Biz Comm Bites is my little project where I tackle selected issues in business and organizational communication in small portions, so I can focus on the specific things I think are most important and not get caught up in trying to exhaustively cover every topic. I am doing it this way not only for my sanity and attention span, but for yours as well.
I assume you don’t need me to tell you how to put a newsletter together. But there are some aspects of organization newsletters and the business use of emails that I might want to point out, so I’ll concentrate on those.
You know right from wrong, but what do you do when the company wants you to do the wrong thing, something unethical? How do you write for a global audience? What is the value of a stylebook? How do you appropriately talk about diversity, equity and inclusion topics?
I assume you know how to be the kind of communicator who is an order-taker. I’d like to help you become the kind of communicator who is a trusted advisor.
And I’ll do it with case studies, real-life anecdotes (most of which happened to me or which I observed), and maybe a few bits of data here and there.
Why focus on smaller, more specific things?
None of what I mention above are big, bold strokes. It is rare when a single project catapults you into the limelight where you can show your value to the bottom line – although such moments do happen sometimes, and they’ve happened to me, so I can talk about how to handle those, too.
Generally, however, you build a reputation through smaller achievements, and repeating versions of those achievements so that colleagues and leaders come to know you as the sort of person who can get things done and can use communication to achieve business objectives.
That is the reputation that gets you a seat at the table.
It’s the smaller, more crucial things, the ones that separate you from your colleagues and make a difference for your organization, that I want to concentrate on and help you feel more confident about. Like I said, there’s plenty of order-takers out there who will jump up to give the boss what she needs. I want to help you identify what the boss doesn’t yet know that she needs, and suggest ways you can deliver it.
Baby steps
I won’t be accomplishing all of that right away, however. BizCommBites is starting out with baby steps on social media, specifically on Instagram (@bizcommbites) and Facebook, with additional amplification on my personal Twitter account (@jamieri).
The goals for this first phase are modest, with a focus on current trends in business communication, tips on writing, some quotes, and fun facts of the trade. Later – and don’t press me on when, just be happy with “later” for now – there will be a podcast and a series of brief ebooks available for purchase where I will tackle some of the tougher, more critical topics. So we’re starting small at first. Hope you join me on the journey.
Biz Comm Bites is the Know-it-All Division of Vague Apparatus LLC.