Abstract
Among the many social media sites that have emerged in the past two decades, LinkedIn stands out for having become the dominant professional network. It now has more than 645 million users from more than 200 countries and territories worldwide, with a stated mission of connecting “the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful” (LinkedIn, 2019). Employers expect all their applicants to have LinkedIn profiles, and the site is often used to make the first screening in job searches. In just 15 years’ time, LinkedIn, one of the earliest social media sites (Boyd & Ellison, 2007), has become an enormously powerful tool for self-promotion, recruiting, and networking. Facebook, in contrast, is more of a personal news feed than a professional job site, despite the efforts of business and industry to make everyone become friends. LinkedIn is also valuable for enabling users to follow companies, to learn about job openings, and to present a public profile that talent managers can explore. LinkedIn will often be a top find for any search of a job seeker’s name.
Because of the importance of social media in business and professional communication, I believe that educators need to ensure that students learn how to use these platforms ethically. That means sites intended for personal use as well, as we should always assume that anything posted on Facebook will be available to the entire world notwithstanding efforts to enforce privacy restrictions. At the same time, we also need research on how social media are used and the results they achieve. Interestingly, a good deal of scholarship on using social media responsibly has been generated in the health, medical, and social work professions, which have long dealt with how to protect private information in various kinds of records and research. Our lead article in this issue makes an important contribution to existing business and professional communication scholarship, as the author specifically explores a documented gender gap. The author also offers recommendations for how instructors can address differences in gender usage patterns in the classroom, along with suggestions for future research.
Our next two articles focus on communication skills required by employers and academics, respectively. The authors of the first conducted a qualitative study of 22 managers to determine how the termcommunication skillswas understood, thereby confirming areas of convergence between employers and instructors. The second targets self-efficacy as a means of oral communication skills in the classroom, with the goal of transferring this expertise to the workplace. Other articles in this issue address the use of eportfolios as a tool in the job market, the impact of case study competitions on student perceptions of learning outcomes, and hiring managers’ views of the business communication curriculum. Two of these articles examine discrete pedagogical practices, and the third raises questions about what kind of preparation is essential for creating positive impressions in recruiters.
This issue concludes Volume 82, so it is time to thank all those who have contributed to our success. I would like to thank, in particular, Martha Avtandilian (Publisher), Neha Jaiswal (Production Editor), Julianne Candio Sekel (Editorial Assistant), Joel Whalen (Convener and Editor of the My Favorite Assignment collections), and Association for Business Communication (ABC) headquarters staff. I would also like to express my appreciation to the outstanding work of both our Editorial Review Board members and ad hoc reviewers, who provide superb feedback to our authors.