University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
DEPARTMENT OF STUDIES ON LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
MASTER COURSE IN
LANGUAGES FOR COMMUNICATION IN INTERNATIONAL ENTERPRISES AND ORGANIZATIONS
The language of Facebook brand pages
Author: Le Thi Hoa
Supervisor:
Marina Bondi Co-supervisor:
Donatella Malavasi
Academic year 2018-2019
Abstract
Over the years, brand pages on Facebook have been considered as an effective digital platform for businesses to boost interactions and engagement with customers as well as to promote the brand (Cvijikj & Michahelles, 2013). An enormous number of language – related activities were implemented on the brand pages to achieve these purposes, leading to the generation of vast volumes of corporate discourse of various kinds (Breeze, 2013). One of the obvious and common forms on this digital platform is the brand post.
This research attempts to examine the way brands engage with their customers by linguistic means with both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Another aim is to look at the differences in linguistic strategies among brand pages. A corpus of 601 brand posts was collected from the six best performing brand pages on Facebook from January to March 2018, namely Amazon, Citi, Dior, Discovery, Ferrari and Lenovo, to explore the prevailing linguistic features. The research was conducted at varied linguistic levels based on different methodological frameworks including traditional English lexico – grammar (Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad, & Finegan, 1999), interpersonal metadiscourse (Hyland, 2005), advertising language (Myers, 1994; Cook, 2001), theory of speech act (Searle,1979) and metafunctional framework on hashtag (Zappavigna, 2015). The usage and function of each linguistic feature were discussed within the business context.
The analysis revealed first the most typical orthotypographical features such as capitalization and colloquial spelling. Then, we studied the salient lexico – grammatical features that were used to express stance and increase engagement, including person pronouns, brand names, positive adjectives, and modal verbs. The syntactic analysis found the most common sentence forms of brand posts were declaratives, imperatives and incomplete sentences. Regarding pragmatic aspects, representatives and directives are the dominant types of all speech acts. Finally, other semiotic feature – hashtags that perform diverse functions on the brand post were analyzed. The differences noticed in the choice of linguistic means among brands were mainly attributed to the difference in the brand personality of each brand.
Riassunto analitico
Nel corso degli anni, le pagine dei brand su Facebook sono state considerate un’efficace piattaforma digitale per le aziende per aumentare le interazioni e il coinvolgimento con i clienti e per promuovere la marca (Cvijikj & Michahelles, 2013). Per raggiungere questi scopi, un’enorme quantità di attività linguistiche sono state implementate su queste pagine, portando alla creazione di vasti volumi di discorsi aziendali di vario genere (Breeze, 2013). Una delle forme ovvie e comuni su questa piattaforma digitale è il post di marchio.
Questa ricerca tenta di esaminare il modo in cui i brand interagiscono con i loro clienti attraversoi mezzi linguistici con approcci sia qualitativi che quantitativi. Un altro obiettivo è quello di esplorare le differenze delle strategie linguistiche tra le pagine dei brand (se presenti). Un corpus di 601 post relativament ai brand è stato creato dalle sei pagine più performanti su Facebook da genaio a marzo 2018, ovvero Amazon, Citi, Dior, Discovery, Ferrari e Lenovo, per studiare le caratteristiche linguistiche prevalenti. La ricerca è stata condotta a vari livelli linguistici basati su diversi quadri metodologici, tra cui il lessico–
grammatica inglese tradizionale (Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad e Finegan, 1999), il metadiscorso interpersonale (Hyland, 2005), il linguaggio pubblicitario (Myers, 1994; Cook, 2001), la teoria degliatti linguistici (Searle, 1979) e il quadro metafunzionale su hashtag (Zappavigna, 2015). L’uso e la funzione di ciascuna caratteristica linguistica sono stati discussi nel contesto professionale.
L’analisi ha rivelato in primo luogo le caratteristiche ortotipografiche più tipiche come la capitalizzazione e l’ortografia colloquiale. Successivamente, sono state studiate le salienti caratteristiche lessico–grammaticali utilizzate per esprimere la posizione e aumentare il coinvolgimento, compresi i pronomi, i nomi dei brand, gli aggettivi positivi e i verbi modali.
L’analisi sintattica ha dimostrato che le forme più comuni di frasi postproduzione erano dichiarative, imperative e frasi incomplete. Per quanto riguarda gli aspetti pragmatici, i rappresentativi e i direttivi sono i tipi dominanti di tutti gli atti linguistici. Infine, abbiamo analizzato lecaratteristiche semiotiche: gli hashtag svolgono diverse funzioni sul post dei brand. Le differenze riscontrate nella scelta dei mezzi linguistici tra i marchi sono state principalmente attribuite alla differenza nella personalità di ogni singolo marchio.
Résumé
Au fil des années, les pages de marque sur Facebook ont été considérées comme une plate–
forme numérique efficace permettant aux entreprises de renforcer les interactions et l’engagement avec les clients, ainsi que de promouvoir la marque elle–même (Cvijikj&Michahelles, 2013). Afin d’atteindre ces objectifs, un nombre considérable d’activités liées au langage sont mises en œuvre sur les pages de marque, ce qui a entraîné la création de vastes volumes de discours d’entreprise de divers types (Breeze, 2013). L’une des formes évidentes et courantes sur cette plate–forme numérique est le post de marque.
Cette recherche tente d’étudier la manière dont les marques dialoguent avec leurs clients par des moyens linguistiques, à la fois par des approches qualitatives et quantitatives. Un autre objectif est d’examiner les différences éventuelles parmi les stratégies linguistiques employées par les pages de marque. Un corpus de 601 posts de marque a été rassemblé à partir des six pages de marque les plus performantes sur Facebook de janvier à mars 2018, notamment Amazon, Citi, Dior, Discovery, Ferrari et Lenovo, afin d’en explorer les caractéristiques linguistiques dominantes. La recherche a été menée à différents niveaux linguistiques en fonction de différents cadres méthodologiques, incluant le lexico–grammaire anglais traditionnel (Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad et Finegan, 1999), le métadiscours interpersonnel (Hyland, 2005), le langage publicitaire (Myers, 1994; Cook, 2001), les actes delangage (Searle, 1979) et le cadre métafonctionnel sur le hashtag (Zappavigna, 2015).
L’utilisation et la fonction de chaque caractéristique linguistique ont été discutées dans le contexte commercial.
