Digital Media: Asia-Pacific Communication Monitor Shows Communicators Consider It An Ongoing Challenge

By Eric Ziller, Director of Sales & Marketing, PRIME Research International Social media are now almost level-pegging with traditional media in terms of perceived importance in Asia Pacific, with 75.0% of communication professionals rating social media as relevant, compared with 76.5% believing in the significance of press relations with traditional media. Online communication via websites, intranets, and e-mail is also seen as slightly more important (73.6%) than media relations with online newspapers or magazines (73.2%).

According to the Asia-Pacific Communication Monitor, when communication professionals look three years into the future to 2018, only 46.9% see traditional media relations with print media and 53.7% see media relations with radio and TV as important. In comparison, 92.2% rate social media such as blogs, Twitter, Weibo, and so on, as important for strategic communication and 85.6% favour websites, intranets and e-mail. Mobile communication using apps and mobile websites will be leading the field in the near future: 93.7% of all respondents perceive them as important in 2018.Given the finding that communication professionals in Asia-Pacific see social media and mobile communications as the most important developments in the field, and the modest levels of social media skills and knowledge reported, it is perhaps not surprising that coping with the digital evolution and social web is perceived as the most important issue for communication management in Asia Pacific over the next three years (53.1%). In Asia-Pacific, linking communication to business strategy, including showing the contribution of communication to organisational outcomes, is seen as the second most important issue for the profession (41.0%).Social media are now almost level-pegging with traditional media in terms of perceived importance in Asia Pacific, with 75.0 per cent of communication professionals rating social media as important, compared with 76.5 per cent who see traditional media as important. Online communication via websites, intranets, and e-mail are also seen as slightly more important (73.6 per cent) than media relations with online newspapers or magazines (73.2 per cent).

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