Over the years, I’ve fought hard to keep most of my communication in one place. It’s part of being able to keep up with everything which needs my attention every day. I have a ton of e-mail addresses, but they’re all routed into my Gmail, and for several years, this has worked very well. But…

More and more, I’m connecting with customers and potential customers on Facebook, and with that come requests for support and work via Facebook. I’ve resisted this kind of communication for a long while because it throws my game off, but I had a realization today. I can’t resist that kind of communication anymore. If that’s where the customer is and that’s where the customer wants to communicate, then I need to let go of my process, dig in, and find a way to manage it.

That said, I feel Facebook could help. Since it’s becoming a major platform for businesses, Facebook could improve their inbox a bit and, at minimum, include a follow up flag so users can mark messages which need attention later.

Are you finding that what used to be phonecalls and e-mails are now becoming Facebook messages and Tweets? Do you struggle managing it? What do you think the solution might be? Share your thoughts in the comments.