Group Texting May Be the Next Big Thing For Your Team. Oh Joy

The big job of keeping your team connected and informed might be done by smart phone, instead of computer. That's at least what a number of new companies are telling the techie hordes at the annual SXSW festival in Austin Tx, this month.
What started as a music festival has become the new launching ground for small start-up tech companies. Twitter and Foursquare started there, and this year the buzz is all about group texting. You might not be comfortable with the idea, but it makes a lot of sense for a number of reasons.

I'm not the world's biggest fan of texting as a communication tool, but it serves its purposes. As my relationship with my 17-year-old will attest, it also has its limits. Anything can be used for good or evil in the right (or wrong) hands.

Here are some of the reasons it makes sense:

• Team members are increasingly mobile. More and more work is being done on smart phones rather than on laptops or even (remember them?) desktop computers. Texting allows simple messages to reach people in the fastest possible manner.
• Up until now, it's been difficult to send multiple messages to groups, like you would with email. These new platforms are designed to allow mutliple participants in discussions, easy formatting of group messages and archiving for later referral.
• As people have learned in natural disasters, such as the earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan, text messages, or SMS, are actually easier to send on weak or damaged signals than actual phone calls. With dispersed teams, emergency planning is essential and mass messaging is an important component of a good emergency strategy.
• Sometimes a simple "I'm leaving for an hour, back by 9" message is all you need to send.

• Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. Despite what your kid or your barista will tell you, text messaging does not take the place of actual spoken communication. Remember that these messages are done on a telephone, which allows people to actually, you know, talk.
• Text messages are even worse than email for creating context and communicating deep thoughts. Choose the medium that's most appropriate to the message you intend to send and how seriously you want people to take it.
• Culturally, people are used to informal text messages and not everyone finds them appropriate to the business environment. Personally, when someone says,"l8er" instead of "later" it makes me crazy, but then I'm almost 50 and actually like the English language as it's written. When you have people whose first language isn't the same as the rest of the team's the possibilities for misunderstandings are expanded. As a team you have to decide on norms for style and tone.
• As mass messaging becomes easier, there will be a tendency for some people to use it as their default. If you've got that team member who only communicates by email, watch them like a hawk and help them understand when a hit and run text message works and when actual human contact might work better.

• TextPlus
• GroupFlier
• TextMagic
• Groupme.com

Read more:

• Technology and emotions- are text message apologies acceptable?
• 4 Steps to a team communication plan
• Phone or email? Meeting or wiki? Which tool to use when