Social Media vs Email for Business Communication

I pour over the email’s copy for the 5th time meticulously ensuring all the necessary info is provided, the grammar is on point, the written tone is appropriate for my audience and that I have all the right people in the email address bar. Only after doing this over-and-over again do I finally build the courage to click the send button!

The scenario described above is no doubt shared by many others who use email as their primary business communication. Many companies are big on email and my oh my does email have its faults.

As a communication tool, does email get the job done? I think yes! But is it the best tool for those communications that require a lot of input and cross collaboration with various people and departments? Most certainly not!

Consider an Internal Social Media Option — No Training Required

In an era where nearly eight-in-ten adults use social media (Pew Research), the majority of employees are already accustomed to how social media works and feel comfortable communicating in this space. So if a company were to add social media to its digital communication mix they might not only find it’s an effective way of gathering feedback but might also find that they are receiving feedback and input from unexpected sources — considering social communication isn’t always limited to those the messenger could think to add to the address bar.

In addition, social media can help lead to a flatter organization since everyone would be purview to a lot more information thereby improving decisions and work unison. An internal social media network might even boost employee morale and engagement as employees find a stronger community atmosphere. Just the other day a friend told me how her company’s internal social media (Microsoft’s Yammer) organically led to a huge employee volunteer effort with Habitat For Humanity.

I’m a firm believer that email is here to stay, but being aware of its faults and the benefits of leveraging various other social communication options — Trello, Slack, Yammer, etc. — I can’t help but advocate for their use over email.