How the Mobile Revolution Is Changing Business Communication

"This month is National Cyber Security Awareness Month.

So, with that in mind, we thought we'd prepare some tips to help keep your smartphone safe." . . .

The rise of mobile has some obvious implications, such as the need for websites to be mobile friendly. Anyone who has tried to browse a conventional website on a tiny screen or fill in complicated online forms using the keypad on your phone knows how frustrating the experience can be.

However, device size and portability are only the most obvious changes. Just as with social media, the changes brought about by mobile go far deeper than the technology itself. Mobile changes the way people communicate, which has profound implications for virtually every aspect of business communication.

Social media pioneer Nicco Mele coined the term radical connectivity to describe “the breathtaking ability to send vast amounts of data instantly, constantly, and globally.” Mobile plays a major and ever-expanding role in this phenomenon by keeping people connected 24/7, wherever they may be. People who’ve grown up with mobile communication technology expect to have immediate access to information and the ability to stay connected to their various social and business networks.

Here are the most significant ways mobile technology is changing the practice of business communication:

Constant connectivity is a mixed blessing. As with social media, mobile connectivity can blur the boundaries between personal and professional time and space, preventing people from fully disengaging from work during personal and family time. On the other hand, it can give employees more flexibility to meet their personal and professional obligations. In this regard, mobile plays an important role in efforts to reduce operating costs through telecommuting and other nontraditional work models.

Small mobile displays and sometimes-awkward input technologies present challenges for creating and consuming content, whether it’s typing an email message or watching a video. For example, email messages need to be written and formatted differently to make them easier to read on mobile devices.

Mobile users are often multitasking—roughly half of mobile phone usage happens while people are walking, for instance—so they can’t give full attention to the information on their screens. Moreover, mobile use often occurs in environments with multiple distractions and barriers to successful communication.

As every instructor has no doubt observed, mobile communication (particularly text messaging) has put pressure on traditional standards of grammar, punctuation, and writing in general.

Mobile devices can serve as sensory and cognitive extensions. For example, they can help people experience more of their environment (such as augmented reality apps that superimpose information on a live camera view) and have instant access to information without relying on faulty and limited human memory. The addition of location-aware content, such as facility maps and property information, enhances the mobile experience.

Mobile devices create a host of security and privacy concerns, for end users and corporate technology managers alike. Companies are wrestling with the “bring your own device” or “BYOD” phenomenon, in which employees want to be able to access company networks and files with their personal smartphones and tablets, both in the office and away from it. However, these devices don’t always have the rigorous security controls that corporate networks need, and users don’t always use the devices in secure ways.

Mobile tools can enhance productivity and collaboration by making it easier for employees to stay connected and giving them access to information and work tasks during forced gaps in the workday or while traveling.

Mobile apps can assist in a wide variety of business tasks, from research to presentations.

Mobile connectivity can accelerate decision making and problem solving by putting the right information in the hands of the right people at the right time. For example, if the people in a decision-making meeting need more information, they can do the necessary research on the spot.

Mobile communication also makes it easier to quickly tap into pockets of expertise within a company. Customer service can be improved by making sure technicians and other workers always have the information they need right at hand. Companies can also respond and communicate faster during crises.

With interactivity designed to take advantage of the capabilities of mobile devices (including cameras, accelerometers, compasses, and GPS), companies can create more engaging experiences for customers and other users.

For the business communication course, mobile adds some interesting twists and challenges, but it also creates the opportunity to tap into students’ experience with and enthusiasm for mobile devices. In future posts, we’ll be looking at some specific issues in mobile communication, including writing and designing for small screens.

Photo source: Sean MacEntee
Sources: Nicco Mele, The End of Big: How the Internet Makes David the New Goliath (New York: St. Martin’s Press: 2013), 1–2; “JWT’s 13 Mobile Trends for 2013 and Beyond,” J. Walter Thompson website, 2 April 2013, www.jwt.com; The Changing Role of Mobile Communications in the Workplace, white paper, Frost & Sullivan, accessed 8 February 2014, www.frost.com; Top 10 Ways Successful Small Businesses Use Mobile Tech, white paper, T-Mobile, 2012; Armen Ghazarian, “How Do Users Interact with Mobile Devices,” Medium.com, 29 November 2013, http://medium.com; “Bring Your Own Device: BYOD Is Here and You Can’t Stop It,” Garner, accessed 9 February 2014, www.garner.com; Jessica Twentyman, “Deploying Smartphones, Tables, and Apps for a New Employee Communication Era,” SCM, January/February 2013, 28–29; The Changing Role of Mobile Communications in the Workplace, Frost & Sullivan; Aaref Hilaly, “The Biggest Opportunity in Mobile That No One Is Talking About,” LinkedIn, 17 December 2013, www.linkedin.com; Michael Saylor, The Mobile Wave: How Mobile Intelligence Will Change Everything (New York: Vanguard Press, 2012), 10; Milton Kazmeyer, “The Impact of Wireless Communication in the Workplace,” Houston Chronicle, accessed 10 February 2014, http://smallbusiness.chron.com; Gregg Hano, “The Power of Corporate Communications on Mobile Apps,” Mag+, 1 August 2013, www.magplus.com.