L’analyse a tout d’abord révélé les caractéristiques orthotypographiques les plus typiques, telles que la capitalisation et l’orthographe familière. On a ensuite étudié les caractéristiques lexico–grammaticales communes utilisées pour exprimer la position et augmenter l’engagement, notamment les pronoms personnels, les noms de marque, les adjectifs positifs et les verbes modaux. L’analyse syntaxique a montré que les formes les plus courantes de phrases de post étaient les phrases déclaratives, les impératifs et les phrases incomplètes. En ce qui concerne les aspects pragmatiques, les représentatifs et les directifssont les types dominants de tous les actes de langage. Enfin, onaanalysé des caractéristiques sémiotiques: les hashtags remplissent diverses fonctions dans le post de marque. Les différences observées dans le choix des moyens linguistiques entre les marques sont principalement attribuables à la différence de personnalité de chaque marque.
Tables of contents
Introduction ... 1
1. Background of the study ... 1
2. Aims and objectives of the study ... 3
3. Design of the study ... 4
Chapter 1 Literature review ... 6
1.1 Business communication on digital platforms ... 6
1.1.1 Business communication: an overview ... 6
1.1.2 The rise of social platforms for business communication ... 8
1.1.3 Language use on social platforms ... 9
1.2 Brands on Social Networking Sites (SNSs) ... 12
1.2.1 Brand, Brand impression and Brand types ... 12
1.2.2 Brand Personality Expression ... 15
1.2.3 Constructing customers: brand community and customer engagement ... 16
1.3 Corporate language ... 18
1.3.1 Definition of corporate language ... 18
1.3.2 Corporate language guidelines ... 20
1.4 Analyzing digital business discourse ... 22
1.4.1 Digital business discourse ... 22
1.4.2 Research on digital business discourse ... 23
1.4.3 Online advertisements ... 24
1.4.4 Corporate blog posts ... 28
1.4.5 Corporate microposts ... 30
1.5 Facebook brand pages ... 33
1.5.1 How does a brand page look like on Facebook? ... 33
1.5.2 Brand community on brand page: Brand becomes an active partner ... 35
1.5.3 Typical features of brand posts ... 36
Chapter 2 Research methodology ... 41
2.1 A descriptive approach ... 41
2.2 The corpus ... 41
2.2.1 Brand page selection ... 41
2.2.2 Data collection and result ... 42
2.3 Methodological frameworks ... 44
Chapter 3 Main findings ... 50
3.1 Orthotypographic level ... 50
3.1.1 Capitalization ... 50
3.1.2 Colloquial spelling ... 51
3.2 Lexico – grammatical level ... 52
3.2.1 Self – mention ... 52
3.2.2 Reader – mention ... 55
3.2.3 Modal verbs (Can, Will) ... 57
3.2.4 Adverbs ... 59
3.2.5 Positive adjectives ... 61
3.3 Syntactic level ... 63
3.3.1 Declaratives ... 64
3.3.2 Imperatives ... 65
3.3.3 Incomplete sentences ... 67
3.3.4 Ellipsis ... 68
3.4 Pragmatic level ... 69
3.4.1 Representatives ... 70
3.4.2 Directives ... 70
3.4.3 Commissives ... 71
3.4.4 Expressives ... 72
3.4.5 Questions ... 73
3.5 Semiotics ... 74
3.5.1 Experiential function ... 75
3.5.2 Interpersonal function ... 76
3.5.3 Textual function ... 78
Chapter 4 Summary and Discussion ... 80
Chapter 5 Conclusion, Limitations and Suggestions for further research opportunities ... 85
5.1 Conclusion ... 85
5.2 Limitations and Suggestions further research opportunities ... 85
References ... 87
1
Introduction
1. Background of the study
In this era of “digitalization”, it is undeniable that the rapid development and huge impact of social media on human life has transformed our habits, our way of thinking, communicating and doing business. According to The Oxford English Dictionary (OED, 2018 [www]), social media means “websites and applications, which enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking” and has become widely used not only for personal information exchange but also for commercial purposes. With an amazingly growing rate, social media has brought us many new opportunities and evolutions including “social media marketing” when the social media platforms and websites are used to market and promote brands, products or services (de Aquino Carlsson, 2017). Moreover, the ever–growing popularity of social networking sites (SNSs) like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram along with the development of digital communication technologies (e.g. portable mobiles phones and computers) have made social media marketing become a strategic way for businesses to enhance their brands’ visibility and expand customer reach (Rouse, 2011). Traditional media like print ads, billboards, newspaper advertorials, television, and radio maybe not enough for businesses to reach out to people, while most new media provides newer digital spaces (blogs, social media networking sites, digital banners…) with the increasing number of online users.
Therefore, companies have to respond flexibly to the changes of the new communicative situation (Darics, 2015) to keep themselves as close to customers as possible. This led to the fact that new social media has changed the dynamics of how businesses communicate internally and externally. Business communication is preferably conducted digitally and corporate messages are often sent to customers on digital platforms instead of on traditional channels.
Since its first launch in 2003, now Facebook is no longer a brand new and trendy social platform compared to recent platforms such as Instagram, Whatsapp, or Wechat. However, it is still the biggest social networking site (SNS) worldwide as of July 2018 among the Big Five1 today, according to “The statistic portal”2. Moreover, despite some declining user numbers in some parts of the world, the number of global users is still rising, with more than two billion monthly active users. The figures mean that almost a third of the world’s
1 The Big Five: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Google+
2 The Statistic Portal, “ Most popular social networks worldwide as of October 2018, ranked by number of active users (in millions)” (www.statista.com, 2018)
2 population is active on Facebook every month! Facebook is not only a simple place for social interactions, but also becomes a profitable market and a strong communication tool for social media marketing, like an experienced Facebook advertiser Freddie Jansson said “A large part of companies’ potential customers are there. Therefore, in my opinion, all companies should have a Facebook page where they can interact with their customers...3” This SNS has appealed to more and more companies who see the potential of furthering their brands, promoting product–related information and communicating with prospect customers (De Veirman, Cauberghe, & Hudders, 2016). Furthermore, by appropriately applying social media marketing on the SNSs, companies can have cost advantages with personal and social nature over traditional media channels (Coursaris et al., 2013, Augar & Zeleznikow, 2013) and positive effects to their brands (Hutter, Hautz, Dennhardt, & Füller, 2013).These benefits have urged most of businesses of all shapes and sizes to have a presence on Facebook by establishing a brand page or business page as their strategic consumer – oriented social networking site.
Within this research, we will use “brand page” as the common terminology to distinguish pages created and operated by brand owners (Richter, Riemer, vom Brocke, 2011;
Cvijikj & Michahelles, 2013) on Facebook. A brand page looks more or less like a company profile. It is created not only to promote products or to persuade customers of the brand’s quality, but also to foster relationships and interactions between brands and customers. Indeed, brand pages can also reflect a part of brand – customer relationship (Cvijikj & Michahelles, 2013). Customers who click like on brand pages are understood as brand fans or brand followers and tend to be loyal and committed to the company (Luarn, Chiu, & Lin, 2015).
