Enterprise Social Network vs. Direct Messaging: What Tools For its Organization?

What should you choose between team messaging, a tool that opens the way to uncompelled communication, and a corporate social network, with multiple functionalities, for your organization? We'll take a look at the game again to help you decide!

Enterprise social network and Direct messaging are two tools that are no longer being introduced. The first has come a long way. Well known by companies for many years now, the Enterprise Social Network has been able to change, evolve and adapt to the requirements of professionals to finally become one of the most complete tools on the market with many features. On the other hand, the second tool is much newer but has not waited long to become the favorite of many organizations. Quick to set up, easy to use and allowing real-time exchanges, all with an incredible simplicity, Direct Messaging is a solution with unquestionable qualities.

But then, what should I choose for my organization? Should I choose the Enterprise Social Network for its configurable side and its agile structure ? Or, on the contrary, should I opt for the speed ans simplicity offered by the Direct Massaging?

We're here to answer these questions so make yourself comfortable and let the game begin!

Direct Messaging: Everything, Right Away

Like we say earlier, Direct Massaging has many qualities that immediately made it one of the favorite tools for organizations. We won’t spend a lot of time on all the details concerning direct messaging. Lets rather look at its advantages and disadvantages in a global way.

Among its qualities, one is particularly appreciated by organizations and with good reasons: its deployment capacities. Direct Messaging can be deployed quickly and easily. All you need is an email address and a user name to be laughed and used. A few click and its done! Simplify does’t stop there. Even in its use, Direct Massaging puts ease of use at the top of the list: sending a text message or a file is easy and instantaneous. A tool that shiny its simplicity and its speed deployment: so where is the problem? The weakness of the tool is precisely where its strength is: in this simplicity. A one-click tool that can be used to exchange an infinite number of messages and documents in real time can quickly lead to a loss of communication control. The multiplication of conversation channels and messages lead your colleagues to be over-solicited by the tool. Too much sollicitation leads to infobesity. Infobesity have the effect of weakening your entire communication.

Direct Messaging is the perfect tool to facilitate communication for small groups of collaborators such as an SME or even a projet team. But deployed in an unprepared organization with, for example, too many employees, has the consequence of killing organizational communication in favor of real-time communication. No half measures with direct messaging: it's all, right now... or nothing.

Enterprise Social Network : a Variety of Possibilities

As opposed to team messaging, we find the Enterprise Social Network! An opposition that doesn't really make sense, let's admit it, since among the different features of the Enterprise Social Network, we find… Direct messaging… Yes, and this is clearly one of the main strengths of this tool that we no longer present: its ability to be connected to other tools. In an organization where several tools are used, the argument is significant and allows for a peaceful transition between an organization based on several different tools and one based on a single tool that centralizes individuals as well as information and exchanges.

Second advantages of the Enterprise Social Network : its great agility in terms of communication. Where direct messaging allows simple and direct communication from one individual to another or from one team to another, the Corporate Social Network offers more possibilities and allows to communicate to the audience of its choice the content of its choice. Do you want to send a message to an employee as soon as possible? Messaging is perfect for that. You need to manage a project and want to create a space of exchange dedicated to it to centralize the information? The Enterprise Social Network gives you the possibility to create thematic groups according to your needs. Need to send an important message to all your collaborators ? No problem, just write your post and share it with your organization. The Enterprise Social Network adapts to your context and is able to provide both real-time communication trough its integrated messaging, and organizational communication through its thematic group.

Let's end this point on the Enterprise Social Network with one last and not least advantage: knowledge centralization. It's quite simple, Enterprise Social Network allows you to centralize knowledge like no other tool. By knowledge we mean the information that is centralized according to the audience. The documents are classified in a document bank, making them accessible to everyone at any time. Ideal for saving time and transmitting the right information to the right interlocutors, old and new, in a simple and fast way.

So What's the Best Choice?

Let's recap the game! On one hand, we have Direct Messaging: a tool that is simple and quick to deploy and use. It is perfectly adapted to the communication needs of professionals in the field and project teams. Allowing the exchange of messages and files, Direct Messaging is a tool that shines by its simplicity and immediate benefits. However, be careful with flashbacks: dependency, overuse, infobesity and loss of control… This situations can happen if the tool is not adapted to the organization or if its use is not properly supervised.

The Enterprise Social Network, on the other hand, offers much more possibilities than its colleagues in long term. On the issue of real-time communication, you have understood it, direct messaging does not suffer any competition. But for organizations wishing to optimize collaboration, the Enterprise Social Network is one of the essentials. A customizable, configurable tool that can ensure communication on several levels (one-to-one, one-to-few, one-to-many), the Enterprise Social Network has a wide range of possibilities in terms of communication and collaboration. A wide choice which necessarily involves a longer deployment time and a more intense preparation phase. But once the tool has been prepared and deployed based on the employees' uses, the Enterprise Social Network can help an organization evolve over several years, regardless of its size and sector.

For organizations wishing to optimize collaboration, the Enterprise Social Network is one of the essentials.

To Conclude

The Enterprise Social Network and team messaging are tools with significant differences but with undeniable qualities. One allows immediate or even frenetic communication but can be deployed in a few click, while the other is much more agile in terms of possibilities, even if its deployment and appropriation time is longer than that of its colleague.

Before you decide and make your choice, ask yourself the right questions: What does my communication need? To be faster? To be more uncomplicated? More controlled? Split according to different contexts? Many questions that will help you to identify precisely the tool that will optimize your communication and guide you effectively in your evolution.

We hope you enjoyed this article and that it will help you better understand how these collaborative tools work! If you would like to know more about the Jamespot solution, do not hesitate to contact us: a personalized demonstration or a free trial of the solution is waiting for you!