Best Social Media Collaboration Platforms

Social media is not about conversations only, but it is also about collaboration also. Keeping this in mind, it would be interesting to take a look at some of the most well known digital tools available to help collaboration.

Here are 7 Best Social Media Collaboration Platforms:

1. Atlassian Confluence: It offers a powerful wiki-based solution to enterprise collaboration. Using this tool, content can be simply dragged and dropped from the desktop to the platform, thus eliminate the need for keeping track of attachments sent via email.

 

2. Google Documents:  Simultaneously reading and editing of files makes Google Docs ideal for students and other casual collaborative groups. The updated version of Google apps offers additional security options for business. 

3. Adobe Acrobat: It allows teams to work collaboratively on documents through their browsers. Various options on Adobe Acrobat for web conferencing and screen-sharing provide additional communication channels.

 4. Basecamp: This platform offers collaborative messaging and file sharing. Using Basecamp, project management can be easily tracked with milestones and deadlines. A team can set up to-do lists, calendars, projects & more all at one easy to login site.

5. Sharepoint: It provides a single platform for employees to work collaboratively through various methods such as wikis and work flows. Here you can create personal profiles which allow teams to better understand each other’s skills, interests and experience.

6. Tibbr: This collaboration platform uses a design that is familiar to Facebook users. One key feature is the ability for employees to follow subjects, stay tuned on news and developments in their area of business.

7. Socialcast:  It allows employees to discuss projects remotely through a micro-blogging service, accessible from smart phone. The Town Hall extension on Socialcast enables discussion between executives and employees.

So, these were the seven social media collaboration platform that you can use. And, if you are using any other platform, then please share with us.

Online Collaboration Alternatives To Sharepoint For Small Businesses to Increase Productivity

If you want to run business in today's competitive economy, then you need to gain more flexibility, enhanced information exchange and collaborative teamwork. Well, this shows the importance of collaborative technology.

Today, Microsoft SharePoint is the most prominent solution for collaboration. It is an on-premise collaborative software model, but is more suited to big businesses with huge IT budgets and large number of employees. Microsoft Share-point also has some disadvantages like huge setup costs, no email functionality, software complexities, and costly training and support issues.

But, the SAAS (software-as-a-service) approach gives small businesses a viable alternative to access this software over the Internet at reasonable fees. Here are some packages that could offer valuable productivity gains for small businesses that host websites on 100TB servers:

1. HyperOffice: It is an alternative solution for the small businesses moving from on-premise software such as Microsoft SharePoint to the cloud. Small Businesses need only a broadband connection to access this robust software solution at low costs. Some other benefits includes HyperOffice  has that lack in SharePoint include email functionality, drag and drop portal publisher, an interactive Gantt chart in place of the static Gantt chart in SharePoint and forums.

2. Box.com: This is one of the best Business collaboration software alternative offers a scalable, affordable and simple alternative. Box.com provides small businesses with features such as file storage, file collaboration and content management on the cloud. Also, it is simple to synchronize your files on the desktop, receive feedback at a nominal price and share them with colleagues.

3. Huddle: This alternative is one of the best cloud collaboration tools. It is designed with ease and efficiency in mind, and thousands are using it for enterprise collaboration and content management. Small businesses can easily manage and exchange information or projects with others using Huddle. It also allows you to track project deadlines, view late projects, milestones, completed tasks and even reassign projects, thus making collaboration easy and efficient.

4. Google Apps: This is a free alternative to Microsoft SharePoint. Google Apps offers simplicity, efficiency and clarity, allowing small businesses to organize the day-to-day schedules, files, projects and teams securely. Some other features offered include easy navigation, advanced searches, email integration and free conference calls.

So, these were the four alternatives to Microsoft Sharepoint that small businesses can use and increase their productivity.

How to Overcome the Barriers to Communication?

The barriers to communication exist all around us. Sometimes your message is misinterpreted by team members during meetings. We generalize information in every conversation and yet think that we clearly understand what others are saying and why they are saying it.

There are many ways through which we interpret the information given to us, and these cause us to have a misunderstanding. So how can we overcome the barriers that effectively blind us to meaning and comprehension? 

Following are the five ways to overcome communication barriers: 

1. Understand how your way of seeing things is different from others: Try to predict the feelings and attitude of the receiver. What will be their expectation? What prejudices might they have? What about their state of mind when you are communicating? If you know these things before communicating, then you can reduce the risk of misinterpretation.

2. Feedback from receiver: Don't ask the receiver, ‘Do you Understand?’.  This is because they will most often say ‘yes’ as they see things in the way they want to understand it. Instead, ask what is their understanding of the message?

3. Speak Face to Face: This will allow for questions and, also allow you to see the body language of the receiver, which will convey much more meaning than over the phone or through email.

4. Use the Right Communication Channel: Use email for its proper purpose. It means that don't send an email if it's quicker to pick up the phone or go and talk to the person. We are rapidly losing the art of conversation, so don't add to that by using the wrong channel.

5. Make it easy for others to listen to you: Develop your communication style that one of a conversationalist who is able to make a point quickly. If your key message is lost in the morass of a thousand words, then people will wonder what you mean and what the purpose is. Brevity and Clarity are the watchwords.

Using the above points, you will be able to certainly reduce the risk of barriers interrupting the key messages you want to make. If you know any other way to overcome the communication barriers, then share with us below in the comment section.