They are also more open to frequently receiving information about brands and messages (Cvijikj & Michahelles, 2013), which are shared directly by the company under the form of a post in the central part of the brand page. The aim of each brand post is to attract and engage as many customers as possible with the post. Customer engagement or fan engagement including likes, shares, comments, both positive and negative, and the clicks through the post which are used to measure the success of a brand post (Cvijikj & Michahelles, 2013). Most of brand posts can include photos, videos and links with some textual description; some posts have only photos and/or video and/or links. However, if the textual content is added, photos and/or videos can be more meaningful and attractive to brand fans. Therefore, when posting content on the brand page, it is not only important to know how to catch followers’ attention
3Facebook for business. (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2019, from https://www.qwaya.com/facebook-for- business
3 but also to engage them to react, not just through visual aspects like photos or videos but also through the textual.
Brand posts have been studied in many pieces of research in the field of marketing, advertising or economics. However, the number of linguistic analysis of brand posts is relatively limited. In fact, Facebook brand page can be seen as a newer type of corporate pages compared to traditional ones (websites, blogs), and the brand post is one of the digital corporate discourse types (Breeze, 2013). Posting a post on Facebook is a digital practice which does challenge businesses as writing a good post for brand pages that can have the best chance of maximizing engagement (through likes, shares, and comments) with readers is not an easy task. It can be a completely different story for businesses than for individuals since posts can cause tremendous effects on organizations. For instance, a careless post may lead to a big misunderstanding or a huge communication crisis. Hence, a good post, beside a great content for sharing requires a sophisticated linguistic understanding to make a post become interactive and persuasive to brand fans. Different brands selling different products and services will have diverse linguistic strategies to market their services and goods as well as to engage their fans. For this reason, the analysis of the language of posts from the best performing brand pages can produce interesting results in the art of using language for consumer–oriented interaction on social networking sites like Facebook.
2. Aims and objectives of the study
This research aims to investigate the prevailing linguistic strategies that brands used in their posts. More specifically, the study will focus on answering three main questions:
1. What are the common linguistic features used in brand posts to interact with fans and boost customer engagement on the brand page?
2. What are the differences and similarities of linguistic strategies among brand pages selected (if any)?
3. What are the implications for writing a good post for business?
Discourse analysis will be employed to understand the use of different linguistic features concerning orthotypography, lexico–grammar, syntax, pragmatics and semiotics to interact with and engage their audience. Together with the corpus – based approach, the study will also look at the variation in the frequency of linguistic or discursive features, if any, among brand pages chosen. Finally, the study expects to give suggestions for writing for social media, in
4 particular writing Facebook brand posts, which may be helpful to improve professionalism and effectiveness.
2.1. Scope of the study
The corpus used for this study is constructed from all posts collected from six best performing Facebook brand pages, namely Amazon, Citi, Dior, Discovery, Ferrari and Lenovo, according to the report “Facebook Track: Top 100, March 17 – March18”4. The report was conducted and published for free access by the website Indigital.com. The six brand pages selected are popular global brands in various sectors and English is used as the main language.
Although the brand posts can consist of visual elements (photos, videos), this paper will only draw special attention to analyzing linguistic features of the textual elements regarding orthotypography, lexis–grammar, syntax, pragmatics and semiotics. The most outstanding characteristics will then be extensively discussed.
2.2. Significance of the study
The research expects to give values in regards to both theoretical and practical aspects. From a theoretical point of view, it helps to demonstrate the linguistic phenomena of posts used on the selected brand pages in particular as well as the common characteristics of corporate discourse for communicating with external audience in general.
On the practical side, it reveals how these linguistic features are adapted to the act of writing brand posts and hopefully suggests some ideas for achieving customers’ impressions, increasing their engagement, and the effectiveness of brand posts through the art of using words.
3. Design of the study
The study begins with an Introduction which outlines the background, the rationale, objectives, scope and design of the study. Then, the paper is composed of five chapters.
Chapter 1, entitled “Literature Review” demonstrates and analyzes critically some previous studies relevant to the subject. At the same time, this chapter will provide a theoretical background directly related to the investigation of the language employed by
4Gareth, (2018, April 3). Facebook Track: Top 100. Retrieved July 20, 2018, from indivigital.com:
https://indivigital.com/news/report-how-the-worlds-top-100-brands-perform-on-facebook/
5 companies. It will firstly present an overview of business communication, the language use on digital platform as well as some important concepts related to brand such as brand impression and brand personality. Then, the literature concerning corporate language, digital business discourse and Facebook brand page will be reviewed.
Chapter 2 – Research Methodology– shows the research approaches, the construction of the corpus and the method used to analyze the collected dataset in order to achieve the best results for the study.
Chapter 3 refers to Main Findings, in which we attempt to reveal main findings on linguistic features as well as the frequency of each linguistic means in different brand pages.
Chapter 4 deals with the Summary and Discussion of findings. The last chapter, Chapter 5 is dedicated to Conclusions, Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research, which concludes the research and discusses limitations and suggestions for further studies.
6
Chapter 1 Literature review
1.1 Business communication on digital platforms
“Business communication is a complex phenomenon in every aspect” (Janich, 2017, p.57), however, it is the key ingredient that makes any organization possible (Karam Pal, 2012).
Researchers say that effective communication results from a common understanding between the companies (the sender) and audiences (the receiver) in the process of information exchange (Keyton, 2011; Karam Pal, 2012). Therefore, in the first section, a review of the literature on business communication will be carried out to define the concept as well as to understand how this communication is changing due to the presence of digital platforms.
Then, another review on language use on social platforms is necessary to see the language that the companies’ audiences are using, which may affect the way businesses communicate in order to stay closer with their customers on the virtual world.
1.1.1 Business communication: an overview
Business communication is a special branch of general communication. It can be viewed in varied ways (Janich, 2017). First, it is essential to understand the concept of “communication”, which means the process of transmitting information and understanding between two or more persons through the use of common symbols, both verbal and nonverbal (Keyton, 2011;
Karam Pal, 2012; Daft, 2015). In this process, the communicator always seeks to build a
“commonness” (Daft, 2015) with the receiver to have the effective communication. Based on this definition, economic researchers define business communication as the sharing of information, either within a business organization or outside the organization among various parties (Aqil, 2011; Karam Pal, 2012), which is carried out for commercial benefits of the company5. The effective business communication also requires a common understanding between businesses and audiences (Keyton, 2011; Karam Pal, 2012).
