At a recent communications conference, the speaker asked how many of the attendees used BlackBerries? Hands shot up. “How many of you use Twitter?” came the next question. “How about FaceBook?” Again hands – at least every other person’s – waved in the air.

Obviously, the audience had become adept in social networking and the associated electronics. But, then came the question, “How many of you communicate effectively?”

The room became quiet and only a few hesitant hands went into the air.

Personal Branding is all about exuding your brand effectively to your brand community. If you communicate with clients, vendors, team members and/or management, it’s not about how instantaneous your communications are. It’s all about how clearly and concisely you send your messages...and once received, if the message is clearly and concisely understood.

And even with cell phones, hand-helds of every description and the Internet...management across the country continues to place poor communication at the top of their list of challenges. Here are the results from a recent corporate survey to encourage us all to evaluate the quality of our communications:

* 85 percent said their business has lost money due to ineffective presentations, proposals or e-mail.

* 55 percent said employees could not easily find information they needed.

* 45 percent said information for business use is either inaccurate, incomplete or out of date.

* 44 percent said information they use often lacked adequate detail.

* 44 percent said an average of 30 minutes to an hour was wasted each day due to ineffective written communications within the company.

Be careful. Today’s electronic communications are far superior to anything we’ve ever known – and using these wisely can only move the level of our communications up and even beyond. But, as we employ these electronic tools to stay in touch with clients or as a resource in order to achieve a higher performance level, let us not forget the importance of language and writing skills...the basics of communications for all of us.