Addressing Critical Areas of Virtual Meetings for Marketing Teams

This memo addresses the critical areas that need attention while managing and leading a virtual marketing team. It discusses the advantages and disadvantages of virtual teams and suggests ways to overcome challenges like distance, time, language, cultural differences, and perception of deadlines.

Running head: MARKETING COMMUNICATION
Marketing Communication
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1MARKETING COMMUNICATION
To: Marketing Director of XYZ
From:
Date: April 10, 2018
Subject: Addressing Critical Areas of Virtual Meetings
Mr/Mrs,
This is to inform you that that there has been the development of a new marketing team with all
of the members dispersed in New York, Beijing, Mumbai and Sydney. This has necessitated the
establishment of virtual team spread over the different time zones that undertook communication
via both synchronous and asynchronous means (Aiken, Gu and Wang 2013) Formation of the
virtual teams has its own advantages and disadvantages.
The advantages of the virtual team lay in assembling the talented group for completing a
complex project through not only innovation but also creativity (Bassanino et al. 2014).
However, there are concerns amongst various teams regarding the successful execution of such
meetings as it involves challenges like distance and time, difficulties of language, barriers of
cultural difference and perception of the deadlines.
Therefore, there are certain critical areas that I feel needs necessary attention while managing
and leading a virtual team.
1. Planning and Communicating Meeting Agenda: For ensuring productive meeting, it
is necessary to outline the happenings before, during and after the proceedings of the meeting. It
is also necessary to determine the people attending the meeting thereby giving them the required

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visibility (McConnell et al. 2013). It is necessary to send in the agenda once decided along with
the list of attendee.
2. Showing Consideration for the Team Members of all Time Zones: Scheduling
meeting times suitable for everyone might be difficult for a team that is geographically disperse.
Instead of fixing a recurring meeting time, it is vital for rotating the time of occurrence for the
meetings (Nyström and Asproth 2013). This puts forward the situation where no single set of
employees works at a stretch. Moreover, meeting schedule should be set as per the convenience
of the all the team members and not during the late evenings or during the lunch.
3. Maintenance of Level Playing Field: The best practice for a virtual meeting involves
engaging everyone via common technology. This involves usage of the collaborative software
that ensured everyone in keeping an eye on the same information at the same timing.
4. Matching Technology and the Task: Implementation of advanced technology must
take care of the complexity of task. For resolving a conflict or making a decision, collaborative
software or video conferencing represents the best tools (Pangil and Moi 2014). Moreover, the
participant should engage himself during meeting through chat options and poll. The opinions of
attendees’ needs consideration and necessary feedback regarding key issues collected through
polling option or by asking them to choose an option available in the chat box.
5. Keeping Time for Small Talk: Similar to a face-to -face meeting, people in a virtual
meeting should be greeted the moment they become a part of the meeting and allotted time for
connecting at the personal level. For accommodating this, the team should be given a chance for
building relationships through some casual conversation

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6. Reinforcing Shared Responsibility: This is the responsibility ensured for tracking the
group (Ubell 2016). The shared responsibility can be reinforced by ensuring that different team
members hold the responsibility of leading the various part of meeting. One can also consider the
rotation of the role for meeting planning and ensure necessary facilitation amongst the team
members.
Thus, through the memo I have tried to tackle some of the critical areas which if addressed will
help in overcoming the challenges of the virtual meetings. Thus, virtual meetings can bring in a
revolution in the formation of marketing team for an internally company like XYZ with
geographically dispersed location.
Thanks & Regards,
Your name:

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References:
Aiken, M., Gu, L. and Wang, J., 2013. Task knowledge and task-technology fit in a virtual
team. International Journal of Management, 30(1), p.3.
Bassanino, M., Fernando, T. and Wu, K.C., 2014. Can virtual workspaces enhance team
communication and collaboration in design review meetings?. Architectural Engineering and
Design Management, 10(3-4), pp.200-217.
McConnell, T.J., Parker, J.M., Eberhardt, J., Koehler, M.J. and Lundeberg, M.A., 2013. Virtual
professional learning communities: Teachers’ perceptions of virtual versus face-to-face
professional development. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 22(3), pp.267-277.
Nyström, C.A. and Asproth, V., 2013. Virtual Teams—Support for Technical
Communication?. Journal of Organisational Transformation & Social Change, 10(1), pp.64-80.
Pangil, F. and Moi Chan, J., 2014. The mediating effect of knowledge sharing on the relationship
between trust and virtual team effectiveness. Journal of Knowledge Management, 18(1), pp.92-
106.
Ubell, R., 2016. Virtual team learning. In Going Online (pp. 27-33). Routledge.

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