Employment Resources

The last few modules have included great information regarding applying for jobs.  For anybody who is looking for work, knowing how to write a resume and conduct yourself in an interview is a huge advantage. Being aware of the available resources such as employment websites and articles that discuss best practices for communicating in the office is also key to finding and succeeding in a job.

I have personally learned much about the different ways resumes can be structured.  I also am now better prepared to write an appropriate cover letter.  Both of these areas were a pretty big weakness for me, so I am excited to see what results my new knowledge can yield.

The internet has revolutionized the way that job searching works.  I used to drive around to different business's to inquire about employment and fill out paper applications.  I have filled out everything online for about a decade now though.  The internet provides access to tremendous resources to anybody who can connect, but the internet can be a confusing place for those who are unfamiliar.  As we move into the future though, less and less people will be uncomfortable on the internet which will allow them to take advantage of the opportunities they have.

Walker Neer

Powerpoint/Voicethread Lessons

I have completed the presentation and reviewed other people's presentations.  I think that my slides were ok, but after seeing some slides from the other students, I could have done more with the slides.  I tried to follow the 10:20:30 rule, but didn't have a lot of graphics or images.  At the suggestion of Mr. Moffitt I included my company logo on all of the slides, which I do think improved the visual quality of the slides.  I also could have used a bigger variety of fonts and color schemes.  I really liked how voicethread allowed me to record for each individual slide, so I didn't have to nail the whole 10 minutes perfectly in one run.  I think that I could work on the presentation some more and then use it to introduce potential investors, potential partners, or employees to my company.  I also didn't know that software like voicethread existed and I think it's very cool that Powerpoint presentations can be uploaded and voiced in this manner.  All in all I think the project was informative and useful.

What I have learned, and how it has schooled me.

   I have been lucky in my career to have had a computer available the majority of my life. However, there have been a number of things this class has taught me that I did not really utilize or understand before. I understand better how to relay information in a variety of ways. Social media, including email and messaging have been a part of my life for almost 20 years now and I always discover there are so many other ways. How to effectively blog has been something I never utilized for work purposes, but now see how it can help in management of all aspects. Sharing information effectively is the cornerstone of business communication. From forms and requests, to blogs and texts, there are many things I knew about communication before taking this class. But, in every aspect, this class has had new wisdom to learn. Communicating to an anonymous audience was a challenge, but everyone learns a little from other perspectives.

What I have learned so far - Neer

I didn't really know what to expect from a class called business communications when the semester started.  I expected if anything it would be boring.  Despite this impression, I have been very impressed with the material we have covered thus far in the semester.  I was born in 1983 which puts me at the very beginning of the millennial generation.  When I graduated high school in 2002, the internet was not really a new thing, but it was something that wasn't trusted by academia at large.  There was very little education regarding how to do things on the internet, like blogging, email, forums etc.  Social media did not exist, at least in its current forms, so the stuff I learned was how to use MS Word, how to format a letter, how to use MS Excel, things like that.  I have been very happy to cover things such as blogging, social media, email, etc.  I have been in the workforce for about 15 years, so many of the topics we cover regarding how to conduct oneself or how to convey a message I am already somewhat familiar with.  I don't mean to imply that I haven't learned anything about how to best conduct myself or how to best convey a message, but many of the ideas I had already considered in my career.  I think for somebody that is new to the workforce or who has not entered it yet, that this class could be the single best one for preparing a person to fit in professionally.  Many of the lessons we have learned I learned by failing in a real scenario.  That failure may be inevitable to truly learn, but this class really provides a great primer for what its like in a typical business workplace.  I also have been grateful for the feedback provided.  In a writing class I took previously, there was very little to no feedback, and in many cases there weren't even timely grades.  I appreciate knowing what i am doing right and what I am doing wrong, so that I know what to focus on.  All in all I think this class is valuable and would recommend it to most, which is something that can't be said for every course.

Walker Neer

Electronic Media

Electronic Media by Walker Neer

I have learned about several forms of electronic media and how they can be utilized in the business world over the last couple of weeks.  I was most interested in corporate blogs and Twitter. 

