The_Twitter_Revolution

Dr. Diane Howard's Publications, Presentations

The Twitter Revolution:
Implications for Effective Professional Communication

       Presentation to the Bell Chapter
    of the American Business Women's Association
June 2009

The Twitter Impact

Copyright © 2009
Diane Howard, Ph.D.

With the growing use of social e-networks for personal and professional communication, it is easy to see that people want and need positive, supportive human connection. The obvious implication is that people want to feel positively valued, respected, and networked in their personal and business worlds. No one likes those who communicate in dominating, authoritarian manners. Because repression and suppression can not remain secretive in the 21c. cyber world, the days of repressive and suppressive leaders and organizations are numbered. When people feel respected, they are more likely to cooperate and to even go the extra mile. People work harder and are more productive with others who communicate that they value them. Caring for People Before Projects Leads to More Productivity. Conveying Respect in Relationships Before Disseminating Information Generates Internal Motivation. Here again are the key phrases: People Before Projects, Relationships Before Information. It is a matter of mind-set, not manipulation. It involves respectful and caring acknowledgement that can often be conveyed in a few simple words and gestures.

Because women are often naturally relational, they are especially capable of conveying information or working on a project in the context of relational respect. This is one reason why female leaders are needed on administrative teams. They can especially foster motivation by communicating in simple ways that they value others. They often can naturally facilitate and illicit positive internal and external cooperation from co-workers.

Let's begin to look concretely at how we more effectively motivate receivers and facilitate their productivity in communication via e-technologies. Because e-mail is one of the most common forms of e-communication, let's start by looking at how to make it effective. Remember First and Foremost that Effective Communication is Not One-Way. It Does Not Just Involve Information Dissemination. Effective Communication Facilitates Respectful and Positive Human Connections.

E-mail can be a useful and valuable tool of communication in our personal and professional lives; but it also has potential pitfalls, which we must seek to avoid if we are going to use it effectively. First, we must utilize basic good, interpersonal skills, which include communicating positively, constructively, and respectfully. We need to empathize, "listen," look for common ground, repeat/rephrase what others say, refrain from attacking, and avoid pre-mature judging. We need to especially work at writing in a clear style to avoid possible misunderstandings.

Here are basic guidelines for clear, respectful e-mail, personal or professional, which guards against potential misinterpretation, confusion, and irritation.

Use short, specific descriptions in subject lines.

Use appropriate greetings or salutations, as in face-to-face communication.
(San Diego, 2002).

Try to use less than 65 characters in a line and no more than 25 lines of text
(Elam, 1997).

End lines with a carriage return (Elam, 1997).

Use appropriate grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.

Don't use all capital letters. This is considered "shouting," or "yelling."

Don't use all lower-case letters. This makes you appear uneducated, unprofessional.

Don't use text-messaging abbreviations.

Choose language carefully.

Use informal language in personal correspondence.

Use formal language in business correspondence.

Use short, concise, clear language and sentences.

Simplify messages.

Choose words and write the message carefully.

When using the reply button, include, restate, or paraphrase the sender's language.

Break down messages into simple components.

Compensate for the absence of non-verbal language by adding more adjectives.

The longer the message, the more it needs to be broken into "sound bytes."

Don't blurt a message impulsively.

Use appropriate etiquette.

Don't say anything electronically that which would not be said face-to- face.

Don't vent emotions.

Be careful of what might be offensive to other cultures.

Be careful of the tone of messages.
(a) Don't be so short, concise, or direct that messages sound brusque or rude.
(b) Use adjectives or adverbs to clarify tone.
(c) Avoid sarcasm, which could be misinterpreted (Fielden, 2001).

Refrain from pre-mature judging or attacking.

Re-read messages and use spelling, grammar checks before sending.

Re-read what the message says and how is said before sending it.

Watch for possibilities of misinterpretation.

Avoid using abbreviations, which can be misunderstood or not understood at all.

Confirm, empathize, and sympathize in e-mail communication.

When disagreeing, try to respect the other's position and look for common ground.

"Listen" and pay attention to what a correspondent is saying.

Don't "flame" or use aggressive language (Fielden, 2001).

Consider the correspondent.

Analyze how that individual has presented himself/herself.

Match a correspondent's level of language and communication behavior.

Respond, at least briefly, to e-mail from personal or professional contacts.

Little can be assumed about respondents (their frame of mind, interpretation of your message…),
so be gracious and careful in wording and phrasing (Elam, 1997).

Practice civility, utilize good manners, and use please or thank you (San Diego, 2002).

Consider re-writing or not sending a message, which is not fair, honest, or constructive.

Protect against computer viruses, which can be delivered through e-mail.

