communication isn't generally seen as a direct, short-term contributor to the bottom line, and therefore it is not considered "hot." More to the point though, people's understanding of what communication is and how it can work is extremely varied and often plain wrong. It seems that what makes internal communication "hot" is still mainly understood only in professional communication circles.

Bogaard, Lindsay. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Rhetoric

Internal Marketing vs. Internal Branding: It's All About Connections

Employee engagement, getting employees to "live the brand," gaining employee buy-in—today's managers are trying to wrap their minds around these critical practices through internal marketing and internal branding. But not everyone understands these concepts. You even hear people use the terms interchangeably, even though there are a number of differences between these concepts.

Stershic, Sybil F. and Debra Semans. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Workplace

International Marketing for the Internet: The Power of Virtual Shopping

Linda, an American living abroad in a country with limited merchandise, orders online for books, contact lenses, and smoked ham. Her Dutch husband buys from www.amazon.com and www.ebay.com because U.S.-based retail web sites offer a wide range of goods at a cheaper price than their adopted country, including lower import duties and lower shipping costs from U.S.-based cargo carriers.

Lopez, Joselito T. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Web Design>Marketing>International

Internet Marketing for 2005: Making Your Web Site Visible to Your Audience

The Internet is a free medium, just like roads and highways. There are those who walk and those who run, some who drive taxis, some Ferraris, and others tractor-trailers. To each his own-the roads are all free. Thank heaven. With such a powerful tool at our command, why is so much of the Internet so underutilized, and why is so much of Internet marketing so increasingly ineffective?

Javed, Naseem. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Web Design>Marketing

Internet Public Relations and Messaging Can Drive Visibility and Sales

Today it’s harder than ever for companies to get above the noise and get their messages heard. Many consumers are so overwhelmed with advertisements about new products and marginally improved releases that they automatically tune out anything that sounds promotional. While it may seem like there’s no time to learn new tools and technologies, there are many sites that offer useful guides, quick tips and case studies on how to achieve measurable results.

Woods McNamara, Julie. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Public Relations>Online

Interpreting Ethics as a Daily Mandate

There is much discussion in today’s corporate environment about accountability and responsibility. This rich debate has led me to consider at length the subject of applied or “operationalized” ethics. As lead counselors of senior management, and as the primary liaison to the public, we are in a position of great influence. Our behavior must be credible for our organizations to foster a positive image and reputation.

Silver, Gillian. Communication World Bulletin (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Ethics

Interviewing Techniques: An Art You Need to Practice

Although some communicators have a background in journalism, interviewing may not be the first thing that pops into your mind when you think of business communication. Of course, many of us interview managers and employees for our company's newsletter articles, annual reports, promotional materials, white papers, advertorials, speeches and more. But the need for good interview techniques goes a lot further even than that.

Canavor, Natalie and Claire Meirowitz. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Interviewing>Business Communication

Interviewing: We Ask Some Tough Questions and Present Some Answers

Interviewing brings up some thorny issues. In this edition of "Working Words," we want to follow up on the basics covered in our last column and give you some opinions that may be helpful. To supplement our own experience, we've brought in some heavy guns—several seasoned business writers and a newspaper reporter, all of whom handle tough subjects.

Canavor, Natalie and Claire Meirowitz. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Writing>Interviewing

The Intranet as a News Channel

While the use of a news section on the company intranet's home page is widespread, communicators need to ask themselves how effective this is as a way to avoid mixed messages and information overload. Does it reduce information overload, or increase it? And how can the news section be used to effectively cut through informational clutter?

Robertson, James. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Newsletters

Is E-Mail Still Effective?

With recent press surrounding the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act and possible future charges for sending e-mail as well as virus creators competing with each other for infection rates, how can you ensure that your e-mail communications are still effective and reach their intended recipients? E-mail has qualities that make it an ideal communication vehicle. But for all of these positive characteristics, e-mail has taken a serious blow over the past six years. An anti-spam technology company estimated that 62 percent of all e-mail sent across the Internet was identified as some sort of spam by users of their technology.

Hoy, Richard. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Email

Is Spam Ordinary Commercial Speech?

An informal poll within the U.S. indicates that more than half of respondents favor a law restricting "spam," that is, unwanted electronic advertising that everyone with an e-mail address has been exposed to but does not know how to stop. In the poll, 30 percent favor making false e-mail headers illegal, but only slightly more than 11 percent said spam restrictions would violate the First Amendment.

Morris, Stan. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Email

Is the Employee Publication Dead?

