1. Personal communication: There is communication for business, and then there is personal communication.

Some businesses restrict your personal communication while you are at work (no phone calls to friends, no personal emails, etc.) during working hours. Also there are some people that you may not like. You would probably not engage in personal communication with them, but you may have to do business communication with them as part of your job. 2. Business Communication: communication used to promote a product, service, or organization; relay information within the business; or deal with legal and similar issues. It is also a means of relying between a supply chain, for example the consumer and manufacturer. It is closely related to the fields of professional communication and technical communication. Business communication is somewhat different and unique from other types of communication since the purpose of business is to make money. Thus, to develop profitability, the communicator should develop good communication skills. 3. Internal communication: Internal communication involves the communication that exists within a company and can take many forms. Key to the success of an organization is communication from within. Things like building up the ideals of your company, setting certain guidelines that you expect to follow in your business, carving out strategy and goals to ensure success, keeping your employees inspired and egging on all those involved in your business falls into the category of internal communication.

4. External communication: External communication covers how a provider interacts with those outside their own organization. This may be with the public, employers, community organizations, local authorities, job centers, careers offices, funding bodies, specialist agencies and other training providers. The exchange of information and messages between an organization and other organizations, groups, or individuals outside its formal structure. The goals of external communication are to facilitate cooperation with groups such as suppliers, investors, and stockholders, and to present a favorable image of an organization and its products or services to potential and actual customers and to society at large. A variety of channels may be used for external communication, including face-to-face meetings, print or broadcast media, and electronic communication technologies such as the Internet. External communication includes the fields of PR, media relations, advertising, and marketing management. Upward Communication: Downward communication can be defined as, Information flowing from the top of the organizational management hierarchy and telling people in the organization what is important (mission) and what is valued (policies). Upward Communication is the process of information flowing from the lower levels of a hierarchy to the upper levels. This type of communication is becoming more and more popular in organizations as traditional forms of communication are becoming less popular. The more traditional organization types such as a hierarchy, places people into separate ranks. Downward communication: Communication which flows from the superiors to subordinates is known as downward communication. In an organization structure, the superiors utilize their abilities to attain the desired targets which mean that they may be engaged in issuing commands, directions and policy directives to the persons working under them (at lower levels). Under downward communication, the superiors anticipate instant recital of a job thats why it is highly directive. Formal communication can be defined as, A presentation or written piece that strictly adheres to rules, conventions, and ceremony, and is free of colloquial expressions. Formal communication is that which is connected with the formal organizational arrangement and the official status or the place of the communicator and the receiver. It moves through the formal channels authoritatively accepted positions in the organization chart. Formal communication is mostly in black and white. Mass communication is the term used to describe the academic study of the various means by which individuals and entities relay information through mass media to large segments of the population at the same time. It is usually understood to relate to newspaper and magazine publishing, radio, television and film, as these are used both for disseminating news and for advertising.

Lateral communication is communication between different individuals and , departments, or organisms on the same organizational level. With this system people at the same level are permitted to communicate directly without going through several levels of organization Communicating effectively laterally involves the exchange of information between and among all organizational members. While we may perceive that organizational information flows vertically or from top to bottom, in reality, information moves laterally. In other words, as information directives are communicated from an upper to a lower position on the hierarchy, peers at each hierarchical level should quickly interpret and communicate these directives between and among peers at similar hierarchical levels. Interactive communication is an exchange of ideas where both participants, whether human, machine or art form, are active and can have an effect on one another. It is a dynamic, two-way flow of information. Interactive communication is a modern term that encompasses these evolving forms of conversation. It is a primary characteristic of the present Information Age. Interactive communication forms include basic dialogue and nonverbal communication, game books, interactive fiction and storytelling, interactive television and movies, photo and video manipulation, video sharing, video games, social media, interactive marketing and public relations, and virtual reality. Informal communication arises out of all those channels that fall outside the formal channels and it is also known as grapevine. It is established around the societal affiliation of members of the organization. Informal communication does not follow authority lines as in the case of formal communication. Informal communication takes place due to the individual needs of the members of an organization and subsists in every organization. Normally, such communication is oral and may be expressed even by simple glance, sign or silence. Informal communication, is implicit, spontaneous multidimensional and diverse. It oftenly works in group of people, i.e. when one person has some information of interest; he passes it on to his informal group and so on. Inspite on many advantages, informal communication has certain disadvantages. Informal communication contains facts, deceptions, rumors and unclear data. The informal channels of communication may transmit completely imprecise information that may harm rather than help an organization. In addition, it is impossible to fix the responsibility for its origin or flow of information. However, for the efficient working of any organization both formal and informal communications are required. Diagonal communication makes an organization more flexible by allowing faster communication of information in both directions, from the lower levels of the company to the top, and vice versa. It takes away the rigid command structure that are commonly known as procedures and can aid in efficiency by employees getting quick answers to questions that might otherwise take a week or maybe even two. It allows cross communication between departments which in theory, helps disseminate information faster and helps people do their jobs quicker and more efficiently. The idea is that it empowers people more and allows them to have better control over their jobs and break down barriers between upper management and the lower levels. FAX (Facsimile Telegraphy) - Facsimile telegraphy deals with the transmission of typewritten or handwritten message , drawings , graphics , pictures or any matter which cannot be sent through telegraphs , telephones or teleprinters. This machine operates by converting the variances of light reflected from the image of the original matter into electrical impulses which can be reconverted onto the image from on reception. Connections can be made over very long distances using the public telephone networks or radio links. ELECTRONIC MAIL (E-Mail) - This, too is a progeny of computer technology. It facilities the transmittal of messages through the use of computer storage and computer inter-links , thus eliminating postal delays. The message is simply keyed into the system. The signals, converted into digital pulses are stored in the computer's memory for retrieval. The message can be retrieved at the recipient's convenience. Text messaging, or texting, refers to the exchange of brief written text messages between fixed-line phone or mobile phone and fixed or portable devices over a network. While the original term (see below) was derived from referring to messages sent using the Short Message Service (SMS) originated from Radio Telegraphy, it has since been extended to include messages containing image, video, and sound content (known as MMS messages). Videoconferencing uses telecommunications of audio and video to bring people at different sites together for a meeting. This can be as simple as a conversation between two people in private offices (point-to-point) or involve several sites (multi-point) with more than one person in large rooms at different sites. Besides the audio and visual transmission of meeting activities, videoconferencing can be used to share documents, computer-displayed information, and whiteboards.