Cherie Tripp Lejeune Seeing that you are back at school, i thought I would shoot some questions about your students and trends. How much have you observed of abbreviated “social media speak” and its affect on writing and verbal communications of your students? I think LOL and 
, et al is robbing the younger generation of exploring and en…joying adjectives, adverbs, wonderful verb tenses, all building blocks for important brain connections. Having a full language deck is an important consumer tooll. A deeper language base helps you use word tools to evaluate and question anything–be it products or personal relationships. And second question, again student sampling possibilities, do you think the “LIKE” phase will continue to control market habits for many more years, or will the numbing simplicity wear off? Thanks.
Michael S Minor I DO see an encroachment. And I think it will increase over time. Students aren’t necessarily making a conscious decision to do this, but how many times can you see “LOL” before it becomes automatic? Like to see if anyone agress.
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Jordan Hasan RandallI think that the business setting culture will not allow for speech abbreviation to become an automatic response. Leave it up to a person and just their casual friends — it could very well become an automatic response. Because business req…uires a more poised, articulate and professional demeanor in most cases, students are able (more than likely) to distinguish the two different settings and the character that is accepted by each. Until superior figures such as professors, adults, managers and supervisors endorse these responses I think it would be hard to say that speech abbreviation could become automatic.
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Angela HausmanCherie, thanks for your question.
Others are welcome to answer, but I’m gonna give you my perspective.
I teach at an elite private school which is an HBCU (Historically Black University). I don’t see that much of an encroachment from social …media speak in their conversations. In fact, their conversations are very proper.
This is surprising because I’m also facebook friends with a number of my students and find I really can’t understand their posts. Some of this is social media speak, some of it is cultural.
On the other hand, we do see some changes in behavior based on their specific culture. For instance, a colleague from Norther Illinois University posted something yesterday about his students being affected by the MTV generation. His name is Mark Rosenbaum. You might message him on facebook to share his perspective. He might stop by today, if he finishes his field trip to Jewel with his marketing students in time.See More
Yesterday at 12:00pm · · -
Bri Cherise I attend Howard University and in the social setting, not so much in the classroom, social media language is used. Several of my classmates often use Shaking My Head (smh) throughout conversations when an act or a statement is looked down on.Yesterday at 12:15pm · ·
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Shelley Nicole”Social Media Speak” is primarily used in a casual setting amongst friends. I have never heard or even used such laxed words in a professional setting of any kind. It’s innapropiate and I believe that most, if not all students with any kin…d of sense know this.
I will admit though that sometimes when writing papers, I unconsciously abbreviate the spelling of certain words. I believe that this occurs because I text so often, almost more than talking on the phone, and its easier to abbreviate the words; But, after editing the paper I always catch the mistake and am sure to correctly spell the word.
See MoreYesterday at 12:58pm · · -
Sudesh Srivastava I feel that this is becoming a global trend. I feel that time and again languages face this crisis. the wider the acceptability of a language, the more it seems to be prone to such intrusions. English being a globally accepted language has to face this. We can’t take the stand of purists and keep sulking about how the new generation is twisting the language. I am sure the previous generation too initially didn’t like how many of us coined words or used newer idioms and expressions ..Yesterday at 2:13pm · ·
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Fresher ThantherestAlexander McChester- I feel that the abbreviation of knowledge was a long time coming. When companies started to become more and more casual one could only expect that the language would begin to follow. Companies allow their employees …to walk around and compute financial equations with the same wardrobe they were drinking beers with the night before. It is too hard to live in two worlds without mixing the two. If companies remain casual then they can only expect their employees to exploit being casual to the fullest. The answer to this problem resides in the firm’s culture. If the BOD passes on a conservative culture to their upper management then it will in turn be passed on to their employees which will equal to a more conservative company. There is no room for “lol” or smiley faces in a conservative company!See MoreYesterday at 3:22pm · ·
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Cherie Tripp Lejeune I agree about acceptance however, what are everyone’s feelings if, symbols and abbreviations become our universal second language. Do we consider that a good thing? The stats for txting dominating cell usage and now tweeting is about 5 m a day–so it seems inevitable–does this mean we will go on language retreats to use complete sentences? I can see the marketing materials already. LOL
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Sudesh Srivastava Thanx for accepting my request! I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog article ’5 ways…’ courtesy Atul Parvatiyar.
Yesterday at 10:21am · · · · See Wall-to-Wall
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Angela Hausman Thanks and I’m happy to have you join my group. My goal with my blog, this facebook page, and my twitter (MarketingLetter) is to exchange information from academics to practitioners. I’d be delighted to have you pop in today between 10 and 3 (EST) to answer questions posted on my wall as part of a forum entitled, Ask a Marketing Expert. Questions don’t start coming in until we’ve been going for an hour or so, but then there are often too many and too varied for one person to answer.Yesterday at 10:24am · ·
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Sudesh Srivastava can I shoot a question??Yesterday at 10:25am · ·
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Angela Hausman Absolutely, this is a two way exchange. Friends are often both questioners and answerers.
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Sudesh Srivastava Its not really a question but more of an observation… especially after the recent economic crises the world over, customers are ever more skeptical about corporates and their marketing communications. how are our marketers going to win the trust back?Yesterday at 11:16am · ·
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Angela HausmanI’m gonna jump in here, but welcome other marketing experts to insert their opinions, as well.
I read something on a blog the other day stating that consumers are becoming more selective in what they buy since the financial meltdown. Based …on some research, they found the biggest change in consumption was consumers were more focused on buying products that matched their values. One of the big winners, they found, was Whole Foods. Similarly, products supporting their causes or reflecting their cultural values were preferred, even if more expensive (which defies logic to an extent).
Are you finding the same trends in India? What values might drive consumers to prefer brands in India?See More
Yesterday at 11:52am · · -
Sudesh SrivastavaSure the similar trends are there in India as well! I think some empirical research is needed to verify this. However, consumers seem to have ‘learned’ from local as well as global crises and have ‘matured’ in their responses.
Growing costs… of healthcare has led to a boom in health insurance sector of late.., also ‘back to nature’ doctrine is influencing people to go for alternative healthcare sector (naturopathy, ayurveda, yoga etc..) even if they have to pay a premium!! Growing demand of natural fibre made fabric, expanding vegetarianism, ‘natural’ cosmetic products….. these are rapidly growing trends of late.
An interesting exception probably is the shelving of “Ayush” brand product line by the FMCG giant Hindustan Lever (now Unilever India)!
I will try to find more information and get back here…..See MoreYesterday at 2:31pm · · -
Angela Hausman I’m very happy to hear more about what’s going on in India. Maybe you’d be interested in writing up something for my blog — as a guest blogger. I think readers would be interested to hear how marketing (especially branding and social network marketing) is being experienced there.Yesterday at 5:17pm · · 1 personSudesh Srivastava likes this. ·
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Sudesh Srivastava I’d be glad to!!
About Angela Hausman, Ph. D.
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Hey, I am checking this blog using the phone and this appears to be kind of odd. Thought you’d wish to know. This is a great write-up nevertheless, did not mess that up.
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