Business communication is the lifeblood of the company since it involves in all business processes including “research & development”, “procurement”, “production” and “marketing”
to “distribution” and sales”. These processes can be called “value chains”, creating values for the company (Janich, 2017, p. 51). Therefore, Jakobs (2008) also claims that “business communication can then be understood as all linguistic – communicative processes and parts
5business communication. BusinessDictionary.com. WebFinance, Inc.
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/business-communication.html (accessed: May 19, 2019).
7 of activities that occur along such chains, together with all supporting and management activities, as well as the interplay between these” (p.14).
Business communication is generally divided into internal communication and external communication. When exchanging information is taken place within the organization among various internal parties such as employees, managers or workers, it is internal communication.
On the contrary, external communication occurs when the information is transmitted to the outside of the organization, for example to customers, investors and suppliers. Both types of communications are important to make a business possible. While internal communication seeks to build trust, understanding and knowledge among employees, external communication aims to increase company’s earning, define and shape the perception of the public (e.g. the community, clients and potential investors) about the company (Lazzari, 2019).
To ensure the success of external communication, businesses must know not only how to reach customers but also how customers can reach companies by employing various methods like reports, telephones, Web–based communication and media channels including traditional (word of mouth, print media, radio) and modern channels (Internet, ambient media, digital platforms). In fact, this means businesses employ “integrated (marketing) communication”
(Schultz, Tannenbaum, & Lauterborn, 1996) using varied communication media (e.g. from printed texts to online texts) to approach customers with a “uniform company image” (Janich, 2017, p. 49). However, making an appropriate use of these increasing and diverse media can challenge many businesses since different communication media are “interwoven in complex patterns with mutually referential and intertextual modes of communication” (Janich, 2017, p.
51). Moreover, communication strategies of businesses nowadays differ from the ones in the past and from the offline ones.
Digital communication and traditional one are very different. The old media, for instance, TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines provide mostly one–way communication:
customer acts as watchers or readers without any direct interaction with the company.
However, digital media like blogs and social networks enable two – way communication, fostering direct communication from the company to consumers and consumers to consumers.
Interaction on digital communication can happen in both synchronous and asynchronous settings at the same time. Chatrooms, chatgroups and video calls are some examples of synchronous communication when interaction occurs in real time; meanwhile asynchronous refers to the exchange of information without the requirement for all participants to reply immediately such as emails, websites. Some digital platforms integrate both synchronous and asynchronous services. For instance, Facebook provides live–stream videos, video calls,
8 Facebook chat (synchronous services), and Facebook posts, status updates and comments (asynchronous services). This leads to the fact that the goal in traditional media was branding by convincing the customer of a strong brand. In contrast, digital media involve the potential customer or user in a dialog to create interest and engagement by using pull strategies. In addition, customers are considered a target in the traditional media, while in digital communication they play as a partner who provides reviews, feedback about the company’s products.
1.1.2 The rise of social platforms for business communication
The development of digital technologies and social media has created various digital platforms which have become part of everyday life of many people. Most of us have used digital platforms for various purposes such as purchasing a book on Amazon, watching a video on Youtube, chatting with friends on Facebook, etc. In the business context, a platform is defined as a plug – and – play business model that allows multiple participants (producers and consumers) to connect to it, interact with each other and create an exchange value(Choudary, 2016). Thus, digital platforms are platforms operated online or in a virtual world. They are online frameworks for social and marketplace interactions. Different types of digital platforms (Google search engine, application stores, media platforms like Spotify, etc.) can be incorporated for business purposes. Of these, social platforms or social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn are believed as a leading evolutionary trend both in society and business. According to the Global Digital Report 2018, there were over three billion social media users worldwide in 2018, increasing 13% year–on–
year6. Now businesses learn that a great number of customers have been available and talking about them online. Therefore, there is a brief window of opportunity for companies to create their own social media networks to communicate with and engage customers – before their competitors do.
Actually, digital social platforms have become one of the most important communication channels for businesses and created significant changes in how businesses communicate internally and externally. Many CEOs are now using Twitter as a quick communication channel to both their employees and other stakeholders of the company. Even, a study shows that CEOs in big companies tend to use Twitter for internal, company culture –
6Kem, Simon. “Digital in 2018: World’s Internet users pass the 4 billion mark”January30, 2018, https://wearesocial.com/blog/2018/01/global-digital-report-2018 (accessed April 20, 2019)
9 building goals (Girginova, 2015, p. 58). Social platforms like Facebook allow businesses to create a Facebook group that includes employees of the company to exchange information and improve the employee relationship. This group can be set up by the company or by a group of employees who can decide whether to make it publicly available for anyone to join or require administrator approval for members to join or keep it private and by invitation only. However, much attention is about how social platforms have affected external business communication, in particular communicating with customers. According to many marketers, SNSs have fostered the connection between companies and consumers (Menon, 2017). In particular, some SNSs like Facebook allow businesses and customers to interact with each other both synchronously and asynchronously via Facebook chat, post, and comments. Through online customer reviews and feedbacks on SNSs, businesses can have better listening and understanding about the market as well as enhancing their communication and marketing campaigns towards customers. Furthermore, businesses gain more visibility and have better visualization as social platforms enable them to easily share images, logos which are more personalized and customized experiences for persuading customers. Finally, when using SNSs, businesses usually produce viral content which can make an impact on a lot of consumers. The viral content on social posts as a fan engagement strategy (Tweets, Facebook posts) helps encourage customers to talk about the brand, product, service, and to talk to the company.
1.1.3 Language use on social platforms
Language is an essential medium through which we communicate, and one of the most important factors which greatly affect the success of business communication. Despite a variety of languages in the world, when it comes to the selection of a common language to interact with global businesses on digital platforms, English as a Lingua Franca – an intermediary language is chosen by speakers of different language backgrounds (Seidlhofer, 2005; Berns, 2012). English is also the most widely used and recognized as Lingua Franca concerning many aspects like business, education, and leisure (Seidlhofer, 2005; Berns, 2012).
Furthermore, more and more companies that aim to go global are using English as a common corporate language for communicating externally and internally. Within the modern business context, technological advances in communication like social media lead to an increase in using English as Lingua Franca to surpass communication barriers between companies and customers worldwide. However, these advances have also radically changed the way of using language in social media, in particular among online customers. Understanding these changes
10 in language in the digital era is a key for businesses to do better online communication with consumers on social platforms. Hence, we first look at some characteristics of language usage in social media, in this case, English, as a language for intercultural communication.
To begin with, it is important to remember that different social platforms provide different services to users. These differences are possibilities and constraints (Barton & Lee, 2013) which can affect the way people speak and write and how people address each other.
