Top 5 Apps for More Effective Business Communications

This is a guest post by Steve Nicholls. Steve Nicholls is a leading social media strategist, author and international speaker who advises business executives on how to implement effective social media campaigns into their organizations. He has been featured as a social media expert in CNN, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, BBC, Huffington Post, among others.  His website, Social Media for Business, is a great resource for anyone trying to learn how to leverage social media to aid in their business efforts.

Mobile apps have earned an increasingly important place in business communication. They not only allow communication to take place across geographical boundaries and time zones, but also on the move, and they do so in a cost-effective way.

Communication with business partners thus do not have to be limited to when you check-in at the office, but can be expanded and take place through your mobile device during a trade show, a business event, a business trip or on the train while going to the airport – in other words, anywhere and at anytime.

Moreover, apps allow for more diversified communication through multimedia tools. Business communication does not have to be confined to voice communication solely, but can include visual, video and other types of communication in order to maximize the effectiveness of the message being communicated.

These communicative tools can be used either internally within a company’s members, or externally between a company and other parties such as suppliers and customers. Here are our top 5 apps for increased efficiency in business communication:

• YouTube: YouTube is a video-sharing website used and visited by millions around the world. Companies can create their own YouTube channel and spread videos of their business to millions of potential customers, reaching even those on the go. Videos are, today, extremely powerful tools to attract others’ attention. In this age of information explosion, businesses can longer afford avoiding the use of video in communication. Whether it is to show employees how specific business operations are conducted, or to explain to customers how a product works, videos can channel a message with both sound and image, to many at the same time, and be accessible at anytime and from anywhere, making them one of the most powerful communication tools available today. YouTube videos have also the power to turn viral if liked – a few who enjoy your video have the power to spread it worldwide in a snowball effect that could change the face of your business.

• Flickr: The next most important vehicle for getting a message across are images. Flickr, a photo management tool, makes it possible and easy to create a huge database of images on the web, accessible in one simple click from anywhere through your mobile device. Companies can create an internal database of images to show their staff different aspects of business operations, but this can also be used externally to connect with customers visually for instance. Flickr gives you the possibility of choosing who to share your images with, whether a specific number of employees for instance, or the entire world. An image is a very quick and easy way of transmitting a message, thus using a platform that facilitates the creation of a visual database is a great advantage for businesses looking to connect to others. Using Flickr also means that businesses can access the huge pool of users who themselves connect to Flickr, and thus increase their audience and traffic towards their website.

• Skype: Videoconferencing tools have become crucial in business communication today. Skype is one of the most popular of these tools, especially for its cost-effectiveness. Free to use amongst Skype users, users can speak to each other from anywhere in the world, with an optional use of video. These live calls means that business partners can hold one-on-one or small groups meetings regardless of their locations. Using this tool on your mobile device further means that one can call and reach others just like when using a normal telephone. This is thus a great solution when face-to-face meetings are not feasible, or when urgent matters that need to be dealt with instantly come up. Apart from live voice calls and live video calls, Skype also offers instant messaging, among other useful communicative features.

• GoToWebinar: GoToWebinar is an application that gives, at a small cost, the opportunity to design a full-fledged webinar online, either live or pre-recorded. Presenters using these online webinars have the opportunity to address an audience of up to 1000 attendees worldwide. This automatically eliminates logistical issues related to finding and renting a venue large enough to accommodate 1000 people, and bringing together all these people to the same place. Application features include pre-webinar practice sessions, Q&A sessions at the end and the possibility to share additional documents such as full reports, among other features. The service’s mobile application is called GoToMeeting and the latter fulfills the same functions as GoToWebinar, with the obvious advantage that these can be accessed on the go.

• Foursquare: Location services are designed to detect the location of users through mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, and using this data to send location-specific information. While this application can be used within a company to allow employees working on different sites, for instance, to inform headquarters each time they visit a specific site, Foursquare is especially useful for brick and mortar businesses looking to connect to customers. Brick and mortar companies can use Foursquare to relay information about their businesses to users in their proximity. This means that businesses looking for specific location-based customers can find them, connect to them and direct them towards their websites. Foursquare is moreover useful to capitalize on customer loyalty through the use of reward programs and incentives.

Communication is essential in turning the wheels of an organization, thus making communication as efficient and constructive as possible is a great business advantage.  A lack of communication, or a lack of efficient communication are both danger zones for any business to avoid. These 5 mobile apps present excellent ways to achieve cost-effective, efficient and productive ways to communicate with key parties in your business.