In my last blog I wrote about how the "social" in the social-mobile-local trilogy works in today's workplace. I emphasize the word "today" as this is changing rapidly and six months from now will probably be out of date.

Today I'm discussing "mobile" and where it fits into the workplace.

Embracing the smart device reality

Maybe you've heard the term BYOD, which stands for "Bring Your Own Device." It refers to the trend of employees bringing their smartphone, tablets and other mobile devices to work and using them throughout the day for both work and personal use.

This can carry a positive or negative connotation depending on your point of view. Mine is that it's going to happen whether we like it or not, so we might as well embrace and use it to our advantage. So what are the advantages? There are a couple.

Mobile network advantages

First, you have a communications network set up that costs nothing. Your employees have paid for and sourced the equipment and are actively using it for workplace data access. While there are employees using a tablet security concerns, this new network gives you the ability to communicate with your employees in a way never possible until now.

For example, you can use QR codes on digital signage content that, when scanned by employees using smart devices, will allow them to download the content, answer a survey about it, send an email associated with it or other actions. This means your employees can now consider and respond to your content, instead of just reading it. That's a huge difference, and it's possible right now.

Soon, using near-field communications, or NFC, you'll be able to "grab" employees walking by and prompt them to respond to your content or take other actions.

Mobile devices are becoming an extension of our employees, one that makes interaction easier than ever before. This is a significant new communication opportunity that every manager should consider.