Microblogging like Facebook and Twitter enables us to write short messages as a “status update” of what we are thinking, doing or feeling at present. Twitter allows a limited number of 140 characters on a Tweet since the key objective of every tweet is to get re–tweeted. Thus, it is generally used for quick reading and writing short messages (Jimma, 2017). On the contrary, Facebook users create status updates to achieve a wide range of discourse functions, from expressing opinions to reporting moods and other feelings (Lee, 2011). Moreover, Facebook provides more space for writing status or posts and allows more multimodal content such as photos, videos and links from different sources to be attached to the post (Barton &
Lee, 2013), thus “reaching a different degree of depth” (Jimma, 2017, p. 9). Another popular social platform is Instagram which mostly focuses on sharing photos and videos on social networks, and the textual part is often short and ignored. Despite these discrepancies, almost digital platforms provide “writing spaces”, which is “the central to all forms of online interactions and content creation for users” (Barton & Lee, 2013, p. 36). Therefore, a single individual can become a content producer, even a language creator to write his own status and to exchange information with friends. Besides, Facebook or Twitter enables people to create and join online groups and communities, providing both synchronous and asynchronous communication, which makes the degree of online interaction becomes higher than ever.
These digital platforms have impacted in many ways on language and communicative practices, especially the language people use in online activities. The differences in language strategies in online media and traditional modes of communication have appealed to many researchers. In fact, as the language of virtual world recognized, various reviews and studies have given it different labels to describe its distinctive discourse features identified in Computer–mediated–communication (CMC) (Barton & Lee, 2013) such as Netspeak (Crystal 2006), digitaltalk (Dino & Gustilo, 2015), internet language, chatspeak, etc. Research about CMC language often examines to what extent the language variety consists of features from spoken language. For many linguists, CMC language is mainly written and contains characteristics of both spoken and written language. The fact is that language tends to be more informal and have many speech–like features on synchronous platforms such as
11 communication in chatrooms, while it appears closer to writing on asynchronous platforms, such as websites, blogs (Herring, 2007, pp. 7-8).
Thurlow (2003), Danet (2010), Barton and Lee (2013) have shown evidence for a “new”
language variety with distinctive written features. Most common orthotypographic features of computer–mediated English language are identified such as nonstandard capitalization including all caps (e.g. DO NOT SHOUT AT ME) and lack of initial capitalization, acronyms, shortenings and abbreviations (e.g. LOL, bff); emoticons (e.g. ☺), onomatopoeia (e.g.
ahhhh),... Crystal (2004) mentions the changes in spelling as typical features of internet language, especially “chat groups and virtual world makes a great used of nonstandard spellings, which reflects pronunciation” (Crystal, 2004, p. 88), for instance ya, nope, aint, gonna, wanna for you, no, aren’t, going to, want to. Moreover, Crystal (2004, p.186) also argues that the grammar of CMC language is mainly featured by “highly colloquial constructions and nonstandard usage, often following patterns known in other dialects or genres”. Typical features are the omission of a copular verb, an auxiliary verb or nonstandard concord between subject and verbs, for examples, you feeling good? I okay. Herring (2011) also points out that the syntax of internet English is sometimes described as fragmented compared to standard syntax. Fragment sentences where the subject and/or finite predicate are elided (ellipsis of subject and/or verb), are common in CMC modes which featured by short and informal messages like chat, IM, texting, and microblogging. The reason of the omission of parts of speech such as articles and subject pronouns is to save keystrokes in informal styles. Also, sentence fragments with the ellipsis of subject and/or finite verbs are caused by people typing speech – like utterance and/or the requirements of some CMC systems that limit the length of messages. Thus, users tend to break longer utterances into several messages (Herring, 2011, p.5).
Furthermore, some new linguistic phenomena were born and have become something very familiar within the virtual world. For instance, Hashtag – a combination between a symbol # and words can be found a lot on social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. In this regard, Zapavigna (2015) noted that hashtag as a deictic linguistic marker is used to communicate affiliation and convoke potential personae or communities. It can be used not only to get people involved in an action or an event but also to create trends on social media (Jimma, 2017). In addition, neologisms including new verbs like “to Google”, “to Tweet”, originated from digital platforms are increasingly used in normal verbal interactions, in particular among generations who have grown up with the Internet and SNSs.
12 To sum up, the language of computer – mediated – communication contains features resembling speech conversations, indicating the level of informality of the interactions. The use of these nonstandard phenomena is to facilitate interactions and to increase participants’
engagement in conversations on social platforms. Furthermore, the language is also impacted by the characteristics of social platforms. While the web mostly provides a one–way information flow, SNSs facilitate a two –way communication and encourage online interaction at higher speed. As a consequence, users on different social platforms with different services always try to summarize and convey their thoughts in the most rapid and effective way. The positive outcome for interaction highly depends on the use of language. These lead to the fact that many online users, especially the young are manipulating language creatively and playfully to achieve their interpersonal purposes (Nirshimura, 2016, p. 108). This happens not only with English but also with any other language used online. That, in turn, can be challenging for businesses, as they have to understand how to take advantage of social platforms’ services as well as to use this “new” variety of language properly for communicating with their stakeholders in the virtual world. Hence, the third chapter will be devoted to investigate linguistic strategies adopted by six brand pages.
1.2 Brands on Social Networking Sites (SNSs)
Business communication, particularly external communication deals with a variety of topics such as branding to leverage the revenue as well as to define and shape how the audiences perceive the company (Lazzari, 2019). Today, there is a clear tendency that is big companies focus on promoting their brands rather than a specific product (Breeze, 2013). Many have put a lot of effort and money on the process of making and promoting a brand on the market.
Within the scope of the research, we now present an overview of brand and some important concepts related to brand such as brand impression, brand types, brand personality, which may impact the way companies use language to communicate and market their brands on the brand pages.
1.2.1 Brand, Brand impression and Brand types What is a brand?
According to Businessdictionary.com, a brand is “unique design, sign, symbol, words, or a combination of these, employed in creating an image that identifies a product and differentiates it from its competitors. Over time, this image becomes associated with a level of
13 credibility, quality, and satisfaction in the consumer’s mind7”. Brands are understood by de Mooji (2010, p.24) as a network of association in the mind of the customer, a map of positive or negative associations or a symbolic language. Each brand owns its equity, referring to a brand’s intangible assets (like patents, trademarks) and values based on brand loyalty, name awareness, perceived quality, and strong product association. Many companies are now concentrating on developing their brand identity and awareness rather than a specific product or service as they acknowledge why numerous customers decide to buy one product rather than another (Breeze, 2013). To promote a brand successfully, Delin (2017) argues that the brand should meet a set of assumptions and expectations from consumers, including how brand looks like (visual identity), how brand communicates (verbal identity). The language that brands use can encompass everything from poster advertising to text messages sent to customers. Brands need to create “a brand book” made of two fundamental elements: visual identity and verbal identity, including all the rules about language (Delin, 2017).
