We use mobile messengers every day, each in our skilled and personal lives. Therefore, it is comprehensible that many startups are using them to work during these unprecedented times. But how can startups harness the power of messaging apps for business?
Messaging apps can provide many advantages to your company’s communications strategy. Some of the more obvious advantages include:
- Mobile-first may be easily used when you are on the move
- Real-time team and client communication
- Connects distant teams
- Significantly accelerates internal communication
- Replaces long and cumbersome email chains
- Makes previously invisible contacts and collaborations (i.e. meetings and phone calls) visible and shared across your organization
- Savings (i.e. for international or long distance phone calls and travel)
- Presence awareness: the ability to see when colleagues are available/unavailable
- Efficiency
- Increased worker engagement, motivation and morale by sharing team triumphs and victories
- Customer service apps and AI automation help deliver customer support at scale
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Categorization of messaging apps and tools
Understanding the messaging tools available can make it easier to define the technology you could need in addition to the possible advantages to your business.
Messaging apps may be broadly divided into the following categories:
Professional messaging apps
Professional messaging, intended for use by businesses and individual professionals, differs from consumer messaging platforms (e.g. WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger) primarily due to the administrative features, additional controls, and legal compliance required.
Professional messaging apps are fast and skilled forms of communication that may profit your business in many ways:
- Used interpersonally in direct messages in addition to in groups
- Used internally and externally in organizations for group and individual messaging
- Widely used for social, networking and community purposes
- Provides the company with complete data control, configuration, management and compliance through a company-managed application/web admin interface
These apps are skilled equivalents of consumer apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, which mustn’t be used for business purposes. Instead, these skilled messaging apps work well for customer groups, high-value networks and communities, in addition to for one-on-one interpersonal communication.
Some apps are designed to meet specific industry requirements and laws (e.g. Hospify for healthcare), while others are general-purpose business messaging apps.
Related: How to attract attention with your message with a unique brand voice
Workflow communication tools
While these solutions enable messaging, they are not “messaging apps” in the pure sense of the first category. They concern communication more broadly, and although there is a social element, the emphasis is on project and task cooperation in teams. These tools focus more on productivity and efficiency than on communication, connection, or community.
The most important goal of these tools is team collaboration around projects and tasks. They are used in teams where there is direct communication between team members.
It’s time for you to master communication
Mobile messaging is still a relatively latest business communication channel, despite its unstoppable growth. It looks a lot like social media did a decade ago.
As we add more and more digital tools to our internal and external communications, including workflow communications, video conferencing and messaging, it is necessary to make clear which messaging medium (not only which technology) is best suited for specific purposes or the needs of your startup.
Your company needs it understand the advantages and risks of messaging in order to create a communication strategy and select appropriate technologies to protect your business.
Whether you are considering providing customer support through a consumer messaging app, ensuring distant work works properly, or ensuring data sharing compliance for messaging, it is time for you to leverage the potential of mobile messaging while effectively avoiding risk.