What are examples of business communication mediums?

Effective communication is important to every single aspect of an organization, from how its employees interact with one another to how its brand is presented to potential customers.

In short: Your company’s success starts with communication. Read on to learn more about the various communication mediums used in business and how you can make the most of each one.

Why effective communications matter in business

When you have a strong flow of communication in your business, everyone can work together to reach organizational goals and satisfy your customers.

Since effective business communication makes it possible to eliminate silos, keep employees informed and reduce errors, it’s essential for the success and growth of every organization. As many as four out of five employees believe that effective internal business communications help their job performance, which in turn helps boost your bottom line, build a stronger company culture and align with your customer’s needs.

Forms of business communication

Business communication is the process of sharing information between parties within and outside an organization. Business communication can be broken down into two core buckets:

External communications

External communication includes any messaging that leaves your organization. External communications may be with customers, vendors, members of your supply chain, investors, etc.

Internal communications

Internal communication is any messaging between parties within your organization. Internal communications may be between two coworkers, various departments within the company, a manager and their subordinate, etc.

Business communication mediums

Here are a few of the most commonly used business communication mediums in the modern workplace:

Instant messaging

In today’s landscape, business moves fast, which is why instant messaging platforms are so widely used. Tools like Slack make it possible to stay on the same page and make decisions faster by bringing all of your business communications into one place through:

• Channels. Channels can be created for every project, topic and team. With access to the same information, everyone in the channel can work in sync, and new members have full context when they join.
• Direct messages. Anyone in your organization’s workspace can direct-message another user for a convenient one-on-one conversation.
• Slack Connect. Collaborate with the teams at other companies in the same way you collaborate with your own. Everyone can discuss ongoing progress, share files and drive business results in one secure, shared space.

Email

Email communication is one of the most widely used business communication tools, but it’s also one of the most misused. Many modern employees are simply overwhelmed with the number of messages hitting their inbox each day. The average person receives more than 120 emails per day. This makes it easy to completely overlook a message or lose track of a crucial piece of information in an endless email chain.

However, with the proper business communication processes in place, companies can reduce digital distractions from emails. For example, by using Slack Connect, you can move conversations with your partners, vendors and customers out of siloed email threads and into the same convenient place your internal communications take place.

Online

At the very least, most modern companies have a website and presence on a few social platforms. Having a blog and creating resources such as white papers or e-books can also help drive customer acquisition and build long-term brand loyalty by establishing your company as a thought leader in its industry.

Written

Written forms of business communication could include your employee handbook, financial reports, brand guidelines and other important business documents. These documents can help everyone in your organization stay aligned and work toward the same goals. Plus, it’s great to have documentation that can easily be referred back to later to track progress and have benchmarks for success.

Verbal

While face-to-face communication is a great way to build relationships, voice and video conferences are the new norm thanks to a growing remote workforce. With Slack calls, you can make a voice call to connect with anyone in your workspace without ever leaving Slack. Employees working on the same task can even use Slack Huddles to quickly start a live voice conversation with all members in the project channel.

Video

Video conferencing is a great way to still get face-to-face communication when being in the same room just isn’t possible. With Slack, you can seamlessly connect your video conferencing service of choice, screen-share for easy collaboration and even join meetings from your mobile devices through the Slack app.

Streamline your business communication with Slack

Effective communication is essential for business success. But with so many communication mediums and tools now being used in the workplace, it can be a challenge to keep everyone on the same page and things running smoothly. Overcome modern communication obstacles by keeping your core business communications in one convenient hub: Slack.