For brands, the impression is vital as one of the important factors constructing brand image in customers’ mind. Kotler (2001) regards brand image as “the set of beliefs, ideas, and impression that a person holds regarding an object” (p. 273). It is the mental representation of the brand in customers’ perception, whether reasoned or emotional (Dobni & Zinkhan, 1990).
Brand image depends on how customers are impressed by their experiences with the brand.
Thus, the impression is generated by customers’ memories, feelings, and images (Gladwell, 2015) and can be perceived differently by individual customers. Brand impression is also a part of branding strategies since positive impressions will help the brand to gain customers’
positive attitudes as well as a significant and differentiated identity among other brands (Durmaz & Yaşar, 2016).
Generating good impressions can be very challenging for businesses since buyers’
impressions can be based on their first few second experiencing the brand product or service.
In addition to customers’ personal experience, the impression of a brand comes from many other things which may contain a number of factors out of brand management like word of mouth and social media (Delin, 2017). However, a lot of important factors such as brands’
locations, websites and social networks are under brand control to make a good impression, especially the first impression towards customers.
In fact, branding on social networks is one of the most common strategies to reach the target audience, create positive impressions and to increase brand recognition. Particularly,
7brand. BusinessDictionary.com. WebFinance, Inc. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/brand.html (accessed: May19, 2019).
14 branding on popular SNSs like Facebook will help businesses get the largest shares of social media referral traffic and high customer engagement through SNS posts. On social networks, the impression of the brand post is created when the content is delivered to someone’s feed (York, 2018). Every single piece of content can approach a number of audiences and have multiple impressions, meaning that the post is shared on different users’ new feed (York, 2018). Additionally, brand marketers say that customers would be more impressed if brands are active on varied digital platforms with up– to– date information and regularly shared content.
Like products, brands are varied in kinds. For marketers, different brand types have different branding strategies to impress customers. Each brand type has different tone and manner– the way brands usually behave and communicate. These nine types of brands as suggested by Lee Yohn (2017) as follows:
1. Disruptive Brand – Challenges the current ways of doing things and introduces new concepts that substantively change the market
2. Conscious Brand – Is on a mission to make a positive social or environmental impact or enhance people’s quality of life
3. Service Brand – Consistently delivers high – quality customer care and service 4. Innovative Brand – Consistently introduces advanced and breakthrough products and technologies
5. Value Brand – Offers lower prices for basic quality
6. Performance Brand – Offers products that deliver superior performance and dependability
7. Luxury Brand – Offers higher quality at higher price
8. Style Brand – Is differentiated through the way its products or services look and feel, as much as or more than what they do
9. Experience Brand – Is differentiated through the experience it provides, as much as or more than the product or service
To illustrate this hypothesis, brands collected within this research, are taken for examples.
Amazon is usually considered as a service brand that consistently delivers high – quality customer care and service, while Citi is a performance brand that requires precise, competent and reliable manner. Dior and Ferarri are two luxurious brands, thus the way brands communicate is discriminating, refined and glamorous (Lee Yohn, 2017). Lenovo is an innovative brand with a progressive, imaginative and risk–taking image. Discovery can be
15 seen as an experience brand as it is related to customers’ entertainments, thus the way it communicates is exciting, energetic and imaginative. In short, classifying brands is important as Delin (2017) explains that different brand types also affect how brands are perceived. Based on this, brands can build their branding strategies to construct brand image, customers, and plans to act, communicate, in line with its brand values.
1.2.2 Brand Personality Expression
One of the most important branding strategies is to construct a distinct brand personality.
Brand personality is defined as “the set of human characteristics associated with a brand”
(Aaker, 1997, p. 347). The Business dictionary says that brand personality often express common characteristics or traits represented including uniqueness, sincerity, intellectualism, competence, excitement and sophistication. The personalities give customers something to which the consumer can relate; effectively increase brand awareness and popularity8. Moreover, brand personality works as a vehicle to express functional benefits of a brand. It is also a reflective symbol through which consumers express either their true identity or their desirable identity (Ahmad & Thyagaraj, 2015, pp. 38-39). In fact, many consumers decide to purchase a product based on whether brand personalities are similar to their own. It is a metaphor that brand personality is like human personality, which is both distinctive, enduring and cannot be copied. Strategists and researchers have shown some typical brand personalities with common traits (Aaker, 1997) as follows:
• Sincerity: honest, cheerful and genuine
• Excitement: daring, imaginative and up–to–date
• Competence: reliable, dependable, and efficient
• Sophistication: glamorous, charming, and romantic
• Ruggedness: tough, strong and rugged.
Luxury brands, for instance Chanel, Dior, and Ferrari always aim to attract high–spending customers, thus their personality tends to be glamorous, trendy, classy and wealthy. Banks, insurance or finance services tend to be competent, serious and reliable, meanwhile entertainment brands usually choose excitement as their personality, to attract their audience.
8brand personality. BusinessDictionary.com. WebFinance, Inc. Received May 30, 2019, from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/brand-personality.html
16 As soon as the brand personality is set up, companies will have to work on how to express it. These days, using social digital platforms to engage customers, speak to them and offer them an insight into what kind of brand personalities become very popular for most firms. This work must be well taken care of and carried out tactfully and professionally, so that the brand personality can be viewed in the right way towards customers. S. Millinson, an Account Manager at imageseven and a Marketing Communications professional originally from the UK, suggests three key factors to consider for brand personality expression on social media (Millinson, 2017). First, it is necessary that companies should choose the right channel where they can reach their customers as much as possible. A frequent, consistent and content–
rich channel will also bring positive outcomes such as high customer engagement or sales increase for companies. Second, competition can be useful when companies are aware of how their competitors are talking to their audiences; especially those are successful on engaging with customers on social media. Many important elements such as the channel, tone, post frequency, time and topic from the competitors can inspire companies the best way for brand personality expression. Lastly, content for sharing on social media plays a pivotal role since posts will give followers a peek into the brands to explore what the brand is and what it stands for. S. Millinson insists on regular conversations with fans by building a content calendar.
Content should be well–organized, creative and well–expressed through the language.
