The Public Relations Society of America and APPrise Mobile's second annual Technology Trends survey found that professionals are ramping up spending on technology, with a focus on mobile and improving analytics.

Companies increasingly recognize the importance of mobile technology, but the survey also found that there is no real strategy behind the use of mobile in the workplace. In other findings, email continues to be the most highly used messaging tool, despite the fact that most respondents believe it is not the most effective form of communication. Compared to last year, there is also greater usage of and reliance on newer communications technologies such as social media, social collaboration and messaging.

More than 700 industry pros responded to the second annual survey, which sought to understand companies' budget priorities, what technologies are most effective, and what needs to be done technologically to ensure that communicators are best equipped to do their work.

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

"The vast majority of the workforce is now comprised of younger generations like millennials and Generation Z," said Jeff Corbin, CEO, APPrise Mobile. "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."

Key findings from the survey are below. The complete report will be released as part of a PRSA/APPrise Mobile webinar on June 7^th. Click here to register.

• State of Technology Spending

• 44% of respondents said their company is investing more in technology now than it did last year; 36% said it is about the same.

• Of those who said their company is spending, 51% said in mobile technology, 51% in analytics and 4% in video.

• Fewer than half of respondents said their company does an "OK" job in offering digital tools to communicate; 38% said their company should "rethink" their digital workplace communications strategy; and only 9% said the company they work for does a great job.

• Usage of technology year-over-year

• Messaging technologies: 14% to 42% (200% increase).

• Mobile: 8% to 23% (188% increase).

• Social Collaboration: 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 their companies have a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy as compared to 48% in 2017.

• 97% use their personal mobile device for email.

• 56% use messaging apps on their personal device.

• 33% access their company's intranet on their mobile device but 71% said the experience either doesn't work or is difficult.

• Fewer employees report that messaging tools have been implemented across their entire company (38%) compared to last year (45%). At the same time, more employees report that messaging tools are used primarily by groups of employees (55%) compared to last year (31%).

• Skype: 30%.

• Slack: 14% (down from 41%).

• Facebook Messenger (12%).

• WhatsApp (11%).