Common digital communication channels – University of Wollongong – UOW

At University, the ability to communicate well is an important skill to learn and one highly sought by employers.

Consider the following when coummunicating online:

Who is your audience?

When you communicate online using publicly available channels like open social media accounts, blogs, comments and forums, you are writing to a potentially massive audience. It’s important you consider both the bigger picture – that you are communicating with hundreds of people you may never meet, and the smaller picture – your target audience. Consider both these audiences, as you decide what information you would like to share. 

When you are communicating online using a more targeted medium like email, private social media, online class forums and message boards, or even Zoom calls, you can be sure of the audience you are communicating with but it is still important to consider what kinds of communication are appropriate for that audience.

Consider your conventions

Once you have picked the channel you want to use, be aware that there may be conventions for that channel.

For instance on Twitter it is a convention to use hashtags and to write succinctly in order to keep to the word limit. Blogging, however, has different conventions. For example hashtags are not used, and a blog post can be longer as it has no word limit.

On messaging apps and social media, it’s appropriate to use abbreviations, slang, and casual language, but in a more formal medium like email or your class discussion boards it’s best to use more structured and polite language and proper punctuation.

On Zoom calls, the convention is to have an appropriate background (real or virtual), keep your camera on, and keep your microphone muted when you are not speaking. You can use the raise hand function to indicate that you want to unmute your microphone and contribute to the conversation, and use the chat function to add your thoughts without disrupting the speaker.

Good communication practices for digital channels

There are some fundamental principles you can use across most digital communication channels to be effective in your communication. After considering your audience and the conventions of the channel you are using, think about some of the more specific skills shown in this video to help you communicate clearly and effectively in your University and personal life.