Description

Fall 2019

CMMK2034 – Communication for Marketers

Assignment 3 – Informal Memo Report

Your agency is getting ready for a competitive bid for new business with a company (Stand-In Staffing). Landing this business would be a huge win for your organization. Stand-In Staffing is a staffing agency with offices across the country. They specialize in providing companies with short-term, high-quality professionals for mid to senior-level positions. They are excellent at sourcing candidates, and they have been in business for over 20 years. Most of their business has been through B2B advertising, direct sales, and word-of-mouth. While they have had a web presence for many years, they have been looking to become more of a social presence.

The prospective client has been asking about Twitter. They are interested in using it for their company because they’ve seen all the “noise” and “followers” that people can get. They would like to know how Twitter can help them increase their sales revenues.

Your boss asks you to produce an informal report that will be included with the other material you are providing the prospective client. You must research the impact of Twitter on company revenues. Does it have a positive or negative effect? Are there other social media tools that affect revenues, positively or negatively? What is involved in setting up a Twitter presence? What could Stand-In Staffing expect?

You will show this to your boss for approval before it gets included with the marketing package. It should outline recommendations for a company considering Twitter or other social media platforms.

Your Task:

• Do some research into recent (within the last two years) Twitter successes and/or failures.
• Determine Twitter’s contribution to marketing efforts (ie. Identify the marketing goals that Twtter satisfies)

In a memo report to me (the client),

• Explain Twitter
• Purpose
• Implementation
• Evaluate the effectiveness of Twitter
• Examples of success and/or failures (be balanced)
• Reasons for success and failure
• Impact on corporate revenues
• Explain Twitter and its effectiveness through the lens of research. What do the stats and pundits say about Twitter?
• Use stats and data to back up your explanations.

Written Format:

• Your report should not exceed three pages in length (not including Works Cited or Bibliography).
• Your report must include in-text citations and a corresponding list of sources – Works Cited, footnote/endnote (if used) citations, and follow MLA format. 

·         The tone of the report must be professional, and the purpose of the report is to recommend an approach. (Remember the PAIBOC analysis!)

• Use headings to effectively organize the information
• Single space the report, using appropriate headings, graphic highlighting, and a standard font.

·         All assignments are to be submitted on Blackboard as a Word document (NOT a Mac Pages file!)

·         You may format this report as an infographic, if you wish. (But the information must be equal to three printed pages.)

Note:  any report without in-text citations and a corresponding list of sources will be assigned a mark of 0.  This mark will not be negotiable.

Criterion Sheet for CMMK 2034

Format     10%

·          Is the format clear and professional?

·          Is the information easy to access?

·          Have you used graphic highlighting and white space?

·          Have you included all of the necessary titles?

·          Have you dated the document?

·          Have you used several short paragraphs?

·          Have you divided the information into informative headings?

·          Are the headings parallel (sentence structure and format)?

Content   25%

·          Is the length appropriate?

·          Is the opening (direct/indirect) appropriate to the message and audience?

·          Does the document indicate audience awareness?

·          Are your details accurate, complete, and logical?

·          Have you used significant and sufficient supporting data?

·          Have you used concrete examples?

·          Is the message unified and coherent?

·          Have you used transitions to connect ideas?

·          Is the purpose of your message clear?

·          Is your message appropriately persuasive?

·          Have you clearly outlined specific actions required (if any)?

·          Have you included the necessary contact information?

Style/Tone               25%

·          Is your tone consistent and courteous?

·          Have you edited out slang, wordiness, repetition, redundant expressions, clichés, and jargon?

·          Is your level of language appropriate to the audience?

·          Have you used a “you” attitude and outlined reader benefits?

·          Is your language precise/concise?

·          Is your word order correct?

·          Have you used the active/passive voice appropriately?

Grammmar/Spelling          40%

2% deduction for:

·          comma splice/run on sentence (CS/RO)

·          fragments (Frag)

·          point of view (POV)

·          pronoun agreement, case, and reference (Pro Agr, Pro Case, Pro Ref)

·          spelling (Sp)

·          subject/verb agreement, verb form, verb tense (SVA, VF, VT)

1% deduction for:

·          articles – maximum 3% deduction (Art)

·          dangling/misplaced modifiers (DM, MM)

·          omit a word, incorrect word choice or word form (OW, WC, WF)

·          parallelism (//ism)

·          punctuation – maximum 5% deduction (P)

·          missing or misused capital letters (Caps)

·          plural form (Pl)

TOTAL:                     /100

Adapted from Humber College source 2004