Mediaboss Marketing

Summary: A new study has suggested that CEOs in Asia appreciate the value of social networking -- but keep a tight rein on how it is used.

A focused study of CEOs in multi-national companies has found that although the adoption of mobile devices is on the increase, Asian business leaders are taking pains to restrict their use of social media.

Why? The dreaded idea of always being accessible.

Added Value Saffron Hill surveyed 32 CEOs for the study across Singapore, Hong Kong and India. Researchers found that CEOs "valued their privacy" and understand the potential social media has for their businesses -- but put boundaries in place to stop their work and personal lives merging.

"There are all these requests I need to accept and I just don't want to get started on dialogues," one Hong Kong CEO commented.

Internally and during working hours, social media plays a different role. Some respondents have provided space for their Gen-Y employees to offer their opinions through social media, understanding that unless a platform is provided, their employees may voice their thoughts outside of the company.

In addition, some CEOs use social networks as a B2B tool for marketing and promotion. Although this is unlikely to be effective inmaintaining relationships with consumerswithout also creating a customer-based platform, social networking can be used for news, updates and in order to partner with other companies.

The report says that Asian CEOs are more accessible today than ever before -- mainly due to smartphone adoption, tablets and email. This does allow business leaders to respond quickly to brand communication, but unless the messages are relevant, it is unlikely they will respond. Emails were, unsurprisingly, the preferred form for messages.

CEOs appear to be pragmatic about brand communication but do expect honesty and respect. "As long as it's done sensibly -- like an SMS with 'ADV' at the beginning of the message -- I appreciate the honesty," said one CEO.

The respondents may have reservations over social media and instant communication, but mobile devices proved popular -- especially those made by Apple.

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Are Asian CEOs cautious of social networks?