The jury is out on texting for professional communication

Is texting a professional form of communication? Will it ever be? The author explores the options.

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Hey, January 2025 professional… check out this app! It allows you to select someone from your contact list and, with a push of a button, send a signal to that person alerting them you are trying to connect. If they wish, they can accept the incoming communication with you and, at that point, you can have a two-way, back and forth, instantaneous conversation… using voice!

Yes, in 2014 we call that “the phone.”

Related: 5 Tech Time Wasters and How to Avoid Them

Even the best business development professionals periodically struggle with “call reluctance,” that mystery conclusion that a phone call is intrusive, no matter how relevant or pertinent to the business at hand. But imagine the next generation of professionals who spent their college years not even picking up the phone to order a pizza. As you would guess, many generation Y sales professionals prefer contacting prospects via text or email rather than to calling on the phone. This is the case when it isn’t a sales call to a potential client. Millennials default to email even for internal communication with people sitting steps away.

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