Over the past decade, hundreds of employee magazines and newsletters have gone by the wayside as corporate communicators rushed to embrace digital communication. Today, many large organizations do not publish any regular print vehicles for employees. But did they eliminate their publications for the right reasons? And has the rush away from print strengthened or weakened organizations' connection with employees?

Shewchuk, Ron. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Workplace>Newsletters

Is the New CEO Allowed to Care?

The brand experts and advertising gurus tell us that "caring is commercial," but this has not changed the behavior or profile of many chief executives. One new chief immediately canceled the daily VIP lunch delivered to his office and instead went down to the staff canteen, sitting among his workforce. In another case, a tough CEO confronts an aggressive media at an annual meeting and declares, "Our task it to manage the business to provide maximum return for our shareholders -- end of story." In these cases, communicators provide support and advice, yet in many instances, the decision about profile is made before they are called in.

Manallack, Stephen. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Management>Marketing

Is Your Design Really Working? How To Make Sure Your Branding Efforts Are Paying Off

There are few things in life more subjective than graphic design and color. You like blue, but the client likes green. You want to use illustration, but the client prefers photography. You like a serif typeface, the client doesn’t. As the designer, you believe the choice should be yours because that’s why you went to college and have spent years working on design and branding projects for other clients. The client feels because it’s their money, it’s their call. However, the truth lies somewhere in between. In spite of client/vendor differences, you are both trying to achieve the same goal: to create design and branding elements that make the strongest, most memorable impression to generate maximum visibility and produce the most sales possible.

DeVeau, Richard. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing

Job Hunting, Web Style

As with many things on the Web, job-hunting on the Internet has brought new meaning to the phrase "level playing field." Currently, there are literally thousands of "jobs boards," or Web sites tracking new job openings, in cyberspace these days, which together represent a potential career jumpstart that is far ahead of the traditional newspaper advertisements

Dysart, Joe. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Careers>Interviewing

Laws of Web Site Management and Digital Branding

We urgently need a quick crash course on web site management; otherwise, connecting with potential customers will become a very tough challenge. Lucky are those who have a unique domain name without the additional baggage of extraneous language, numbers, dashes or slashes. Studies have shown that 90 percent of business names are problematic. These problems are serious issues for achieving higher visibility.

Javed, Naseem. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Web Design>Project Management>Marketing

Learning the Hard Way: How I Learned to K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid)

I used to believe that if you knew a subject well enough and were passionate about it, you could pen a masterpiece. But it was two years of working as an IT journalist (and never really understanding or liking it!) that actually taught me how to write.

Dower, Sophia. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Writing>Journalism>Technology

Legal Issues Involved in Monitoring Employees' Internet and E-Mail Usage

Many employers have determined that there is a need to monitor employees' computer usage. According to a 2003 survey by the American Management Association, more than half of U.S. companies engage in some form of e-mail monitoring. Often, this is in addition to monitoring work-related communications and activities—including reviewing Internet usage, videotaping the work-site or recording employee telephone calls. More and more employers are engaging in some form of monitoring. Unfortunately, without a full understanding of the risks, employers may open themselves up to potential lawsuits. In addition, such techniques may result in low morale among employees who resent being told that they cannot use e-mail for personal messages and feel that their every move is being monitored.

Towns, Douglas M. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Legal>Email

Lessons from the Medical Community: Physicians Access Patient Information via PDAs

Genesys, a system of medical care facilities in central Michigan, has introduced an innovative way to couple emerging mobile communication technology with sophisticated medical care. Recently, the hospital system introduced the use of hand-held wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs) by physicians in its 440-bed system, which is made up of three local hospitals merged into one.

Ficorelli, Cindy. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Information Design>Wireless Web>Biomedical

Lessons in Crisis Preparedness for Communication Pros

In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech tragedy, university leaders—indeed all organizational leaders—are evaluating their crisis preparedness. Those leaders who actively seek to employ a comprehensive, all-hazard preparedness plan—not just one that deals with a troubled-turned-violent-person—will emerge best equipped to safeguard their students, employees and others.

Doyle, Jerry. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Communication>Risk Communication>Crisis Communication

Lessons Learned in the Corporate Blogosphere

As the publisher of CEO Blog Watch, I pay close attention the evolution of corporate communication, especially as it pertains to blogging. In fact, the mission of CEO Blog Watch is to chronicle the continued rise of corporate and CEO blogs. As someone who monitors CEO blogging, I can tell you that the most commonly asked question on the subject is, "Should a CEO blog?" Here's my take on the subject.

Cornett, Brandon. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Management>Blogging