The Best Ways to Use Instant Messaging for Companies

Instant Messaging first became really popular in the mid to late 1990's for staying in contact with friends and mainly members over the internet. Instant Messaging, also called IM, can be thought of a lot like a text based phone call. Since the early 2000's it is becoming more and more common for businesses to take advantage of instant messaging software to help keep in contact with suppliers, customers, employees and other business contacts.

If you want to use an instant message program to keep in contact with all or any of your business professionals, be sure to create an IM user policy. Employees will need to know how, where, when and who to instant message. Try creating a user policy for your business that presents your company and employees the way you want to be seen be customers and clients.

When instant messaging and creating your IM policy, keep in mind that IM's can be saved by either you and your employees and also by the other people you are talking to as well. Often you or your employees will need to use instant messaging to share files with customers and suppliers. Viruses can easily be transferred on files to your computer, so before you begin file sharing through IM, make sure you have a good anti- virus program on each of your computers.

People are very busy so a very important thing to remember is to keep IM conversations short, simple and to the point. Keep your friends and family contacts separate from your business and employee contacts so you can easily tell which of you business contacts are available during business hours.

Even if using instant message for your business sounds unprofessional or more complicated, look into enterprise instant messaging, which can be a real time saver when communicating with clients and customers or sending simple messages to employees and other business providers.

Uses for an iPad or other tablet

I recently got an iPad. I was sick of taking notes in several different notebooks or post it notes and p then not finding them later. It wasnt productive and I might as well not have been taking notes at all. The iPad 2 has gone down in price since the new iPad has come out, so I went for it.

The iPad has a variety of uses, including:

• Taking notes at meetings
• Sending emails
• Sending text and instant messages
• Looking up information on the internet
• Playing games
• Downloading productivity apps, such as Wordpress and document editors.

I have found that the iPad is a very useful tool for business owners, working professionals, and for personal use. Finding a sale on a used iPad or a new one from a wholesale distributor online can be a good way to save some money. Other tablets are available as well, including the Samsung Galaxy and the Kindle Fire.

This post was sponsored by Brosix Instant Messenger, an alternative to Skype.

Communicating With My Business Partner Online

I have a business partner that lives about 3 hours (by car) away from me. Because of this, we had to find some affordable (and free) ways to communicate every day by phone.

• Email: We use gmail and go daddy email addresses with our URL to communicate with one another and our clients.
• Instant Messaging: We talk via gchat, Skype, and Brosix every day to stay in touch so we can chat about clients, projects, and other developments.
• File Sharing: We use Google Documents for a lot of our files that we both need to access. This is especially useful for spreadsheets.
• Text Messaging: We both have iPhones, so we can use iMessage or HeyWire to communicate via WiFi or our phone's data service.

These are just some of the free tools we use to stay in touch and have a successful business partnership.

Do you have any others we can use?

This post sponsored by Brosix, a corporate messenger program available for Android and iPhone.

Using Instant Messaging During The Holidays

Instant messaging is a great online communication tool because it allows businesses and individuals to talk online to their colleagues, friends, and family members anywhere in the world where there is internet access.

Because things can get pretty hectic during the holidays, using an instant messenger for communication is a great way to stay in touch with employees that are traveling for the holidays. Having a more flexible, work from home schedule during the holidays can allow employees to get work done while also spending time with their family. Instant messaging programs like Brosix make staying in touch so much easier.

Instant messaging programs can also be great for families who aren't all together during the holidays. Some instant messaging programs have Video Chat, which can allow families to see one another one the holidays themselves, which can have a lot of meaning to families who are located far apart from one another.