IABC/BC proudly announces that Jennifer Wah, ABC, has been named Master Communicator (MC) by IABC Canada. Established in 1980, the MC designation is the highest distinction bestowed upon an IABC member in Canada. The award recognizes Canadian communicators whose work has brought credit to IABC, the profession and the organizations they have worked for or with, and whose contributions have raised the standards of organizational communication in Canada.

 

Twitter has become the new phenomenon of social media. Internet users who use some form of social media definitely have heard of Twitter by now and the recent U.S. election shot it to prominence. Twitter is the social media of choice for political commentaries by the average American person that has access to internet. It also helps that President Obama’s entire election campaign used social media to galvanize the apathetic younger voters to go to the voting stations to vote and Twitter is amongst the social media Obama’s campaign staff uses.

 

With the current economic climate, big advertising dollars are no longer being spent. Budgets have shrunk and clients are being pickier about what their advertising dollars are going to be spent on. Media buying becomes more strategic in this sense, since magazines, TV/Radio stations, and popular Internet sites are seeing their advertising revenues drop dramatically. In fact, the only companies that appear to be buying lots of airtime on the major media outlets are companies such as GM or AirCanada - companies that are struggling to stay afloat and avoid bankruptcy.

What is it with social media and university students? MySpace and Facebook exploded onto the scene, becoming a phenomenon in recent years - especially for university students. Students like myself use social media to maintain contacts with former high school friends and see the status updates of current friends in university and other places. Social networking sites have been around for years, but somehow it was MySpace and Facebook that really took off.

 

But is it a good idea for university students to use these commercial sites for homework?

 

Ron Shewchuk says this is the third time he has seen an economic downturn during his communications career. Today he shared some lessons from the past and ideas for the present at the IABC/BC Sun Speakers Series lunch at Steamworks in downtown Vancouver, BC, Canada.

 

“When you are communicating change, it’s not just your employees – it’s also their families and clients and community,” Ron told us. “You’ve got to tell real, human stories of change.”