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7.8 Instant Messaging: Practicing Your Professional IM Skills (Obj. 2)
This activity can also be accomplished with the help of Blackboard’s chat function, but Yahoo,
Skype and the other IM tools are often more versatile and sophisticated or have a more pleasant
interface. It’s important that all students download the same client because not all of the software
Short instructor-generated guidelines could assign specific roles, say, playing a customer who
A post-training question-and-answer session could serve as a group activity involving the whole
class. The “training” could rely on the content of a chapter in this textbook or a business article
7.9 Analyzing a Podcast (Obj. 3)
E-mail responses to this assignment would enable students to respond to the assignment more
If you are understandably reluctant to give away your cell phone number, create a Google Voice
account, which will provide you with a phone number you can give out and access online or forward
to your home phone or cell phone without disclosing your phone number. If you don’t like
forwarding, Google Voice can also be set up to send you text or e-mail messages alerting you to a
As for the style used in the podcasts, they clearly appeal to young people because they are
Example of a tweet or brief text message:
(Excerpted from Money Girl, who is discussing the advantages of turning one’s hobby into a
You get the most favorable tax treatment when you have a legitimate business—you can even
(Excerpted from Grammar Girl, who is attempting a “quick-and-dirty” definition of the object
I love you. You are the object of my affection and my sentence. It’s like a Valentine’s Day card
7.10 Creating a Simple Business Podcast (Obj. 3)
Answers will vary. It will be helpful to assist students with selecting the business topic and
preparing a brief script. Some of these steps could be done in class in small groups or as a peer
editing exercise. Students could be asked to introduce a local company, introduce a business
7.11 Podcast: Turning Text to Video in a Jiffy (Obj. 3)
Although strictly speaking, students are not producing a podcast, Article Video Robot playfully
7.12 Analyzing the Nuts About Southwest Blog (Obj. 4)
The tone of the guidelines is friendly, irreverent, and deliberately not worded like the typical
“fine print.” The language is conversational and the writers present themselves as rank-and-file
crew members and other employees. The purpose of the blog is addressed in the excerpt cited in
7.13 Reviewing Corporate Blogs (Obj. 4)
This assignment allows for a variety of activities. Students could be asked to evaluate a blog
verbally or in writing—in memo form, by e-mail, or as a blog entry. Additionally, Blackboard,
Facebook (see Activity 7.19), or another course management site could be used to post the
7.14 Composing a Personal Blog Entry (Obj. 4)
This assignment is purposely limited to a recent survey or study to ensure academic honesty and
discourage copying from the Web. The added benefit is that the students will become acquainted
with reliable sources of many useful statistics not only for social media. The blog post could be
7.15 Writing Superefficient Tweets (Obj. 5)
Students may enjoy this activity because it invites their creativity in a familiar area. After the
Examples:
AllComm’s customer service is super responsive. They often don’t know the answer, but hold
I’m having Internet problems, and MineNet isn’t picking up the phone. Customer service is
7.16 Twitter Communication Audit (Obj. 5)
This type of tweet analysis, or “Twitter audit,” can be accomplished in various ways. Students
could be tasked with examining the Twitter interactions of one particular company or several
organizations in the same industry (for instance, automobile companies, airlines, and
manufacturing). Alternatively, they could look for random examples of deft responses or,
Kia Motors America @Kia: With the navigation system in your all-new #KiaSorento, you can discover new
adventures! bit.ly/Nzo7kj (4 Jul)
Charles Stewart @CharlesStewart9: @Kia MY Kia Sorrento went up in flames after 4 months with electrical
problems honor that (6 Jul)
Kia Motors America @Kia: @CharlesStewart9 Have you spoke with our Consumer Assistance
Department? We’re very sorry to hear this. (6 Jul)
7.17 What? You Tweeted THAT? (Obj. 5)
1. Sending hate tweets about the boss. The difference between venting around the water
cooler or over lunch to a close friend and trumpeting to the world one’s dislike for a superior
2. Lying to the boss and bragging about it. Although lying to the boss may be woefully
3. Romancing the boss (kissing and telling). Even if the indiscreet Twitter user had a private
profile, a contact could easily retweet the message and make it retrievable. Besides, amorous
4. Announcing the desire to quit. The wish to quit may come true, but prematurely so and not
5. Blocking your boss. Preventing the boss from seeing your profile is no guarantee that he or
she won’t receive your hateful missives through another source. As Mark, an expert blogger,
7.18 Creating a Twitter Group (Obj. 5)
This Twitter assignment requires that students write ultrabrief tweets on a predetermined topic or
Students need individual Twitter accounts for this activity, and you should create a
Tweetworks group for the class to monitor activities. The group would then function much like a
7.19 Building an Online Community on Facebook (Obj. 5)
A business communication Facebook site could be a useful tool to teach students the responsible
use of social networking. The public setting of the site would demand that they behave like the
future business professionals they aspire to be. You have control over which features to allow, such
7.20 The Dark Side: Hooked on Social Media? (Obj. 5)
Answers will vary, but most students will probably agree that they would consider it a hardship
having to relinquish their cell phones even for a day. In the Maryland study, students felt that
Email is the only kind of mail I’ve ever sent; I have received 40 texts in the last 15 minutes; I
A related problem to explore is Internet gaming addiction, which is most prevalent in Asian
countries. Several much-publicized deaths have revealed obsessive playing of World of Warcraft
7.21 Entrusting Your Data to the Cloud (Obj. 5)
Most students are likely to be using Facebook, Pinterest, and other social media networks daily.
Chances are that students are using Google Docs, Yahoo, or Gmail. They may be familiar with
Picasa, Flickr, and other photo-sharing applications on the Web. If students bring up file-sharing
When compiling a list of disadvantages, students may identify the potential dependency on
providers and their pricing as well as technical glitches. Banking data and medical files are most
Businesses are struggling with the security risks associated with the growing comingling of
personal and corporate apps on mobile devices. A recent Facebook snafu changed e-mail addresses
Security breaches are likely, despite encryption software and the best efforts of the hosting
companies. Ironically, if encryption is employed so that only the owner can decrypt the
Clearly, not all information is created equal. Family photographs “leaked” on the Internet
Experts say that convenience and productivity will always win over security risk. Outages
7.22 Creating Fair Digital Media Policies (Obj. 5)
Many employers resign themselves to the fact that employees will spend a certain amount of time
during the workday online shopping and visiting social media sites. Some have accepted that
workers goof off approximately one hour a day. Although they understandably dislike this personal
use of company time, they realize that Internet use is increasingly tougher to enforce. Besides,
Arguments for allowing personal use of social media on the job:
Depending on the job, workers take their work home and on the road. Asking them to stay away
from the Internet at the office while also requiring them to work long hours away from the office
seems unreasonable. Even at the office, monitoring traffic to websites, chatting, texting, Facebook
Arguments against allowing personal use of social media on the job:
Recreational activities, as well as unintentional yet careless miscues, can gobble up precious
network resources and waste valuable work time. Even more important is concern over lawsuits
7.23 Discussing “Cool” Social Media Jobs (Obj. 5)
Answers will vary. The characteristics the individuals with exciting jobs share are that they have
college degrees and abundant communication skills. This means that even seemingly easy and
laid-back jobs require training and rigorous work. Bloggers need to master vibrant, conversational,
