Emoticons are not just for teenagers to use on social media and text messages. They are a valuable asset to business as well. More and more business is being conducted in text, either through email or text messages. How many times have you read an email or text and taken it the wrong way? Communication is 10% actual message, 40% tone and 50% body language.
This percentage is great if you are communicating in person, but via text means you are missing 50% of the communication due to lack of being able to read body language. Emoticons help deliver your message clearly. Let’s review an example:
- Business associate: “Do you want to meet for lunch to discuss the proposal?”
- You: Yes. Where would you like to meet?
- Business associate: Where ever you want! As long as you bring what I’m looking for!
- You: Let’s meet at 1 p.m. at the Thai restaurant on main street
- Business associate: ok.
Now, reading the above text conversation could be taken two ways.
- Scenario 1 – You are going to meet at 1 p.m. at the restaurant and your business associate wants you to bring the documents he needs.
- Scenario 2 – You are going to meet at 1 p.m. and you better be prepared with to make the business associate happy by bringing the documents and offer he wants or else!
It is a possibility that your business associate was being straight forward and telling you to be prepared to provide the offer and documents he wants. However, the associate could have also been just trying to remind you to bring the documents he needs to the meeting at the restaurant. The only way you will be able to tell the “tone” of the conversation is if there was an emoticon involved. If your associate was being strong-willed he could have used an emoticon with a strong face. If he was being friendly about the situation he could have used a smiley face.
As you can see emoticons set the tone of the text. It makes you clearly aware if the conversation is kind or serious. It also allows you to prepare for the meeting. If your business associate was being strong-willed, you can prepare for a serious toned lunch meeting. If your associate was being kind and friendly, you can expect to have a casual lunch meeting. Use emoticons in your business communications to set the tone of the conversation and conduct business professionally.
Wilson Alvarez
is a Technology Evangelist residing in Miami, Florida. With extensive knowledge in the field, he has aligned himself with the ultimate resources, blogs and aggregates them via this medium & shares them within his tribe. Gallup says: “He is an Activator, Futuristic, Relator, Ideation and WOO!” If you are interested in taking your business to the next level via his Platform Builder Technology, info@wilsonalvarez.com may be the key to that path. You can just dial 305-Computers as well.