Micro Communications Making Business Informal and Intimate
Leave Your Tie At Home
Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I am not a suit and tie kind of guy – why get all dressed up just to sit in front of a computer all day, right?
Like my fashion taste, it seems that communication technology is becoming less formal each day, driven by advances in communications technology – especially those that emphasize “micro” communications. It might be hard for many to fathom that today’s business communications and relationships are built atop of communications platforms that just a few short years ago would be scoffed at by corporate types, but it is tough to deny the overall effectiveness of these new communications technologies.
Technology Is Making Business Conversations More Intimate
Technology such as SMS, distributed voice mail, Twitter and even a Facebook message has broken down the wall of formal business communications.
Last week Friday I was Tweeting with a prospective customer. This morning I received an SMS message from a vendor to set-up a meeting time. Today I will probably use both communications vehicles as a way to find new relationships and foster new ones. This was something that was not being done even a year or so ago – truly amazing how quickly things can change.
Intimate and Informal is More Effective?
In today’s “always-on” environment, we don’t have time for formalities – just give us what we need to know. The same technology that is making business less informal is also making communications more intimate and as a result much more effective. This is scary for many, but empowering for others.
So, as many fight to keep the formalities of business, resisting the changing nature of how we, as people, communicate, others are embracing these changes and in turn are realizing a whole new level of business relations – the type that builds long term friendships. Shouldn’t that not be the judge of whether a communications medium is effective in a business setting, after all Jeffery Gitomer always writes that, “people want to do business with their friends” and today’s emerging communications technologies allow you do that faster, easier and more effectively then their more formal predecessors.
