Blog post

Three things you need to consider for 2019

Expansion, protection and the influence of earned media

In 2018 we witnessed ball tampering in the men’s Australia cricket team, the allegations that the ATO was seizing funds that weren’t owed from taxpayers, the announcement of a Royal Commission into the safety and care in aged care facilities.

There are two things that this series of events, and many more like them, have in common. Firstly, all were extensively scrutinised and reported on by the media, and secondly, they all reflect how failures picked up by the media in such a way can cause considerable reputational damage.

With 2019 well and truly underway, businesses need to be armed and prepared with strategies to combat potential media issues and recognise the value of media monitoring in overcoming (or benefiting from) the challenges and opportunities that the media’s power provides. 

The pace, onslaught and influence of media is growing

Traditional news, social media, online sources and the variety of different influencers continues to diversify and driving decision making more than ever before.

As a quick snapshot, according to the Deloitte Media Consumer Survey 2018 across the Australian media landscape:

• 84% of Australian’s have social media accounts
• For 31% of millennials, the information on social media is their primary news source
• For the wider Australian population, social media as a primary news source increased from 14% to 17% between 2017 to 2018
• 57% of Australians rank the assessments of social media in their top 3 buying influences
• 51% favour traditional news formats, down from 55% last year.
  

With traditional media news formats decreasing in popularity and social media news formats growing, the media is more accessible and the ability to exert leadership to audiences is easier than ever before. 

Earned media will influence decisions 

Alongside the growing media landscape is the prominence of earned media. Ensuring reach, awareness and customer engagement, the prevalence of earned media means content, commentary and opinions on a company are more widely dispersed. As a result, media influencers have more power than ever to sway public opinions and impact a business’s reputation. 

From quoted CEO’s to big-name journalists, the new earned media influencer could hold more power in 2019 if this trend continues.

Protect your business through media monitoring 

In 2014, Forbes Insights found that reputation is a key business challenge for 88% of executives and the World Economic Forum found that companies consider 25% of their market value reflective of their reputation. 

Without crisis management, the risk of the media impacting your reputation is significantly higher than without any crisis management plan. This is because early warning systems mitigate crisis and the impact risk has on your reputation.

Media monitoring is vital for company reputation and ensuring communicators stay alert, manage risk, analyse the mediascape and make proactive, market effective decisions. In examining and tracking trends, media monitoring identifies influences and communicators, measures success, ensuring for reputation, crisis and risk management. 

Gill Matthews