Managing business communication used to be much easier.
Even five years ago, we had email, letters, fax machines, and conference and private telephone calls. Those tools usually laid the groundwork for a face-to-face meeting where real business – the human kind – took place. Today, things are very different for business folks like you and I.
Email has become the mainstay in business communication, supported by an ever-growing selection of social networks, blogs, microblogs (like Twitter) and VOIP software. There are so many communication channels to monitor and, to my knowledge, no one has yet to figure out how to increase the amount of hours we have each day to take it all in, respond and continue to do actual work.
Business Communications Efficiencies
It’s no surprise that we business folk have no choice anymore but to become great communicators. Our careers (and paychecks) depend on our ability to manage the flow, cut through the noise and be effective in sending and receiving messages both inside and outside of our organizations. So what do you do? How do you weed through the pile or even reduce the pile all together? Here are some ideas on how I’m managing my own communications:
If you can’t view this video, watch it on my YouTube channel.
Build Your Own Business Communications Dashboard
WARNING: What works for me, may not work for you. The choices I’ve made on my dashboard fit my business strategy and daily routine. One thing I forgot to mention is that I usually have Adium open as a chat client, so I can also leverage multiple chat profiles from Facebook to AOL and Google Chat. Because it causes my Macbook Pro to slug along at times, I tend to get selective with that tool.
Here are some other tips, tricks and applications you might try when you build your own business communications dashboard:
- If you aren’t using two monitors today, look into it. Having the extra desktop space will make a huge difference in your work flow and save extra clicks and frustration. I may add a third to my own dashboard soon.
- Use a desktop social media client like Seesmic or Tweetdeck, or even a browser-based client like Hootsuite, to manage communications coming from your social media outposts
- If you’re using internal office chat and you’re a PC, I recommend Digsby as a chat client. It will pull in all your social media streams, as well as POP 3 email accounts, into one well-designed client. I just wish they’d release a version for Mac OS.
- Do you use internal communications tools like Yammer or SocialCast?
- Do you have a web cam for your laptop of PC?
- Don’t be scared of Google Wave. Find a small group and give it a try. There’s a great little desktop application called Waveboard (free, paid upgrade) that fits nicely on a business communications dashboard.
- Do you use social bookmarking to share articles around the office? Del.ic.ious seems to be the standard, but give Diigo a look. It’s the next big thing collaborative bookmarking and Social Business Strategies now has a group you can join.
- Have you looked into Skpye or Google Voice?
What did I miss? What are the communication tools that are important to you?
Your turn…
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