The Edelman/PublicAffairsAsia survey found that, out of 132 professionals polled, 66 per cent said social media is “the most influential communications medium in modern China”, while an additional 60 per cent said that the Chinese Government would respond to suggestions and policy positions posted on social media sites. Only nine per cent said social media is less influential than other media channels.
According to Edelman, the poll gathered personal opinions regarding the role of social media within the public affairs and government relations sector in mainland China. The survey was conducted over the internet between 6 and 13 November, questioning communication professionals from multinational corporations, China-based state-owned enterprises (SOEs), government, NGOs and consultancies, mainly living in China or Hong Kong.
In the pool of respondents, 60 per cent say they are decision makers for government or public affairs strategy in China, while 40 per cent are involved in the implementation of government or public affairs strategies.
Among the survey’s key findings is that 43 per cent of public affairs executives have begun using social media as part of their public affairs strategy but have not yet “evaluated its impact”. Meanwhile, 17 per cent claim to use it as an integrated tool in their public affairs work. Nearly 60 per cent admit to using social media to track news and information about their businesses, and 37 per cent use it to broadcast their own messages about their business into public view.
However, 46 per cent said they use social media less than once a week or not at all, and 27 per cent found social media was either “not particularly important” or “not at all important” in terms of overall public affairs strategy in China.
“It is no longer adequate simply to monitor social media. It’s clearly impacting the development and implementation of public policy in China,” president of Edelman Asia-Pacific Alan VanderMolen said of the survey’s findings. “Foreign MNCs, SOEs and other organisations must get engaged to foster meaningful dialogue and relationships with stakeholders on an ongoing basis.”
The survey’s full results, which will be presented at a roundtable later today, comes as the question of social media was tossed back into the public arena after US president Barack Obama – who admitted that he has never personally used Twitter – criticised China’s ‘Great Firewall’ for repressing the flow of free ideas.
“I am a big believer in technology, and I’m a big believer in openness when it comes to the flow of information. I think that the more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens of countries around the world can hold their own governments accountable,” he said on Monday. “They can begin to think for themselves. That generates new ideas. It encourages creativity.”
According to Adam Schokora, strategist at Edelman Digital Asia-Pacific, social media in China offers a “great opportunity to bypass very traditional media channels which are kind of choked by pretty thick censorship” because there are ways to get through the Great Firewall’s cracks to reach the masses.
“Traditional channels don’t even push any sort of policy-chancing opinions because of the heavy restrictions on them, while online, it’s so valuable that a popular idea can get all sorts of circulation power,” he said. “The most influential people in China in terms of bloggers, activists and grassroots movers still use Twitter, which is blocked throughout the country, through other channels and proxies and Twitter clones. People have used social media to directly challenge the Government and have made movements on some issues and policy topics. Social media absolutely has a role in terms of steering policy in China.”