Avoid opening attachments from unknown sources.

Install virus protection software.

Keep the anti-virus software updated.

Protect against from unwanted e-mail by using a spam blocker or blocked senders list.

Don't send unwanted, unsolicited e-mail messages.

When it is received, request politely to be removed from the sender's list.

Don't forward e-mails without the understanding or permission of the sender.

Be very careful in forwarding messages.

               1. Make sure that any forwarded message is accurate.
               2. The truth of alarmist e-mails, such as rumors, virus
                     warnings, pleas for help, prayer requests… can be
                     checked out on sites such as TruthOrFiction.com.

Use appropriate closings.

Place messages for references in well-organized folders.

Carefully decide when to use e-mail and/or the telephone.

It is sometimes best to follow-up e-mail with telephone communication and/or negotiation.

Communication, which needs to take place in real time, should take place
over the telephone, since e-mail is asynchronous (Conrad, 2002).

Online communities today are vibrant throughout the world. The Internet facilitates and nurtures distance relationships, as well as local, face-to-face communities. The online world is a rich social one, in which Internet users participate within e-communities in serious, meaningful, and productive dialogues. Tens of millions around the globe have joined online communities, which include professional and business groups.

Pierre Levy (1998), who has studied virtual communities, suggests that participants in e-groups can experience at times more satisfying relationships than in face-to-face groups in which bureaucratic and authoritarian personalities and organizations stifle individual participants. However, distance communication researchers and scholars further contend that the sense of belonging, unity, and support, which participants in e-groups can experience, further extends and augments face-to-face relationships and communities (Havel,1999).

Barry Wellman (2001), a sociologist, suggests that many new societal arrangements have been developed through the contemporary process of glocalization. He defines this term as what the Internet produces as it expands users' social worlds to faraway people while simultaneously binding them more deeply to the place where they live (Pew Research Center, 2001). E-communities can provide for participants qualitatively unique experiences, which can enrich them in their virtual and visceral worlds.

Pierre Levy (1998) contends that communication in the virtual world can cultivate collective intelligence, which can encourage the development of intelligent communities. He states that sharing of information, knowledge, and expertise in e-communities can promote a kind of dynamic, collective intelligence, which can affect all spheres of our lives. He contends that the virtual world can foster positive connections, cooperation, bonds, and civil interactions. In e-groups or communities, which are flexible, democratic, reciprocal, respectful, and civil, this collective intelligence can be continually enhanced and enhancing (Levy, 1998).

Researchers in scientific, educational, professional, and industrial arenas are pooling their collective intelligence, knowledge, and data in collaboratories. These are virtual centers in which people in different locations work together in real time, as if they were all in the same place. Science, education, commerce, and industry have become increasingly global. Therefore, collaboration, which is efficient, maximizing, and time-saving among distance researchers in these fields, has become more critical. As distance technology has become more efficient and cost-effective, distance collaboration has become more common. The National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health have encouraged grant recipients to form collaboratories. These scholarly, virtual groups are cybersteps beyond distance sharing of asynchronous data when researchers individually take what they want from online databases. Collaboratories enable researchers at distant locations to interact, hold lab meetings, and work with data in real time (Buyya, 2001)

Cyber group projects using e-technologies can enhance education and socialization in qualitatively unique and personal ways. Professor Edna Aphek (2001), who lives in Jerusalem, Israel, has experienced dreams come true in virtual, multicultural, learning communities in her region. She states, "It started somewhere out there, in the Cyberspace where no prejudice and hostility reign." Israel is a multicultural country made up of different ethnic groups who have separate cultures, languages and religions. There isn't much contact between some of the peoples, especially between Jews and Arabs, who comprise about 1/6th of Israel's total population. Online computer technology has endowed Professor Aphek and her associates with tools and possibilities for ongoing, multi-cultural, and multi-age communication between different groups. The technologies have no stigma and no prejudice attached to them. They make possible neutral, less biased communication between groups. Professor Aphek has witnessed Israeli and Arab youths learning together without hostility in the virtual worlds. The interactions of these young people have fostered meaningful, bonded relationships that have extended into their real worlds. Professor Aphek has been willing to use new educational technologies to reach out, to connect, and to promote understanding among diverse groups. Her efforts have significantly paid off for her, her associates, her students, her community, and her region.