Many companies are scrambling to integrate mobile technology, from internal communication systems to banking to retail. Mobile apps and communication systems can boost employee productivity, help companies form closer relationships with customers and business partners, and spur innovation in products and services. As one indicator of this shift, you’ve probably noticed the growth of websites changing to a mobile-first design that works better on tablets and phones.

Whether it’s emailing, social networking, watching video, or doing research, the percentage of communication and media consumption performed on mobile devices continues to grow. For millions of people around the world, a mobile device is their primary way, if not their only way, to access the Internet. Globally, roughly 80 percent of Internet users access the web at least some of the time with a mobile device.

Mobile has become the primary communication tool for many business professionals, including a majority of executives under age 40. Email and web browsing rank first and second in terms of the most common nonvoice uses of smartphones, and more email messages are now opened on mobile devices than on PCs. Roughly half of U.S. consumers use a mobile device exclusively for their online search needs, and many online activities that eventually migrate to a PC screen start out on a mobile screen. For many people, the fact that a smartphone can make phone calls is practically a secondary consideration; data traffic from mobile devices far outstrips voice traffic.

Moreover, mobile phones—particularly smartphones—have become intensely personal devices in ways that PCs never did. For many users, the connection is so close they can feel a sense of panic when they don’t have frequent access to their phones. When people are closely connected to their phones, day and night, they are more closely connected to all the information sources, conversations, and networks that those phones can connect to. As a result, mobile connectivity can start to resemble a continuous stream of conversations that never quite end, which influences the way business communicators need to plan and produce documents and messages. If wearable technologies such as Google Glass and smartwatches become mainstream devices, they will contribute even more to this shift in behaviors.

The parallels between social media and mobile communication are striking: Both sets of technologies change the nature of communication, alter the relationships between senders and receivers, create opportunities as well as challenges, and force business professionals to hone new skills. In fact, much of the rise in social communication can be attributed to the connectivity made possible by mobile devices. Companies that work to understand and embrace mobile, both internally and externally, stand the best chance of capitalizing on this monumental shift in the way people communicate.

Sources: “More Than Nine in 10 Internet Users Will Go Online via Phone,” eMarketer, 6 January 2014, www.emarketer.com; Jordie can Rijn, “The Ultimate Mobile Email Statistics Overview,” Emailmonday.com, accessed 9 February 2014, www.emailmonday.com; “The Mobile Revolution Is Just Beginning,” press release, World Economic Forum, 13 September 2013, www.weforum.org; Maribel Lopez, “Three Trends That Change Business: Mobile, Social and Cloud,” Forbes, 28 January 2012, www.forbes.com; Kevin Custis, “Three Ways Business Can Be Successful on Mobile,” Forbes, 15 November 2013, www.forbes.com; “IBM Survey: Speed and Analytics Key Drivers in Mobile Adoption for Organizations,” press release, IBM, 19 November 2013, www.ibm.com; Christina “CK” Kerley, The Mobile Revolution & B2B, white paper, www.b2bmobilerevolution.com; Jessica Lee, “46% of Searchers Now Use Mobile Exclusively to Research [Study],” Search Engine Watch, 1 May 2013, http://searchenginewatch.com.

Mobile communication and mobile connectivity are changing the way business communicators plan, create, and distribute messages. Mobile devices are overtaking PCs as the primary digital communication tool for millions of consumers, employees, and executives, and businesses that don’t get mobile-friendly in a hurry will fall behind.

For business communicators, the shift to mobile involves much more than the constraints of small screens and new input technologies. The ability to reach people anywhere at any time can be a huge advantage, but the mobile communication experience can also be a major challenge for senders and receivers alike. It requires new ways of thinking about information, message structures, and writing styles.

With the notion of radical connectivity, for example, many communication experiences are no longer about “batch processing” large, self-contained documents. Instead, communication is taking on the feel of an endless conversation, with recipients picking up smaller bits of information as needed, in real time, from multiple sources.

As we did when social media began changing the communication landscape, we will be providing in-depth coverage of mobile communication in our textbooks, beginning with our upcoming editions. Business Communication Today, 13th Ed., and Business Communication Essentials, 7th Ed., will be available in January, and Excellence in Business Communication, 12th Ed., will be available in June.

In anticipation of these new editions, we’ll be blogging about the impact of mobile on business communication and the ways you might consider covering mobile in your courses. We've also prepared a series of infographics that preview some of our new topic coverage. I welcome your thoughts, suggestions, and questions. You can contact me a cbovee@businesscommunicationblog.com.