The Ever-Increasing Use of Technology in Our Daily Lives

Building the foundation for any public relations campaign begins with research. It also helps agencies and organizations plan for the future.

As a public relations professional, I’m a big fan of the work conducted by the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism’s Center for Public Relations (CPR). Each year, the CPR conducts research on the topics and trends that will influence the Public Relations industry in the years to come.  This year’s global communications report provided great insights into the use of technology.

Take a moment and just think about your daily lives and how technology influences it. We know who is at our front door through our doorbell, we can control our thermostats at home from thousands of miles away, and Alexa does more for me than my teenagers do these days – just kidding kids!

Technology will continue to drive how brands communicate with their audiences. It allows you to reach your targeted audience through platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and, perhaps most importantly, measure the return on investment for your public relations campaign.

With technology advances comes our need to educate ourselves on its applications and develop new skills to deploy it effectively. The study showed that 48 percent of agencies rate their company’s current ability to use the latest technology to enhance the effectiveness of its communications as good compared to 35 percent of in-house communicators and 44 percent of CEO’s. These are numbers that show the opportunity for continuous improvement – me included.

Finally, the report includes a six-page glossary of companies cited in this year’s Global Communications Survey. As I look forward to the 2020 report and beyond, it’s a pretty safe bet they’re going to need a few more pages.

By Christopher Knospe