E-mail is top communication tool

Many of us remember the time before personal computers entered the workplace.

Then, the PC revolutionized virtually every business, dramatically changing how we create, store and retrieve documents and files.

Then came the Internet and put an 'e' before everything we did; e-mail, e-commerce, e-learning, and e-banking and so our lives were transformed from reliance on ourselves to 'e-liance' on computers, the Internet and technology in general.

E-mail volume heavy

Communication is the one aspect of our lives most affected by the Internet. Did you know American workers receive an average of 134 e-mails daily?

E-mail volume in the U.S. was expected to reach nearly 2.7 trillion in 2007. (Of that, 9 out of every 10 e-mails are spam).

Think about it, how many e-mails do you send to business contacts and clients each day? Compare that to how many phone calls you make.

More and more, we rely on e-mail messages to communicate because it's convenient, inexpensive, and it has the ability to reach any number of contacts all over the world.

E-mail shortcomings

While e-mail has become the number one form of communication for business people, do your business e-mails stand out from the crowd?

As convenience and cost-saving take priority, our reliance on e-mail has negatively impacted our personal relationships with business contacts.

Without facial expression and vocal inflection, e-mail communication falls flat.

It is difficult to portray emotion and tone of voice in an e-mail, which, when building business relationships, is crucial.

We lose some of the personal touches that make for successful networking.

Video e-mail

You can help bridge the gap between e-mail and face-to-face communications by using video e-mail, as it allows you to send a pre-recorded video via e-mail, not as an attachment, but rather as a link to a video that is stored on the system's server.

Recipients are directed to a URL, where your message is streamed to the viewer.

Video e-mail is the perfect tool for business owners to use when they have something to say that would be best portrayed face-to-face.

Video e-mail software is simple to set up and use. Since the video isn't sent as an attachment, most users can open it and view it easily.

Using a Webcam and video e-mail software, you can capture important messages on a Webcam and send them out to your contacts just as easily as you send a text e-mail.

Video e-mail ensures that your message is delivered the way you would say it face-to-face.

Your tone, facial expression, movements and vocal inflection shine through, ensuring that your audience truly experiences the YOU factor.

Jonny Buroker is an Internet Marketing Consultant with WSI -- We Simplify the Internet, serving south central and southwest Wisconsin.