6 Technology and Digital Trends for Communicators

The impact of technology and social media is advancing by the day. Finding the best way to reach employees and customers through best-in-class technology clearly needs to be a priority for communication professionals.

Did you know?

• 4 billion+ internet users in the world
• 3 billion+ people have active social media accounts1
• 77% of Americans own smartphones2

Increasingly, social media alone is playing a critical role in corporate communications. Decision making that’s influenced by social media has exploded, forever changing the dynamics of customer relationship management, marketing and communications.

Here are 6 of the latest trends in technology and digital that you can leverage in your role: 

1. Everything is segmented and personalized

Corporate communications apps are being standardized to meet growing demands from employees. For example, Staffbase doesn’t necessarily replace your intranet, but it is a platform that lets you create chronological timely communications to anybody that has access within a particular group/silo. This allows departments, individuals and communicators to all post to the same silo with information targeted specifically to that group.

2. Personalization is getting granular

Information that’s shared is less about what department you’re in, more about what you’re doing in your job (a larger critical group is reached).

3. Measurement and tracking user behavior 

Through more sophisticated systems, organizations can see even more data on what people visit and view. You can then more accurately target your communications based on those interests.

4. Using data from events or other touchpoints to see the longer-term impact of an initiative

For example, companies may set up an app for a corporate meeting and then track the types of presentations or projects that employees were most interested in.

Companies then use that data to help dictate what’s communicated and offered over the next months or year.

5. Artificial intelligence and machine learning

Everyone right now is trying to figure out the best way to remove human effort, but not all of the initiatives are working, so here’s an area that needs to be closely watched.

One potentially hot area of interest within artificial intelligence is “sentiment analysis,” where you can audit and measure tone, language and other general implications of whatever is being said by the audience or users to understand without asking them in a survey what they want from a product or how they feel about something.

6. Re-thinking key purposes of the corporate Intranet site 

Many clients are using enterprise social software well beyond the confines of Yammer, Jive or SharePoint. Instead, they are looking at things like Slack or other new products launched by Google, Microsoft and Facebook. This pushes the intranet into a more specific role—archiving and searching as a resource center, instead of just for collaborating and socializing.

Keeping up with the latest trends is a challenge for communicators, but one that will be part of their role for years to come.

What opportunity do you have to communicate better with employees by leveraging one or more of these technology trends?

—David Grossman

1The Statistics Portal, “Global Digital Population as of April 2018”

2Pew Research Center, "Mobile Fact Sheet," 2018

Click below to download—22nd Century Communications: Strategies to Deliver Cutting-Edge Communication, Engage Employees and Strengthen Reputation—and get key insights into the top 10 principles some of the best organizations employ to ensure their communication strategy is a positive lever in building a stronger business. 

This article originally appeared on the leadercommunicator blog.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

David Grossman helps leaders drive productivity and get the results they want through authentic and courageous leadership communication. He’s a sought-after speaker and advisor to Fortune 500 leaders. A three-time author, David is CEO of The Grossman Group, an award-winning Chicago-based strategic leadership development and internal communication consultancy; clients include: Abbott, Allstate, CVS Health, Hill-Rom, Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin, McDonald’s, NYU Langone Health, Tenneco, U.S. Pharmacopeia, and Wyndham, to name a few.

A frequent media source for his expert commentary and analysis on employee and leadership issues, David has been featured on “NBC Nightly News,” CBS MoneyWatch, WSJ.com, TODAY.com, in the Chicago Tribune and the LA Times.

Among recent communication and leadership accolades, his leadercommunicator blog was named the #1 Blog on Communication by Feedspot three years in a row.

David also teaches the graduate-level Building Internal Engagement course at Columbia University. Click these links to follow him on Twitter @ThoughtPartner and Facebook and to connect on LinkedIn.