Some of us have been around long enough to remember when business communication was a fairly specialized activity. Writers wrote, typesetters set type, art directors designed, graphic artists created, photographers took photos, and production specialists equipped with X-Acto knives combined all these elements on the page. Then along came desktop publishing software, word processors that […]
Author Archives: George Dovel
Media Curation: A Powerful New Tool for Finding the Information That Matters to Your and Your Students
Newsfeeds from blogs and other online publishers can be a great way to stay on top of developments in any field. However, anyone who has signed up for more than a few RSS feeds has probably experienced the "firehose effect" of getting so many feeds so quickly that it becomes impossible to stay on top […]
Ringing in the New Year with an Eye-Opening Prediction
Happy New Year! From everyone on the Bovée-Thill team, we wish you a successful new term. Looking at what lies ahead for business communication, this recent article in Workforce Magazine certainly caught our attention. The consulting firm MBO Partners predicts that over half the U.S. workforce will be independent by 2020. Reaching that threshold would […]
Please Don’t Buy This: Patagonia’s Un-Marketing on Cyber Monday
From Black Friday to Small Business Saturday to Cyber Monday, business communication over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is all about buy, buy, buy. In this hypersaturated message environment, this email missive from the outdoor-clothing supplier Patagonia on Cyber Monday definitely stood out, starting with the large headline "Don't Buy This Jacket" and a large photo […]
The Challenge of Nuanced Messages in Lean, Text-Only Media :(
You know that feeling when the words don't quite capture the spirit of your intended message, but words are all you have? Let's say your project team has just been reprimanded by the boss for missing an interim deadline. You're confident that the team will meet its final deadline, so you're ready to brush off […]
The Crowd Is Watching: Social Media and the Shrinking Margin for Error
Judging from the vociferous comments in the social media atmosphere, one might think that Netflix's decision to split itself in two or Bank of America's introduction of a debit card fee were some of the worst horrors ever visited upon the human race. BofA isn't likely to reverse its decision, even if thousands of people […]
Teaching Students to Keep Their Cool After a Public Insult
Consumer-review websites such as Yelp can be a boon or a bane to local businesses. They can help businesses with little or no advertising budget get exposure through positive word-of-mouth, but they can damage businesses when unhappy customers use the Internet to vent their frustrations. When a bad review is justified, it can alert potential […]
Twitter Exercise to Help Students Grasp the Value of Their Business Communication Course
This Twitter exercise can help students students grasp the value of the communication course and practice writing tight, focused messages at the same time. Have them write four messages of no more than 140 characters each to persuade other college students to take the business communication course. They should think of the first message as […]
Putting Social Media to Work: Three Examples (with PowerPoint Slides for Classroom Use)
These PowerPoint slides offer annotated examples from three companies making effective use of social media tools to develop customer relationships: Biznik Segway Lie-Nielsen Toolworks You can download the PowerPoint file from the link below.
Wishing You and Your Students a Great Fall Term!
Hard to believe fall is upon us! We hope you had a relaxing and productive summer. We'd like to start off the new season with a brief reminder of the free online resources we have available to help business communication instructors and students, including the many resources available exclusively for adopters of Bovée & Thill […]