Delin (2017) claims that language is one of the most powerful forms of brand expression, expressing what a brand stands for. Companies usually use a common vocabulary including positive adjectives (such as fun, friendly, sexy, elegant, sophisticated, trendy, reliable, etc.) that can be used to describe the brand and shape how people feel about it. Even though the social media offer businesses various channels and more opportunities than traditional media, the language used should be consistent throughout a campaign, no matter what platform. Different social media sites provide for various customers and come with particular and differing platforms. Therefore, it is important to use the right language and jargon so that companies can maximize engagement, spread messages and effectively express their brand personality to multiple audiences (Schwab, 2011).
1.2.3 Constructing customers: brand community and customer engagement
Normally, advertising is considered one of the primary ways customers make contact with brands for the first time. It could be a billboard or an only banner, a newspaper or magazine ad, a radio or TV spot, or one of a thousand other advertising channels. Breeze (2013) also
17 refers to advertising when discussing customer construction. She argues that advertising is traditionally understood as a means of selling, encouraging consumers to buy a particular product or service. In advertising persuasion is the key to gaining customers’ attention and purchasing action. Another common medium to communicate with customers is the corporate website, which is accessible for everyone. The corporate website is also considered as “shop front” for consumers (Breeze, 2013). It is informative in providing customers a company profile (“about us”), product information, annual reports and reviews, and it is interactive when customers can fill in a box or form to send a comment or enquiry to the company (Breeze, 2013).
In this era of digital communication, companies can use “integrated communication”
(Schultz, Tannenbaum, & Lauterborn, 1996) to interact with and construct customers. One of the effective ways is turning customers into a loyal brand community on varied digital platforms. The concept of brand community was introduced by A. Muniz and T. O’Guinn as
“a specialized, non–geographically bound community, based on a structured set of social relationships among admirers of a brand.” (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001, p. 412). Like traditional communities, brand communities show three attributes such as a shared consciousness, rituals and traditions, and a sense of moral responsibility (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2011). An online brand community refers to a brand community born in a virtual setting in which the members’
interaction is primarily Internet – mediated (Fuller, Jawecki, & Muhlbacher, 2007). The advent of Web 2.0 has provided available services, for instance chat rooms, newsgroups and discussion forums where members communicate with each other substantially exchanging and sharing information and emotions on online brand communities (Brogi, 2014). Consumers who follow the brand are considered active loyalists and committed to the brand (Muniz &
O’Guinn, 2011). Additionally, brand communities become a trustworthy and reliable source for brand related information (Punjumiemi, 2009). According to Breeze (2013), brands are built of associations (between specific products and makes and their features and qualities) and of communities (of people who use particular brands) (Breeze, 2013, p. 140). Therefore, brand communities can be understood as communities of consumption and community participants share a common way of perceiving brand products or services. The sense of belonging to the community is usually strengthened by a number of marketing strategies, as well as persuading fans to share certain associations with brands. Breeze (2013) also refers to brand community as the ultimate form of “buy–in” in which the consumers seek to obtain sense of identity and define themselves through purchasing a specific make of car or brand clothing.
18 Customer engagement has become an important focus for constructing customers on brand communities (Bushelow, 2012). The concept of customer engagement indicates “a psychological state that occurs by virtue of interactive, co–creative customer experiences with a focal agent/object (e.g. a brand) in focal service relationships.” (Brodie, Hollebeek, Juric, &
Ilic, 2011, p. 260). On brand communities, customer engagement starts from initializing a relationship with brand fans to generating brand activities (such as brand posts) and encouraging them to interact with brands by like, comment or share. Building a strong customer engagement strategy will create positive effects to customers’ repurchase intention and word – of – mouth intention (Thongmak, 2017, p. 30). Highly engaged customers also tend to be more loyal and help brands gain new customers from their friends and family.
Characteristics of customer engagement have changed radically in the digital communication since it is no longer characterized by one way, brand – initiated communication. It is now featured by a multi–channel and two–way communication, with customers readily engaging with each other and brands via blogs, product reviews, forums and brand communities.
Facebook allows users to follow as many brand pages or brand communities as they want, however not all brand posts are received high customer engagement, attracting a significant number of customer interactions (likes, comments, shares) (Chua & Banerjee, 2015b).
Creating an engaging content for brand posts is thus one of powerful ways to attract customers to brand pages (Thongmak, 2017).
1.3 Corporate language
1.3.1 Definition of corporate language
Corporate language is the language companies use to communicate with their audience internally (employees, managers) and externally (customers, partners, media,…). For some researchers, it is defined as a language strategy regulating language use in a corporation (Forsbom, 2014). Corporate language is used in corporate discourse – a set of messages sent by companies to the world at large (Breeze, 2013), which “incorporates features of technologism, scientific materialism and consumerism” (Breeze, 2013, p.24). This means all types of documentations, reports for corporate communication should be carried out in the defined common corporate language, which can be seen as a corporate rule to tell employees which language to use. In general, Delin (2017) points out some typical characteristics of corporate language. First of all, it may be controlled centrally by a corporate department such
19 as branding, marketing or communication. Moreover, companies often produce language policy in written documents as guidelines or standards for employees to use the right language, especially inside the company. Third, spoken language is rarely controlled, though some guidelines or standards would limit the usage of spoken language for internal or external communication, “such as descriptions of the voice types preferred for advertising, or scripts and pointers for call centre staff to follow”(Delin, 2017, p.660).Another important thing is that before any corporate discourse is published, in particular towards an external audience, it always needs the evaluation, check and approval from the brand team. Besides, multinational organizations in multilingual context may have to consider the way to deliver the “same”
messages across communications in different languages, and the control of terminology usage to ensure correct comprehension, and to improve translation accuracy. This is crucially important for organizations not only to ensure understanding cross–linguistically, but also to express the same brand personality and identity towards customers, and to ensure legal compliance, for instance the precision of product description and instructions (Delin, 2017).
Nowadays, globalization and internalization have led many businesses to the usage of a common language. English is now the global language, and holds a strong position in international business (Forsbom, 2014). It is globally considered as “Lingua Franca” – “a means of international communication in areas such as politics, business negotiations, cultural and scientific events” (House, 2002, p. 245). English becomes an obvious common corporate language for businesses in both English speaking and non–English speaking countries. There is a tendency for multinational corporations and global brands such as Amazon, Lenovo, Dior, etc. to choose English as their official language for both internal and external communication no matter where corporate headquarters are located. Therefore, global brands selected for this study also use English as an official language on their brand pages. One of the main reasons is that global brands mainly aim at a global audience. The use of a common language will facilitate the information flow, create a sense of belonging in the team, customers and the entire corporation, and help to reduce language problems, particularly in international organizations (Forsbom, 2014, pp. 15-16). Furthermore, English as Lingua Franca is the most common language for customers from different linguistic backgrounds to interact with each other and with brands on digital platforms. In addition, the present use of English on various SNSs forms a new type of bilingualism and presents a connection to the world and the global community, whereas the local language connects to the local community (Modrić, 2016).
