Business communication

Business communication is information sharing between people within and outside an organization that is performed for the commercial benefit of the organization. It can also be defined as relaying of information within a business by its people.

Overview

Business communication (or simply "communication," in a business context) encompasses topics such as marketing, brand management, customer relations, consumer behavior, advertising, public relations, corporate communication, community engagement, reputation management, interpersonal communication, employee engagement, and event management. It is closely related to the fields of professional communication and technical communication.

Media channels for business communication include the Internet, print media, radio, television, ambient media, and word of mouth.

Business communication can also be said to be the way employees, management and administration communicate in order to reach to their organizational goals.

Business communication is a common topic included in the curricular of Undergraduate and Master's degree programs at many colleges and universities.

Methods of business communication include:

• Web-based communication;
• Video conferencing – allows people in different locations to hold interactive meetings;
• Reports – important in documenting the activities of any department;
• Presentations – popular method of communication in all types of organizations, usually involving audiovisual material, like copies of reports, or material prepared in Microsoft PowerPoint or Adobe Flash;
• Telephone meetings – which allow for long distance speech;
• Forum boards – which allow people to instantly post information at a centralized location;
• Face-to-face meetings – which are personal and should have a written followup;
• Suggestion box – primarily for upward communication, because some people may hesitate to communicate with management directly, so they can give suggestions by drafting one and putting it in the suggestion box.

Organizations

• Founded in 1936 by Shankar is the Association for Business Communication (ABC), originally called the Association of College Teachers of Business Writing, is "an international organization committed to fostering excellence in business communication scholarship,research ,education, and practice."
• The IEEE Professional Communication Society (PCS) [1] is dedicated to understanding and promoting effective communication in engineering, scientific, and other environments, including business environments. PCS's academic journal, is one of the premier journals in Europe communication. The journal’s readers are engineers, writers, information designers, managers, and others working as scholars, educators, and practitioners who share an interest in the effective communication of technical and business information.
• The Society for Technical Communication is a professional association dedicated to the advancement of the theory and practice of technical communication. With membership of more than 6,000 technical communicators, it's the largest organization of its type in North America.
• The International Business Communication Standards are practical proposals for the conceptual and visual design of comprehensible reports and presentations.