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Module Eight Short Paper: Creating Effective Web Communications

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Module Eight Short Paper: Creating Effective Web Communications

International Gadgets is a transnational corporation. As a result, the company has teams

dispersed in different parts of the world. These teams rely on web communication to collaborate

and work appropriately. However, in the past year, the company experienced exponential growth

and this led to a communication breakdown. The organization’s departments can no longer

deliver communications effectively and the company is now dealing with lost revenue, accrued

unnecessary costs and delayed manufacturing. IG has several new managers who lack

communication and collaboration skills to enable them to navigate these communication

challenges. Now that the company relies on the web to keep in touch with its teams scattered in

various parts of the world, it is essential to outline the strategies for creating successful web

communications.

First of all, let’s start by discussing some of the attributes of online communication.

According to Gerson & Gerson (2012), online communication is different from other forms such

as speaking or writing. It relies on digital media to deliver the message and thus the sender can

share messages with one or more recipients who can access the web. Readers read the

information on the web differently, and therefore, online communication should not be structured

the same way as traditional emails or memos. The communicator should strive to pass their

message within the shortest time possible. The web is riddled with numerous distractions that can

easily sway the reader’s attention. For instance, websites contain adverts in the form of

animations and flashing logos. These elements can easily distract a reader thus making web

communication ineffective. Therefore, the communicator must always ensure that a webpage is

less cluttered and has minimum noise when they need to convey critical information. In addition,

online communication is the quickest way of delivering messages. Hence, there must be a way
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for readers to reply and allow the sender and the recipient to interact and facilitate two-way

communication.

Online communication is accessible to anyone who has access to the internet. Currently,

there are over five billion people who use the internet worldwide (Statista Research Department,

2022). This number is likely to grow shortly as more people discover the importance of the

internet. In addition, smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers have become

affordable and they are now used across the world. As a result, web-based communication has

grown exponentially. Nonetheless, it is crucial to create a user-friendly site to encourage users to

visit it regularly. If users find a site to be boring or challenging to navigate, they are likely not to

return.

Online communication is one of the fastest and most effective means of interacting and

sharing information with many people. Therefore, any organization should strive to create a web-

based communication channel to establish its credibility as a company. Customers are likely to

find businesses with well-designed websites more credible. These people associate certain

components of a web page with credibility. These components include company motive, design

look, information structure, information usefulness, writing tone, name recognition etc. (Gerson

& Gerson, 2012). Therefore, a good website should establish the identity of its operator by

telling the users about the company running the site, when the company was founded, the

company’s certifications if any and the history of the company. This information helps users

understand and validate the business. In addition, an organization can also establish site

credibility by providing easy-to-access customer service tools. For instance, including a 24/7

toll-free telephone number that users can use for further enquiries.
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However, as traffic on a site increases, challenges relating to privacy and security are

likely to arise. As a result, there are multiple ethical considerations when it comes to online

communication. For instance, the company should strive to keep user information confidential.

In the recent past, many reputable companies have fallen victim to hacking and phishing

incidents that have led to serious consequences. Hence, organizations must put in place stringent

security measures to prevent unauthorized people from accessing users' data. Customers cannot

do business with a company that they suspect lacks the requisite measures to protect critical data

such as payment information. Therefore, any company needs to update its security features and

post TLS and SSL certifications on their website to show its site’s security features are up-to-date

(Gerson& Gerson, 2012). In addition, users are likely to get stuck at some point when using a

website. For that reason, companies should be able to provide online help i.e. live chat to assist

users to navigate the site and get what they need.

The target audience for online communication uses different devices to access the web.

Today, people use laptops, desktop computers, tablets and smartphones to access the internet.

These devices have different screen sizes. As a result, a website should be accessible to anyone

using any of these devices. This means that when building a website, the design team should

ensure that anyone whose device has the smallest or the largest screen size can have the greatest

browsing experience (Zion and Zion, 2022). Surprisingly, in this day and age, many people

prefer smartphones when it comes to browsing. These devices are portable as compared to

laptops, tablets or desktop computers. Therefore, companies need to consider mobile-optimized

websites in order to increase user engagement. However, this does not mean that they should

ignore people using other devices. It is important to take care of the needs of all users with

different devices.
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References

Gerson , S. J., & Gerson, S. M. (2012). Technical Communication: Process and Product (7th

ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Statista Research Department. (2022). Number of internet and social media users worldwide as

of July 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/

Zion and Zion. (2022). Why developing a website for multiple devices is important.

https://www.zionandzion.com/why-developing-a-website-for-multiple-devices-is-

important/