Tweet - World of communication changing daily

Twitter is a piece of software that allows for quick communication to those who might be "following" the message sender. The quick communication is limited in length to 140 characters and those who use Twitter have to have access to some type of internet platform.

The message that people who use Twitter send is called a Tweet. In today's world of organizational communication, marketing communication, social-media communication, heck, communication in general, the concept of communication channels is taking on whole new look that is quite literally changing the entire concept of what we have called Mass Communication. As I write, we are reading, writing and creating new words -- like tweet and twitter -- to discuss this new world of communication. The stage we are in is the creation and thought workshops are held on many of these new channels, there is still not enough general agreement on the meaning of some of the words being used to help create understanding of what is being said. That is one reason being in the field of communication today is probably more exciting than ever.

So, next semester when my Coker College Marketing Communication class takes on the concept of Marketing Communication it is going to be quite a different class than it was two semesters when Tweeting was something that birds did -- and no one in marketing had used it to push products, ideas of services. And, today, lots of people in the field of corporate communication (and all the subgroups within that concept)are trying to figure out if something like Twitter can give them a competitive advantage. This morning I read about a conference at Internet World that supposedly gave the answers. My guess is that it just raised more questions.

So, next semester in MarCom we are going to be looking to see if there are tactics that can put Twitter or Facebook or Television Advertising or Newspaper Advertising or Direct Mail to work giving marketers a competitive advantage for what they are developing and selling. And, one of the areas we will spend some time studying is the strategy incorporated this past year by the team that helped the President win the White House.

It is an exciting time to be working in and studying communication.