Using technology in communication has become a necessity, it’s now part of our lives. People communicate through emails, faxes, Mobile phones, texting services, video conferences, video chat rooms and social media channels. As time goes on, more emerging technologies will change the way we communicate and it will be up to us to embrace them or not. Let’s look at the impact or use of technology in communication both to individuals and businesses. Because technology has completely changed how these two parties are communicating?
The impact of technology in communication to a business: Today, every business uses technology in its own way to reach the media and targeted consumers. Also, businesses have embraced technology by easing communication within companies and among investors and suppliers. Below are a few uses of technology in communication to a business.
- Easy Product Launch: During the past, companies and small business used to face a lot difficulty in informing their consumers about a new product. A company had to pay for expensive door to door marketing which could even take a lot of time to yield results. Nowadays, things have become simple, through email subscriptions, companies will have data for most consumers, so if they introduce a new item or service. The company will draft one email with details about a new service or product and that message will be delivered to all consumers in a minute. Now their companies online specializing in this type of communication. A good example is ‘.’MailChimp’’’. With their massive mail submission, all your clients will receive the same message in a minute via email.
- Product or service surveys: Before the invention of the internet, it was so difficult to conduct a survey, most companies would pay money to magazines and place survey forms and offer gifts to users who filled those surveys and mailed them back to the company. Taking a survey is very important to a business because that is how you will know what your clients want and know areas of improvement. Nowadays, a business can conduct a survey using social networks and provide users with incentives like ‘’gift cards’’. This produces a quick response and saves the company money and time.
- Social interaction with consumers: With the recent invention of social networks like facebook and twitter, a business can create business pages then get followers for these pages. The process is so simple and free. For some business, they set a budget for building a fun base for their pages, so they use these pages to update and communicate with their followers. A good example is ‘’Nordstrom’’ this is one of the largest fashion retail businesses in America. Nordstrom used its facebook page to update followers about new items and discounts. As of today, its facebook page has over 1,667,162 likes. See page facebook.com/Nordstrom
- Video Conferencing: Gone are the days when you had to wait for your boss to be in the meeting to start a presentation. New technology enables your boss to be in the business meeting while in a hotel in Hawaii preparing for a partnership or investors meeting. This has been made possible by the invention of video conferencing.
- Use of digital networks – ‘’Phones and printers are all digitized, not like before when communication was hindered by telephone lines. During bad weather, most the lines would go off. Now with satellite and broadband transmissions, you can communicate with anyone at work or off work via their mobile phones. You can also send a file to a printer while you are at home and someone in the office gets the printout.
The impact of technology in communication to individuals.
- Technology has changed the way we interact and communicate with other. With the increased use of social based networks, people can create new relationships and also discover old friends. With technology, parents can communicate and keep track of their children. So communication has become easier and cheaper. Below are a few uses of technology towards individuals.
- Text messaging services: Keeping in touch with friends is very important, so text messaging services have solved this problem by creating mobile phone apps, which enable you to text your buddies on instant for free. A good example is ebuddy. The buddy chat service will allow you to chat with your close friends via text for free.
- Social networking platforms: These social interaction networks have helped individuals discover old school friends and also get new friends based on interests and region. Before this technology, it would be next to impossible for you to find all your old friends and interact with them on an instant, share life and your past on instant. It would even be difficult to get new friends from other countries. But now that barrier has been removed by social networks like facebook.com
- Parental security apps: Gone are the days when you had to lie your parents about your location. Now with GPS tracking mobile apps, your parent will install this GPS-enabled app, and they can see where you are. These apps, also have maps which indicate red zones, so you can tell if your child is in that area. When something wrong is detected, the App will notify the parent that their child might be in danger. See an example of such App. SecuraTrac
- Free internet calls: Friends can call each other for free using free internet call centers. A good example is SKYPE. With skype software installed on my laptop, I can communicate with my friends for free if they also have skype on their laptops. This software can also be installed on smartphones. Get this software from skype
- Use of emails: Even though social networks are trying to replace email communication; there is certain information which users can not exchange via social networks. So email services like yahoo mail, Hotmail, and Gmail. Have eased communication. It’s now very rare to find a person writing a letter because that will involve posting it to a postal office and paying delivery fees, which is not the case when you use electronic mail.
In conclusion, technology has transformed the way we communicate, it has created a big impact in how businesses interact with consumers and how friends interact with each other.