Hence, global brands tend to use English for numerous marketing and branding strategies on global scale. A number of studies have shown that English is the most frequently used foreign
20 language in advertisements (Bhatia, 1992), even in the non–English speaking countries (Modrić, 2016). Some scholars claim that advertising in English not only makes products and brands more powerful in the market (Modrić, 2016) but also gives customers a sense that they are interacting with and using global brands (Micu & Coulter, 2010). These ads include also online advertisements published as posts on SNSs.
1.3.2 Corporate language guidelines
Normally, brands communicate and express their personality through a combination of visual elements (logo, photo, video, corporate colors and font…) and verbal language. These two factors should be incorporated together to communicate coherently and compellingly and to convey the brands’ distinctive essence (Delin, 2017). Moreover, companies always pay attention to audiences’ prerequisites of interpretation and preunderstanding when following a strategy of integrated communication (Schultz, Tannenbaum, & Lauterborn, 1996). Indeed, the language used in communication with the outside world – in every email, every report, advertisement or posts on varied communication media – can affect the way the brand perceived by heterogeneous audience. Therefore, Janich (2017) emphasizes that a consistent corporate style is essential for customers to identify a “uniform” corporate or brand identity as she explains “despite diverse objectives/work tasks, addressees and media, messages such as those relating to the company’s values should not contradict one another at the level of content” (p.51). The corporate style can be realized by linguistic expression, for instance a specific and consistent terminology, phrases, the degree of politeness and formality, and the style of dealing with different corporate stakeholders (Janich, 2017) (e.g. employees, customers, the public). According to Vogel (2012), corporate style has common features and
“must have an impact that is simultaneously”:
a. Related to discourse, that is, appropriate to types of domain, media, text and conversation;
b. Related to social context, that is appropriate in terms of addressee and culture;
c. Related to the company itself, that is, appropriate to the company and the author”
(p.198)
She also shows “the mark of a successful corporate style”, which is effective on four levels at the same time “as a readily recognizable means of expression; as a demonstration of stylish
21 competence; as an offer of identification; and as an implicit reference to corporate identity”
(Vogel, 2012, pp. 210-212, Janich, 2017, p.50)
Furthermore, as mentioned in section 3.1, many companies often release their own language policy or guidelines for employees to use the right language with the consistent corporate style when dealing with varied audiences in different situations. However, within the context of the dynamics of the digital world, it is necessary to realize that, especially on social platforms, the language used for business communication has undergone radical changes, in order to refine its characteristics and adapt to the needs of online interactions with customers.
Since the language of social platforms for online interactions tends to be informal and has many features of casual conversations (see section 1.3), marketing experts suggest that companies should develop language guidelines for these informal and spontaneous interactions with consumers, particularly on online SNSs, so as to create a strong link and stimulate consumer engagement. Indeed, the language for online interactions with customers should not be too formal or too technical like in the corporate reports if companies want to shorten the distance with their audiences on social platforms. For this reason, they need to be active in identifying new communication schemes in which language should be simple, intuitive and accessible to everyone. Delin (2017) says that brands often use everyday language – write like you speak in a natural, unforced way and simple straightforward words that “come from heart”. What is more, on SNSs there are so many distractions, thus a visitor may take a look at the corporate page just for few seconds. It is even harder to persuade that visitor to like or follow the community at the first visit. Therefore, it is important to know how to deliver the message concisely and exhaustively and to create a relationship, rapport with the reader. One of the most common ways is addressing the reader directly and personally, using personal language: we, us and you. For the same reason, it is always better to express things actively rather than passively since active sentences sound more confident and clear about what brands have done. According to Hyland (2005), using directives or imperative verbs gives energy to what has been written and directs readers to engage in actions requested. Furthermore, readers seem more engaged by asking questions as this way brings them into a dialogue and inspires them to share their own experience to answer the questions.
Nevertheless, informal language should not be overused if the company does not want to lose its authority and professionalism that distinguishes it from other competitors. Therefore, effective use of language9 should be always taken into account. Six main features could be
9Effective Use of Language. (n.d.). Retrieved May 13, 2019, from https://faculty.washington.edu/ezent/el.htm
22 considered: (1) concrete and specific, not vague and abstract; (2) concise, not verbose; (3) familiar, not obscure; (4) precise and clear, not inaccurate or ambiguous; (5) constructive, not destructive; and (6) appropriately formal. In fact, corporate language can have some common rules to avoid the over informality in terms of grammar, orthotypography, conversational vocabulary, and sentence structure. For instance, capitalization should not be excessive, only proper nouns, including names, titles, places, months, and days of the week can be capitalized for emphasis10. Another example is that of fragment sentences, which are incomplete clauses or phrases omitting subject and/or verb. They may be dependent clauses, or they may simply be phrases. Although these sentences may be intentionally created to sound informal and achieve stylistic effect, they should be carefully used in order to avoid possible misunderstandings from readers11. Furthermore, Delin (2017) adds that the language used should express the brand personality, and talk about the “key things our products and services do – their features – in ways that communicate meaningful and relevant benefits to your audience” (Delin, 2017, p.661). In addition to these guidelines, different companies may produce different house style rules in line with the corporate style such as rules for formatting dates, capitalization and spacing of product names, preferred spelling, how to address people, etc.
1.4 Analyzing digital business discourse
1.4.1 Digital business discourse
Back to the 1990s when the growth of the Internet just started, the term “business discourse”
was first used to refer to “using talk and writing between individuals whose main work activities and interests are in the domain of business” (Bargiela-Chiappini & Harris, 1997). It can be formal/ informal and takes place in external or internal business communication by using various channels such as telephone, fax, face–to–face or computer (Salvi & Bamford, 2007). Analyzing language in business contexts has appealed to many researchers in linguistics. They show that business texts have their own characteristics differentiating from other types of texts (academic, political, scientific, etc.) (Daniushina, 2010). Business
106 Grammar Rules for Business Professionals (n.d.) Received May 22, 2019, from
https://www.proofreadingservices.com/blogs/news/53298437-6-grammar-rules-for-business-professionals
11Business Grammar & Composition Study Guide published by National Association of Elevator Contractors, June 2014. Sentence Fragments, p. 9. Received May 22, 2019, from
https://www.naec.org/images/VTMP_Docs/Business_Communications_I_Business_Grammar_and_Composi tion.pdf.
