Here are five key things that have happened to the busi­ness over the past fortnight:

1. sent out a web­mail com­pet­i­tion to our database
2. recom­men­ded a busi­ness con­tact via LinkedIn a graphic designer (who has now made it to the final interview)
3. invited some of our top cus­tom­ers to a break­fast at Chew­ton Glen (a nearby hotel and spa)
4. inter­act­ing on email with a new cli­ent visu­als for road­side hoard­ings for plan­ning approval
5. Shared the news we won an award via Twit­ter with some key stake­hold­ers and dir­ect mes­sages to them

What this emphas­ises is that the dis­cus­sions, men­tioned above, all star­ted with social com­mu­nic­a­tion. Whilst face-​to-​face inter­ac­tion is vital in build­ing rela­tion­ships, it is now becom­ing com­mon­place that social com­mu­nic­a­tion is repla­cing face-​to-​face and tele­phone exchange.

Each of the five examples high­lighted dif­fer­ent uses of the writ­ten word. It was using email mes­sages, LinkedIn com­ments, a web­mail sales pro­mo­tion offer and 140 char­ac­ter Tweets. The cur­rency of com­mu­nic­a­tion we now use is largely the writ­ten word.

They key point here is that every mes­sage that you com­mu­nic­ate has to be clear, con­cise and coher­ent. We are all bom­barded with mes­sages and to be under­stood to cre­ate a per­cep­tion that we are know­ledge­able and have some­thing of interest to share. One of the new facets we all need to pos­sess are def­in­ite skill sets with our writ­ten com­mu­nic­a­tion. From a tweet to an email we are rep­res­ent­ing our brands in a num­ber of writ­ten formats, use them well.