Today there are various forms of e-groups or e-communities. In some e-groups, communication is primarily text-based. E-mail communication in e-groups is economical, fast, immediate, and efficient. Communicators can interact across great distances frequently, regularly, economically, and efficiently. In e-groups communication can take place in synchronous time, in which there is little time lag between textual comments. Working in synchronous groups can be especially efficient and time-saving for those who have critical time pressure. Communication also takes place in some groups in asynchronous time, in which one posts a message at one time and later someone else can read it and/or respond. Some e-group participants belong to newsgroups, in which postings go out to all group members, who respond at will. Some belong to listservs, in which there is a moderator, who may collate and organize the messages before he or she sends them out to members of the group. Some participants of groups post messages on electronic bulletin boards. Furthermore, some e-groups are virtual communities in which hundreds or thousands of people around the globe can participate in real time in a virtual world, such as in a MUD (multi-user dimension). In all these various forms of e-groups or e-communities participants are free to communicate ideas without the limits related to the physical body, i.e. appearance, gender, race, ethnicity, status symbols and so forth. Levy (1998) suggests further that they are free to participate in virtual community and to add to the collective intelligence.

In Cyberspace…each of us is a potential transmitter and receiver in a space that is qualitatively differentiated, nonstatic, constructed by its participants, and explorable. Here we no longer encounter people exclusively by their name, geographical location, or social rank, but in the context of centers of interest, within a shared landscape of meaning and knowledge… Cyberspace provides large and geographically dispersed groups with instruments for cooperatively constructing a shared context… communication now involves participants in a form of interaction…This dynamic …collective context serves as an agent of collective intelligence, a kind of living bond…Cyberspace promotes connections…

      Here are some concrete guidelines for facilitating constructive business, e-community communication:

Introduce yourself to the group

Take time to "listen" to an e-community's postings before sending a message.

Welcome newcomers.

Post messages respectfully.

Observe the "Netiquette" (group discussion etiquette), which is posted for the group.

Utilize precise and concrete language.

Give specific details and examples.

Participate with civility in an e-group.

Be honest but proceed cautiously with self-disclosing, so as not to be hurt by unscrupulous group participants.

In posting information for a project, give complete information.
      1. Give a project title and short description.
    2. Include financial benefits or costs.
      3. Give the time/location.
      4. Outline the schedule.
      5. Clarify the specific format.
    6. Provide contact information.
      7. Describe how to respond.

Encourage communal and reciprocal discussions. Don’t just dump your ideas.

Describe how you feel.

Don't "flame" (post hostile or negative messages or responses.)

Think about how the others may respond to your message.

Paraphrase or repeat key ideas or words of others before responding.

Communicate support for others.

Give appropriate praise.

Give appropriate comfort (Verderber, 2001).

Remember that effective communication is not one-way.

    1.    It does not just involve information
           dissemination.
    2.    Effective communication facilitates
           positive human connections.

Motivation, facilitation, and productivity is enhanced in the context of respectful communication via e-technologies. For further specific guidelines for effective business communication in audio conferences, webcasting, videoconferencing, Websites... see http://dianehoward.com/Dr_Howard_Guidelines_Effective_Communication.htm .

References

Aphek, E. (2001) < Aphekdr@netvision.net.il> (2001, January). Kamrat :The story of a virtual multicultural learning community in   Israel. < tripathi@amadeus.statistik.uni-dortmund.de> (2001, January).

Buyya, R. <rajkumar@csse.monash.edu.au> (2001, July). Making Cyberspace
collaboration succeed. < tripathi@amadeus.statistik.uni-dortmund.de> (2001, July).

Conrad, L. (2002). E-mail Addiction, A 12-Step Recovery Program. Retrieved August 11, 2002 from  http://www.nacubo.org/website/members/bomag/1097_conrad.html.

Elam, P. (1997). A neophyte's guide to effective e-mail. WebNovice.com. Retrieved August 11, 2002 from http://www.webnovice.com/email.htm.

Fielden, N. (2001). Internet research. Jefferson: McFarland.

Havel, I. (1999). The advent of cyberculture: Preliminary notes for the session on changes and chances for the society: Self-organization of the European "Information Society" through communication networks. Vienna Peace Summit, Charles University, Prague.

Howard, D. (2002). Enhanced by Technology, Not Diminished: A Practical Guide to Effective, Distance Communication, New York: McGraw-Hill.

Levy, P. (1998). Becoming virtual: Reality in the digital age. (R.B. Bononno, Trans.), New York: Plenum Publishing.

Pew Research Center (2001). Online Communities: Networks that nurture long-distance relationships and local ties. Pew Internet & American Life. Retrieved August 14, 2002 from
http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=47

San Diego, G. (2002). The art of writing e-mail. Online Marketing Since 1994. Retrieved August 11, 2002 from http://www.net-market.com/email.htm#salutations.

Verderber, K., Verderber, R. (2001). Interpersonal Communication Concepts, Skills and Contexts. Austrailia: Wadsworth.