Writing for Business Success/Business writing in action/Other business communication tools

Can SMS text messages and/or Instant Messaging be used for professional purposes? What multimedia platforms are important today, and do they provide value for business communications?

Text Messages and Instant Messaging
Another useful tool in the digital business communication toolbox is the Short Message Service (SMS), or text message. One useful feature of an SMS network is the ability to broadcast short updates of information to mobile devices in case of an emergency. There are other options, such as one-way text messages (meaning the message recipient cannot reply), which are also widely used. We are now commonly contacted by our mobile phone providers to be informed that a bill is due, by our bank to let us know that an account is overdrawn, or by a pharmacy to remind us to collect a prescription. In addition, companies can take advantage of SMS technology for marketing campaigns in order to engage customers with automated prompts and responses.

Instant messaging (IM) is also becoming increasingly popular as a business communication tool, especially for more informal communication. Some examples of widely used IM services are Google Talk (commonly called Google Chat), Slack, Jabber, Spark, and many more. The advantages of IM are that messages are sent and received instantly in real time, and responses are organised in a 'conversation' format that supports two-way communication. Colleagues working on a shared project but separated by distance, for example, can chat as if they were in the office next door. During conference calls with a customer, a sales team can pass information 'privately' to one another to comment on what is being said.

The following example is of a private chat between Peter and Tom, sales people on a conference call with a prospective customer. Peter and Tom’s conversation would be considered a 'backchannel' chat. This is when individuals use networked computers (often via IM) to maintain a real-time online conversation alongside the main group activity or live spoken conversation. Another useful application of IM is interactive customer support. More and more, customers are invited to chat online with a specialist while visiting a company support web site, or when they are on hold on the phone.

When using IM and SMS communication tools, it is important to remember that, even though these messaging systems feel more informal, you are still acting in a professional role. When chatting across an internal IM system with a coworker who is a personal friend, it may be acceptable for you to omit capitalisation and punctuation marks. However, when talking with a customer, or with a coworker or manager about a company-related topic, you should communicate in a professional manner. While IM and SMS are great digital communication tools, there are some disadvantages to these methods. Some companies do not even allow the use of them, due to security and liability concerns. Sending company information over public IM services could be risky. Also, IMs and texts create distraction for many employees, especially if engaged in a conversation with an important customer or trying to IM while driving.

Blogs
Another multimedia platform to effectively communicate with business audiences is the blog. A blog is really a website with journal-style entries ('blog posts') on topics designed to inform and invite comments. Blogs are used in business to communicate with customers and employees. For customers, blogs can be a great tool for market research, public relations, customer outreach, and for seeking feedback.

Wikis
A wiki is a web-based platform that usually serves as a 'knowledge base'. Wikis are composed of combined knowledge from an online community of contributors. In a business environment, private intranets (internal websites and platforms) are used to keep wikis within the company firewall, as they include sensitive company procedures and processes. Information such as travel expense policies, HR rules and forms, internal contact directory, last quarter’s financial press release, etc. can easily be accessed from all company locations, including remote employee offices.

Social media
Companies use established social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn to reach out to vast external public online communities. These communities have users numbering in the millions (Facebook in the billions), so it is no surprise that they are naturally attractive to businesses for multiple marketing activities.

The second category of social media in business communication is for internal use. Many large organisations have private internal social media platforms for employees only. A lot of these use a model similar to Facebook, but use software platforms from companies like Salesforce, Yammer, and Jive. This use of social media is quite powerful and allows large business to easily connect employees across different physical sites, keeping them informed of important information in a format that is easy to use.

Acknowledgements
The main content on this page (apart from the activity) was adapted from Other internal communications, authored by Robert Danielson and provided by Lumen Learning within the online open textbook Business communication skills for managers. Licensed under a CC BY-4.0 licence.