195 Replies and art of communication
Every year I try to reply to as many birthday wishes as possible. Yet, every year I come to a conclusion that it is not practical to reply to all the messages received on numerous platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, Messenger, LinkedIn and many more. This year, I could reply to 195 messages and lost my patience to reply to the messages any further.
“Contrary to the belief, communication has become much more complex after the advent of communication technology.”
Consider a decade back maybe few people used to remember the birthdays, some had written down the birthdays of their friends on calendar, some may have used websites like birthdayalarm.com for setting reminders and still some of you (like me), may have forgotten putting some important birthdays and anniversaries.
Today, thanks artificial intelligence, in applications like LinkedIn Messages, we get readymade replies to choose from.
Sometimes I also use these automated messages but I really don’t like that.
“We end up using these AI based replies to save time but I think what we lose on is the quality of the communication.”
Communication is not your business, unless that really is your business if you are working for WhatsApp, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, etc. For others, communication is just a way to share your message.
Earlier we used to have letters and landline phones for communication. We then moved on to using emails instead of writing letters. We started sending online birthday greeting cards moving away from hard copy greeting cards. By now, we have evolved to sending wishes and messages through varied messaging platforms.
Consider these numbers. Number of emails in my inbox: 14624, number of contacts on phone: 5526, WhatsApp chats: 1098 and I can go on an on. I tried to search some average numbers for these platforms and number are just staggering!
“121 Business emails are sent and received each day.[i] A person on average has 654 contacts in their phone book.[ii] More than 100 billion messages are sent each day on WhatsApp![iii]”
So here are the guidelines I use for selecting communication medium. I would like to know your feedback and tips if any.
- Email: Use for formal communication
- Facebook Messenger: Personal communication
- Google Chat: Communication with specific suppliers
- In person meeting: Far better than any other form of communication though needs to be used carefully in the pandemic era
- LinkedIn Messages: For professional communication
- Phone call: Next best option to in person meeting
- Twitter messages: To get best customer support
- WhatsApp call: When you try to reach those who had network problems
- WhatsApp message: Next best to phone call, though control is required
- WhatsApp groups: That calls for a separate blog 😉
Trying to be better communicator,
References:
[i]Â https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/knowledge-base/how-many-emails-does-the-average-person-receive-per-day/
[ii]Â https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-average-number-of-contacts-a-person-has-in-their-address-book#:~:text=Based%20upon%20our%20database%2C%20a,contacts%20in%20their%20phone%20book.
[iii]Â https://backlinko.com/whatsapp-users#number-of-whatsapp-messages-sent-daily