Communications Industry Investing More in Technology

Results from the Second Annual PRSA/APPrise Mobile Technology Survey

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and APPrise Mobile’s second annual Technology Trends survey found professionals are increasingly spending on technology, with the focus majorly on mobile and improvisation of analytics.

PRSA is the world’s largest organization for Public Relations professionals. APPrise Mobile is a B2B enterprise/native platform which enables organizations to effectively communicate via mobile.
Companies recognize the importance of mobile technology but the survey has also found that there is no specified strategy behind the use of mobiles in a workplace. In comparison to the last year, there is a greater reliability and usage shown in new communication technologies like social collaboration, messaging and social media.

There were more than 700 companies which responded to the survey, thus giving an estimated idea for a company’s budget priorities, which technologies are the most effective and what steps need to be taken in the technological aspect to ensure communicators are equipped to do the required.

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Jeff Corbin, CEO, APPrise Mobile said, “The vast majority of the workforce is now comprised of younger generations like millennials and Generation Z. They are dependent on the small screens of their mobile devices, so we need to think not so much about what technologies we use, but rather how we effectively use them to get our key messages into the hands of our targeted audiences.”

Survey Methodology

The survey data was collected via a SurveyMonkey poll which largely included PRSA members. 717 communication professionals responded to the questionnaire in total, during the time period of January 17, 2018, through March 3, 2018.

Findings of the Survey

The complete findings of the report will be released as a part of a PRSA/APPrise Mobile Webinar on June 7, 2018.

• State of Technology Spending
  • 44% of respondents said that their companies are investing more in technology than they did last year whereas 36% said that it is still the same.
  • Of the respondents that said there was added expenses; 51% said in analytics, 51% said in mobile technology and 4% said in video
  • 38% of the respondents said their company should “rethink” their working place digital-communication strategy and 9% said the company they work for does a good job.
• Usage of Technology Year-After-Year
  • Messaging Technologies: 14%-42% (200% increase)
  • Mobile: 8% to 23% (188% increase)
  • Social Collaborations: 15% to 37% (147% increase)
  • Social Media: 26% to 50% (92% increase)
  • Intranets: 53% to 65% (23% increase)
• Evolution of Mobile
  • Only 44% of respondents said that their companies have a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy in comparison to the 48% in 2017.
  • 97% use their personal mobiles for emailing.
  • 56% use messaging apps on their mobiles.
  • 33% access their individual company’s intranet on their mobile phones but 71% of them say that it either doesn’t work smoothly or the experience is tricky.
• 38% of the employees report that messaging tools have been implemented across their entire company in comparison to the 45% who vouched for the same in 2017. Also, more employees report that messaging tools are used primarily by groups of employees (55%) in comparison to last year’s 31%.
  • Skype: 30%
  • Slack: 14% (down from 41%)
  • Facebook Messenger: 12%
  • Whatsapp: 11%

Anthony D’Angelo, APR, Fellow PRSA, 2018 Chair, Public Relations Society of America said, “We’re seeing greater adoption of social and mobile media, without companies relinquishing established strategies and channels. Technology investments are certainly going up, and the next step will be for organizations to assess whether their ROI is growing commensurately.”

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