This article helps you understand how IT is used to communicate effectively.
Using information technology software and tools is an excellent way to communicate in today’s digital world. IT offers a wide range of communication channels and nearly every business uses IT to communicate effectively both internally and with their customers. Some of the communication channels that are used are documents, email, blogging, video blogs or vlogs, websites, presentations and video conferencing.
Word-processed documents can be used to communicate with internal staff by sending memos or design documents relating to work. IT Companies also send marketing information to their customers in document format. This can be done by post or email. Using IT to communicate means that documents and marketing materials can be updated on an ongoing basis and features such as mail merge can be used to send documents to a wide audience range when using this communication channel. Common word processing software is Microsoft Word, Google Docs and Open Office Docs. There are other types but these are the most common. Microsoft and Google offer users to save documents online in the cloud.
Presentations can also be used to communicate information to team members or to present information about your company or products to customers. Presentations using short bullet points along with relevant images are eye capturing and are a good means of communicating when a speaker has prepared detailed notes and is enthusiastic about what they are presenting. Many IT companies will have specialist people in their marketing department that are trained to present information to customers about the latest products.
Email or electronic mail is probably the most widely used and fastest communication channel in the world today. Emails are used to communicate effectively with colleagues within an organization and with customers and other bodies outside of an organization. To be professional most companies will ensure staff are trained to use email correctly and use the right etiquette. As an employee in the IT industry you need to be aware that you are representing the brand of your company at all times and that you need to communicate professionally and effectively. Most companies have their own email server and will provide staff with an email format such as firstname.lastname@companyname.com. Popular email packages such as Microsoft Outlook can be used to host someone’s email account on their work machine. Specialist email software comes with build in calendars and meeting schedule to communicate with colleagues and arrange meetings.
An excellent marketing strategy for companies that wants to use IT tools to communicate effectively is to use web based communication. The different types of web based communication are blogs, vlogs, web pages and online video conferencing.
A blog also known as a web log is a website that you can use to communicate information to customers about the latest news and product information from your company. WordPress is one example of specialist blogging that can be integrate with your main website.
Online video hosting sites such as YouTube.com or Vimeo.com can be used to create exciting videos about your company and many IT companies market their products and services in this way. The videos can be embedded into your main blog or placed on a separate video only blog as known as a vlog. Making your own YouTube channel is in fact creating a vlog or video log.
Podcasting is another way to communicate information. Podcasts are audio files that you can place on your website to provide customers with information about your products and services. You can see that using lots of different communication channels caters for a range of people and what they like. Some people will like to read information about your product and will visit your blog whereas others want to watch videos and see images of what you are offering.
Communicating effectively using a range of communication channels is the best thing to do to reach as many customers as possible. Most companies have websites and it’s important that they are designed professional and reflect a good image for your company to communicate effectively with customers.
Video conferencing is new technology that allows you to communicate internally in the same building or with people on the other side of the world. The advantage of video conferencing is that large groups of people can meet and see who they are talking to. For a company that had offices in America and the UK this is a very cost effective way of getting lots of staff in the same place at the same time without paying thousands on international flights. Skype is an example of video conferencing software that can be used for free as long as you have an internet connection headphones, microphone and video camera connected to your computer.
When using IT tools to communicate it is essential that you communicate effectively. To ensure that this is done all written documentation should be clear and free of errors. When communicating any information IT tools such as build in thesaurus (like a dictionary to check the meaning of big words) and spell checkers should be used. The entire document should be proof read and double checked for spelling and grammar errors to ensure that all communication is professional. Word processing software such as Microsoft Word come with build in review features such as the spell checker. It is important to use these tools to ensure communication is effective. All of the above skills and different software types can be combined to offer a range of different communication channels that enables a business to communicate effectively using IT. Having many of the personal attributes valued by employers will help employees use IT to communicate.