SM and ME

Like Yolanda, I also stumbled into communications from a position much like Jacquie's (I too have been a Woman of All Trades and still am in many ways). I have always loved words and grammar and the power that exist in both but it never occurred to me that I could get paid to proofread, edit, etc. outside of New York, Toronto or Vancouver (I always assumed it had to be novels or magazines). And I never thought about how much I was already doing those things in my day-to-day life and in my spare time for fun.

I am currently employed in the compliance division of an investing house that's a smaller subsidiary of a bank. I spend my days perfecting existing and new policies and procedures, interpreting regulatory rules, and providing internal communications to our front end sales staff. It sounds a lot duller than it is, I promise.

In my job clear, concise, and exacting communications are vitally important to the people I support.  If we fail to provide proper direction or clear instruction, we face lawsuits, fines, and loss of reputation - all of which could be disastrous. Our front end sales staff must understand the importance of clear communications to protect themselves, the firms, and their clients.

Because the financial industry is so heavily regulated, we face very tight controls over what can be said through social media sites so my participation in this class is more for personal development. I must admit that I have never understood the appeal of Twitter, although I use Facebook (on a strictly personal level) and LinkedIn (on a very casual basis) so I'm hoping to come away with a better understanding of why some of these methods (Twitter for sure) are more effective than others, how they can be leveraged to create success, and whether or not these methods actually ARE successful.

I think Vanessa made some interesting points about how much more work communications professionals put in and how difficult it is to really measure success over so many mediums. I also wonder if all these sites and all this work really gets us any further along in the long run or if it just adds to the noise that's already out there.