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The Art of 140 Characters
As a former English teacher, you might think I would be appalled at the breakdown of the English language. All the texting, tweeting and Facebooking that takes place should really bother me. Or maybe I should be bothered by the fact that I just used three nouns that didn’t exist when I was a teacher.
Instead I find I am impressed with the art behind status updates. I find myself reading updates from certain people and then having a verbal conversation about them—laughing, outraged, informed and beyond.
I think some of them are funny (like Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh who tweeted: About to speak at conf. Spilled Coke on left leg of jeans, so poured some water on right leg so looks like the denim fade or pregnant mommyblogger Heather Armstrong (Dooce) who tweeted: Holy God, the baby just stuck her foot between my ribs and I saw the outline of her heel. Wonderful, right? TRY TOTALLY HORRIFYING.).
Some are poetic, some are strange and cryptic. Some people choose to use lyrics to express their feelings. Some choose signs, symbols, swears, or pop culture references. No matter what, people are informing their audience in many ways.
What does this mean for you? Let’s say I mentioned that today we got the company Chipotle for lunch. Then several people respond to my status—Chipotle is great, yummy, bad, etc. Chiptole has an immediate, uncensored and unforced response to their products. Are they paying attention? Maybe. Should they be paying attention? You betcha.
Maybe you are in educational publishing and you are wondering whether teachers and administrators are on these platforms. The answer is yes! I connect to many of friends from my teaching days through a variety of these social media platforms.
This can become an issue, however, as the line between public and private become blurred. Educators in particular are the epitome of a personal/public figure. Teachers utilize these platforms in many ways. They share lesson plans, they ask questions regarding products, they create communities for clubs or organizations within their school. Administrators utilize these tools as well. If you are trying to gain access to the decision-makers, try an unconventional but highly-effective way. Take a fraction of your marketing dollars and take a risk….I bet you’ll see results.
Comments on this Entry
Hi Kim!
I just read your blog post about the influence of texting and tweeting on the English language. I agree that the informality of these formats does allow a certain access to decision-makers that wasn’t possible in the past. This e-mail is a perfect example of that. Ten years ago, CEOs didn’t have blogs. Even if they had, the likelihood that they would make themselves so accessible to the public would have been pretty slim.
The challenge of incorporating these informal forms of communication into educational instruction is to discover how to make students aware of how and when to use each form. Many people apply for jobs online, so it’s important to be able to write an e-mail that conveys one’s skills and abilities to an employer. Such an e-mail is completely different from the tweets that S2 sends to remind staff members of a meeting. Both forms of communication have value, but each form isn’t necessarily appropriate with both types of situations. S2 could send an e-mail reminder to all employees, but a tweet may not be the best way to make initial contact with an employer. Students, educators, and publishers have to be able to straddle both formal and informal platforms and make effective choices that will help them meet their specific communication needs.
Andrea Bown
Columbus, OH
By Kim Kleeman on 2009 05 28
Hi Andrea,
Thanks for the great comments.
When I was teaching, one fo the first lessons for my freshman was a writing lesson determining who the audience was and the purpose of the communication. This opened up a great conversation about texting, emailing, and letter writing. I also graded harshly if texting style leaked into a formal paper.
Students today are challenged to learn to write and communicate through many mediums. In the business world today, corporations are learning to draw a line regarding employee communication. No matter, these new forms of communication offer advantages and disadvantages in different arenas. Some companies are very open to communicating in these new formats and others haven’t been able to wrap their head around the rules quite yet.
By Kim Kleeman on 2009 06 02