I was very surprised to see the quality of blogs available from a variety of industries.  I was familiar with blogging but had always thought of blogs as being their own independent companies.  I knew people had personal blogs and I was familiar with blogs that review music, movies, games, food etc. that were contributed to by multiple people.  I had never really considered or been aware of blogs that were operated by companies who provided products or services that were not related to the blog.   Perhaps a better summary is that I thought blogs were always a product and had not considered a blog being used to support a product.  I was very surprised by the company Caterpillar’s blog.  I wrote a review of that blog here, so I won’t go into too much detail, but I will say that Caterpillar demonstrates how a company that is involved in an industry that is in no way related to information technology can utilize a blog to great effect. 

Twitter was something familiar to me prior to these last two weeks.  I have used Twitter a very small amount, but I do think it offers some benefits to companies.  I am a pretty avid gamer and in today’s gaming world a game is rarely complete when it launches.  What I mean by this is that most developers continue to release updates for bugs or additional content after a game has launched.  Twitter has been used to great effect by many developers who use the service to update their followers on update schedules or on links to forums or websites with more detailed information.

The last two weeks didn't really change my opinion of Twitter as I was already aware of some of its possible uses.  I definitely learned quite a bit about corporate blogging though and feel I have a better understanding of how it can be applied.  I discussed how I might utilize blogging for my own business here.

Electronic Communication

   It is important to learn about electronic communication and its advances in order to maintain a grasp on communication in the business environment. From texting, through blogging it is vital to not only communicate effectively, and frequently, but also electronically. Email is important to virtually everyone in some form in the business and social worlds, but the social media aspect has rendered even email a seldom used form of communication in some workplaces. Podcasting has been all the rage, as hard as it is to combine speaking ability and preparation, and can be very effective to reach a group of people and convey your message. Wikis have caught on with many different companies as a way to "catalog" feedback so that employees and customers can mine the data for what they may be seeking. I had never tweeted til recently and can tell this is a most effective way to reach an audience. Having just a short sweet statement on a frequent basis can help a businessperson keep past and potential customers up to the minute on how things are going. Electronic communication has completely changed almost every facet of customer relations and constantly changed within itself as well, new ways, sites, angles are developed quickly in the information age we live in. It is best to find a medium the business itself feels works best for what it want to communicate. Considering ones audience is vital and utilizing multiple sources can only help spread he message both internally to employees but in external ways as well, thus creating a better relationship at all levels of a business.

Blogging and Me

How a blog could help my company.  By Walker Neer

I currently work as a partner owner/operator in a very small company that is in the service industry.  We provide full service junk removal to the greater Springfield metropolitan area.  Maintaining a blog is something that has been suggested to us in the past. We only have three people working in the business and we are all local, so there is not really a need for an internal only blog.  A blog for customers to read is a concept that has always been intriguing but I have never understood how to create content appropriate for the blog. 

Some of the benefits of maintaining a blog would be exposure, creating brand loyalty and getting customer feedback.  We really have two customer bases, one is residential consumers, who typically use us for a one time need and the other customer base is made up of real estate agents, property managers, landlords, and real estate bankers.   Establishing a blog that people find interesting would be a great way for us to maintain contact with our one time need customers.  While these people might not call every week or month, if we could keep them engaged with us via a blog, we would have a better opportunity to retain their business in the future.  A blog could help us maintain better business to business client relationships , as they use our service more frequently, and a blog provides a way for us to easily communicate new ideas and best practices.  An enthusiastic fan of the blog is also more likely to give word of mouth referrals to their friends, family, and colleagues for not only our service but also the blog.  A blog could prove to be one of the cheapest and most effective marketing strategies available to us.  It would be important to create meaningful, interesting content to keep people coming back.

Caterpillar Corporate Blog Review

Caterpillar Corporate Blog Review by Walker Neer

Caterpillar is known for their heavy duty machinery, so I was skeptical about the value of a blog for a company in that type of industry.  The Caterpillar Corporate blog is indeed a terrific blog.  The individual posts are well written and interesting.  The blog covers a huge range of topics including best practices, success stories, and more.  The blog does an excellent job of keeping the company engaged with its customers.  Many of the posts end with a call to action to the readers, to respond or contribute to the conversation with comments.  This allows the company to understand their customer in a much more real time fashion and allows the customer to feel like they can have a hand in improving Caterpillar’s products.

