How WhatsApp Helps Me Build Personal and Professional Relationships

December 12, 2017 / in Information Technology / by Mic Johnson

Post written by Mic Johnson, talking about how WhatsApp helps build personal and professional relationships

WhatsApp is a FREE, quick, easy-to-use secure messaging (and calling) application available on Android, iPhone, and more.

According to their website: “More than 1 billion people in over 180 countries use WhatsApp to stay in touch with friends and family, anytime and anywhere. WhatsApp is free and offers simple, secure, reliable messaging and calling, available on phones all over the world. And yes, the name WhatsApp is a pun on the phrase What’s Up. (also data charges may apply.)”

WhatsApp lets you send texts, photos, videos, documents as well as make voice calls. Even better, messages and calls are secured with end-to-end encryption, meaning no third party can read or listen to what you’re doing.

I’ve really enjoyed using WhatsApp over the last several months. It’s really helped me build on some of the personal and professional relationships I have and keep in touch with some of the people and topics I care most about.

I Have Three WhatsApp Groups

1. YITB

This is a group of 12 friends of mine, which includes some friends from college and even a few guys I’ve known since grade school.

We talk about all kinds of things, from the Chiefs to the Royals to the Jayhawks…to pictures from vacations…to using the app to get the group together to watch games, play TopGolf, and more.

I’ve been the “unofficial social chairman” for my group of friends for years and WhatsApp, hands down, has been the best thing that’s ever happened to our group. We stay in touch and feel more connected to each other now than we have in years. This is especially true for the out-of-town guys.

To date, we’ve shared 1,321 messages, links, pictures, etc. using WhatsApp.

2. Introducing Awesome 2

This is one of my peer advisory groups. We meet in-person once a month to talk about business and life, but I wanted a way for us to stay connected in between meetings, so I pitched the idea of using WhatsApp.

There are 10 of us using the app to stay in touch. We share success stories in business and life, pictures, videos, and one of our members, Jeff Pelaccio, shares inspirational or thought provoking quotes with the group every morning.

We’ve only used it for a few months now, but everyone agrees it’s nice to have an easy way to have “touch points” in between meetings and share what’s going on in our lives and careers.

3. JAYTALKERS

As many of you now, I’m a huge Kansas Jayhawk Basketball fan (though it’s been pretty rough over the last couple of weeks with back-to-back losses for the first time in a long time.)

So this group has five guys who love to talk about Jayhawk basketball as much as I do. We just got started using the app after years of back and forth emails that cluttered up our inboxes.

It’s been great to have passionate fans to ride the ups and downs on the games with and sharing any “inside scoop” we get about the team.

In Summary

I LOVE WhatsApp because it helps me stay in touch with people I care about and offers and easy and secure way for us to share and discuss things we all care about. It’s just one more way to build quality personal and professional relationships.

If you have a group of people you’d like to stay in closer contact with, I highly recommend giving WhatsApp a try today!