Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Social media may be a mainstream communication platform, driving news coverage and consumption and awareness of social movements. But when it comes to office spaces, email and face-to-face conversations are still the preferred method of communication, according to an Adobe survey of white-collar workers with smartphones in the U.S. and the U.K.

In fact, nearly 40 percent of participants preferred communicating by email, while 10 percent preferred instant messages. The enterprise social platforms don’t really seem to be catching on, with only 2 percent of respondents choosing to communicate with their colleagues via social networks.

Even when it comes to being contacted by brands, almost one-half of the survey participants still preferred email. Interestingly, 22 percent of the participants preferred direct mail. None of the other methods of communication–texts, social media messages, phone calls and company mobile apps–broke 10 percent....