The blog provides profile pages for the various contributing authors, which allows the reader to more easily understand the author’s background and role within Caterpillar.  Some of the posts share success stories from Caterpillar customers who have had success in their own business using Caterpillar products.  This is great free marketing for these companies and offers new information to the reader.  Some of the articles also mention various trade shows and events that Caterpillar attends, which gives readers info on opportunities to meet and interact with the company face to face.  The “best practices” blog posts show that Caterpillar is committed to not only selling their product but also working to ensure that their customers get the most out of the product.

In summary Caterpillar provides an interesting read via its blog.  The company also educates their customers on a variety of topics.  Feedback is encouraged from the readership of the blog, and Caterpillar demonstrates its commitment to responding to customer needs as they evolve.  Caterpillar has proved that a blog can be of benefit to any company regardless of industry.

Will Calton How a blog can help me

   Will Calton- Business Comm 140

  I feel that by using a blog I can achieve more success in my profession. Though I am technically unemployed I do, and have done consulting with other businesses. I think it would be beneficial to me for networking and customer interaction to create and maintain a blog about my career.
   It would greatly benefit my career to have a blog to inform potential and previous customers about my skills and both successes and my failures on a professional level. This will develop a better sense of openness with my clients and improve the exposure I can attain. Increasing my public perception on what I do and what I have done would create more customers or consultations in the future and give a since of my range of abilities.
   I have worked for many companies, most of which have little corporate identity on the internet aside from a basic page. One of my previous employers, Domino's Pizza, does have a corporate site with blog like information and numerous franchises around the country utilize a blog to enhance product knowledge and public relations. But many smaller companies do not utilize this medium as most of them commit very little time or energy to more than "word of mouth" advertising. It is my thinking that blogging is a more effective form of "word of mouth" advertising as it not only reaches existing and potential customers but it creates future customers by adding a public forum with which to communicate with the world and allowing them to research on their own terms.
   There are many ways to get he word out about your business but a blog is an excellent choice. With an open ended forum and its low cost a blog can do many things targeted marketing cannot for a much cheaper price. Though it takes some time to get information together and posted, the information does not need to constantly be reviewed or edited. One can simply post a new blog on a regular basis to update clients and potential customers on what is going on withing the organization.

Will Calton - Review of GE corporate blog site. GE reports corporate blog.

   After looking through the massive amount of information on the General Electric reports website, I found it a very useful blog on corporate identity. It is primarily a blog for product knowledge. They complex products built and designed by GE are plentiful. This blog includes both stories and video information on various projects being worked on as well as those that are already in use. The worlds largest jet engine, reducing MRI machine noise, and projects to improve water quality are just a few of the interesting things I was able to read about while researching this blog. A news feed keeps many recent headlines involving GE and a Twitter feed from the company also gives insight into recent developments.
    General Electric certainly stays busy with a number of very different products and it is easy to see that light bulbs and appliances are not the only way the company is improving technology and designing unique solutions to many varied problems. The blog has articles separated into 4 main categories, Powering, Moving, Building, and Curing are the areas that GE has separated their feature stories into. Powering includes an article on how GE is designing and building giant turbines for the country of Algeria for their electrical systems benefit. Under Moving there is a very good article on 3d printing, a technology though new it is quickly becoming a boon to many different fields. Building includes a video presentation on how the "industrial internet" works and is very insightful. Finally under Curing the practice of softening residual noise in some medical equipment is discussed. The stories are very well written and one feels as though they actually learned things they didn't know about GE and its wide range of products previously.
   Aside from stories, videos, and some photos there is a section of the blog dedicated to graphics. There are a number of easy to read graphics and charts to a variety of GE related information. I am more visual and enjoyed many of these graphics.
   In conclusion, my overall opinion of GE did change some when I realized the numerous products and research the scientists at GE are involved in. I found it very educational to look into varied fields and technologies that this company is involved.