Report: Email Beats Internet & Social Media As The Most Important Tool For Workers

The Internet is the cornerstone of technology in the office. Social networks for business are beginning to emerge into corporate usefulness. But Email reigns as the top tool for those in the workplace according to a new study from the Pew Research Center.

A group of “online workers” (folks that had online access regardless of their jobs or not) were polled by Pew about their use of technology in the workplace. OF those polled, 61% of responders deemed Email to be “very important” compared to 54% considering the internet to be very important and just 4% that thought social networks were very important. The survey also broke out those workers by Office-Based (traditional ‘white collar’ types) and Non-Office-Based (traditional ‘blue collar’ types) for further analysis.  For those not-reporting to an office job, email wasn’t as crucial (25%) and was actually passed by the internet(26%) both of which were topped by landlines and cellular phones ( 31% and 28% respectively).

Of course, this is something that should be considered by marketers when targeting personas and this data shines some light on the various types of workers. Another element for consideration is the amount of companies that block websites while at work. According to the Pew Research Center there has been a “big uptick” in companies censoring the websites that employees can visit. The companies that are now blocking websites are the majority at 46% compared to 35% of companies that aren’t restricting access (18% of respondents didn’t know).

So, while technology is ever-evolving, Email is yet to be beat in the corporate world while mobile and the internet have seen notable increases in the ‘blue collar’ space. Head on over to The Pew Research Center for the full report.