When you reach out to your members, clients, suppliers, regulators, or other stakeholders, how do you do it?

In the olden days it was the telex.  Then there was the postal service, and later FAX. Today, perhaps email and Social Media.  But how does social fit in? Or does it?

Aside from advertising, there are three main ways that people communicate over Social Media:

1) Public posts:  Examples include Facebook wall posts, LinkedIn updates, and Tweets.  Anything posted this way can be seen by almost anyone: it isn’t private, but is an efficient way to broadcast a message, especially if a post is “boosted” with advertising dollars.

2) Direct Messages:  These are in-system messages that are sent from one person to another, “privately”.  LinkedIn emails and Twitter Direct Messages are examples. While the general public doesn’t see the contents of the message (since it is addressed into the recipient’s “private” in-system email box), there is absolutely no guarantee that the Social Media channel won’t use your data for their own purposes.  And if the Social Media channel changes its data retention policies, discontinues the in-system email functionality, or unceremoniously shuts down, past direct messages will be lost forever.

3) Instant Messaging: These services all provide point-to-point (or group) conversation functionality, often via a mobile device. This is the fastest growing – and and least mature – communications method; they are all duking it out for supremacy (and market share):  WhatsApp, Facebook messenger, iMessage, Windows Messenger, iMessage, Slack, Snapchat, Skype, SMS/Texting, and many, many more.

Public posts and direct messages are easy to understand; outreach to your audiences using them is relatively straightforward. Instant messaging, on the other hand, is something altogether different.

Most organizations collect email addresses – but not instant message addresses. And since most people use several services (think how many you are on), consider the effort required to first keep your contact lists up-to-date, and then send the same messages across multiple systems.

While it may be tempting to go down the path of treating instant messaging the same as email, the channel is fundamentally different, and needs to be handled differently.  Some examples of how it is best used:

• Quick conversations when a voice call is not available or convenient
• Project team discussions
• Mastermind group discussions
• Status updates

What is missing from this list are eblasts and newsletters – the typical one-to-many broadcasts that are the staple of many organizations.  The other difference is that very often, instant messages are delivered to a mobile device.

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