Last week, a co-worker (a VP, to be exact) made a comment to me that I instantly disagreed with. He said “I don’t think IM has any place as a business communication tool and email should never be used unless its a C.Y.A. (cover your “rear”) situation.”
Since then, I’ve gotten no less than 8 emails from him. None about “CYA” topics; all about typical business subjects. Clearly, he’s had a change of heart on the topic of email.
But the IM comment still haunts me. I use IM a lot and have for a long time in business. Its a great way to keep in touch with people who are on-line at the same time as you and not located nearby. Its also a great way to get short answers to questions when you’re busy (most commonly for me, when I’m on the phone with someone else or in a meeting … a short IM can save a lot of email time and give you a quick answer to keep the meeting moving).
There are some people who use it as a sort of “while you were out” feature to leave messages to others about phone calls, visitors who were looking for them, etc. Its a great way to quickly ask a question that doesn’t require an urgent response and to do so in a very unobtrusive way.
Now, unless you have the new Sametime 7.5 client (or another IM client) there are no emoticons … so base “Sametime IM” can be kind of cold since its just plain, boring, non-rich text. So you have to be careful with that, depending on your message.
So that made me realize: IM does have a very solid place in business communications and it is a valid medium. And then I stumbled on a quote from one of my favorite people about communication mediums that gave an even better reason for why we should at least try to use IM in business. (Keep in mind that he said it when IM, email, cell phones, texting, SMS and the internet weren’t even around.)
“All of us who use the implements of mass communications have tremendous responsibility to utilize them more fully in the interest of common humanity in the light of present world conditions.”
- Walt Disney
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