These days, the workplace is changing. Not only is the traditional office environment transforming due to the growth of distributed teams and increased contributions from freelancers, but the internet and advances in technology are revolutionizing how teams communicate as well. And with chat apps, social media, and smartphones ruling the day, distractions are certainly playing a role.
Despite these transformations, a constant remains: Your employees must have the tools at their disposal to be both optimally productive and better informed. And though a business instant messenger, coupled with these best practices, can help reduce some of the distractions of the modern workplace, you still need the features to keep your team(s) focused and in the know.
One such feature is the Broadcast Message. Read on to find out what a broadcast message is, how to use it, and how it can help you minimize workplace distractions while keeping your team(s) better informed.
What Is Broadcast Messaging?
Broadcast messaging is a communication method that allows a specific user to send messages and announcements to a larger group of users at once. The recipients, which can be hand selected by the sender from his/her contact list, receive the message as a standard instant message.
Many organizations use the broadcast service as it’s a highly effective way to send important group text messages. What differentiates a broadcast text message from a standard SMS, MMS, or chat room message, though, is that recipients can’t respond to it. Afterward, the message is recorded in the local chat history as well as in the history on the server.
Types of Broadcast Service
When it comes to broadcast messaging services, there are different types available. In a nutshell, they include SMS broadcast or text messaging service, and message broadcasting through an online instant messenger.
As the name suggests, SMS broadcast service involves sending a text message to a large list of contacts. This helps businesses to send SMS messages to multiple phone numbers at once. It’s also known as mass texting or group messaging.
Businesses can also use broadcast text messaging for marketing purposes to send out promotional messages or customer service updates to large groups of people. Additionally, text broadcast messaging services also support MMS messages, which enable the sending of multimedia content such as pictures or videos along with the text.
Lastly, there’s an option to send the message through Brosix, our instant messenger for business use. It makes it easy for your colleagues to receive messages containing essential information without disrupting their workflow.
How Do I Use Broadcast Messaging in Brosix?
With Brosix Instant Messenger, there are a number of ways to access Broadcast Message, and using the feature couldn’t be easier.
You can also access Broadcast Message through a text chat or chat room window. In both windows, simply click the “Broadcast Message” icon and follow the same steps as you would when accessing the feature through your contact list. For further flexibility, you can access the feature through the Menu by clicking “Actions” and “Broadcast Message,” and again following the previously mentioned steps. In all instances, recipients will not be able to respond to the broadcast message.
How Can It Help?
The benefits of broadcast messaging are manifold. For starters, you can be sure that your message will reach all necessary participants more quickly than an email and more efficiently than a phone call. What’s more, with a broadcast message, recipients are traditionally unable to respond, eliminating any ambiguity that could leave the recipient wondering about how or what to answer, and that’s a time-waster. Moreover, by choosing to send a broadcast message, you’ll save yourself the effort of physically calling multiple individuals, or composing an email and then sifting through inevitable responses that weren’t necessary in the first place.
Broadcast messages can be used in any number of situations. Let’s say, for instance:
- It’s a colleague’s anniversary with the company, and everyone’s meeting to celebrate after work.
- You want to announce someone’s achievements and promotion.
- Your latest product is finally ready for launch.
- You’re going to be out of the office for an extended period of time and you need to let your team know.
- Alert all parties involved that the upcoming project proposal is due.
At each of these events, by informing team members via a chat room, you provoke the possibility of a host of responses. And you’re no stranger to the game. A single message or funny comment provokes another, and then another, and before you know it a harmless announcement has become an office-wide group chat. And that’s a distraction.
But a broadcast message allows you to inform your team(s) simultaneously without any unnecessary replies or feedback. And by targeting specific individuals, you can avoid disrupting team members with news or information that doesn’t pertain to them. You could even use a broadcast message to send them a notification of an emergency situation and take precautionary or necessary measures.
Importantly, though, the total control Brosix provides its users extends to the Broadcast Message feature as well. By allowing administrators to handpick the individuals who have access to the feature, the likelihood of spam or other inappropriate or malicious messages is greatly reduced.
All of this means you can share company news, reminders, announcements, vital information, and much more, all while minimizing potential disruptions and keeping your team(s) better informed.
Conclusion
A common argument against the use of texting and instant messaging in the workplace is that it can be a distraction. And there’s no doubt that a barrage of messages is a major disruption to productivity. Especially if they don’t concern you or if their ambiguity leaves you wondering whether a response is necessary. The truth is, though, that other means of communication—email and the phone—can also distract and interrupt.
