Communication Errors
In this day and age, there are a variety of ways to communicate with someone. You can reach to them by a simple phone call, text message, email, or even now-a-days, use social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to get your message across. Sometimes, a simple post, picture, or tweet can be taken the wrong way by someone. People’s thoughts, feelings, and emotions are on display on these networking sites that instead of bringing people together, tend to tear them apart. Communication may not always be as clear to one, as others, on social media websites.
One of the biggest personality types that I see on social media is egocentrism, especially when it comes to sports or controversial topics. “Egocentrism is an inability to take on other people’s perspectives.” (Dr. Redmond). With the start of the 2015 National Football League’s season, there has been a plethora of posts on these sites about people rooting for their favorite players and degrading the ones they don’t like. Just the other day, one of my friends posted a status about the Steeler’s quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, and how good he is going to be. This immediately prompted a response from someone who is not a fan of Roethlisberger. They continued to go back and forth for over an hour posting over two dozen times each through a combination of offensive and defensive listening. They were constantly looking for opportunities to turn the others words against themselves and post information that backed up their reasoning. Throughout the entire post, neither side gave up any ground, and refused to see the other’s perspective at all.
The amount miscommunication that happens on social media is staggering. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen a friend post song lyrics only to have an estranged relative respond asking them if they are okay. Another common situation that happens is when someone believes they are being ill spoken of, when in reality, that’s not always the case. Someone may post an angry message about an unknown party, which others think that it is about them. This is called subtweeting. “In Twitter parlance, subtweeting is the act of tweeting about a person without including his or her Twitter handle. It’s the online version of talking behind someone’s back.” (buzzfeed.com).
Communication does not always have to be verbal and with the extensive reach of communication on the internet, we have to be just as aware as if it was a face to face conversation. There are a variety of variables in our communication that affect how we understand each other. I believe that being more open minded is the best way to go about nonverbal communication. What someone’s intent of a message could be possibly taken a variety of ways. Asking others for clarification is a good solution to ensuring the correct message is being portrayed.
Dr. Redmond, B. (n.d.). OLEAD410: Leadership in a Global Context. Retrieved September 20, 2015, from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa15/olead410/001/content/04_lesson/03_page.html
Reinsberg, H. (2013, March 19). What Is A Subtweet. Retrieved from http://www.buzzfeed.com/hillaryreinsberg/what-is-a-subtweet#.sm106B2qqX
I thought your comments about avoiding communication errors on social media were interesting. It prompted me to do some research on how companies use social media to reach people in other cultures. In order to avoid making mistakes when entering a new market, Moran et al. (2014) recommends performing “cultural due diligence” (p.12) before entering new markets. A leader would do this by analyzing the culture before launching social media campaigns. This means leaders need to consider beliefs and attitudes along with language and a number of other factors. An article I found highlights this very same principle.
For example, in China the government does not believe in free speech like we do so censors monitor internet sites and restrict content by blocking sites that use banned words (Rotaru, 2011). Brazilians tend to dislike direct advertising and it is recommended that instead of communicating directly over the net, a grassroots campaign is more effective (Rotaru, 2011). Language is a very big consideration for leaders attempting to penetrate foreign cultures through social media. Not only do leaders need to consider having sites that are in the local language, but it is recommended that local social media experts are used to review posts, blogs and other content to ensure you are achieving the right affect with your site.
In the same way posts can be misinterpreted through many different forms of communication error; global leaders also need to consider the many cultural influences when using social media to communicate with customers from other countries.
Moran, R.T., Abramson, N.R., Moran, S.V. (2014). Managing cultural differences. New York, NY: Routledge.
Rotaru, A. (2011, Aug 15). 7 steps for international social media success. Retrieved from http://www.socialfresh.com/international-social-media/