The Corporate Conversation in Australia

by Lee Hopkins on March 9, 2006 · 19 comments

in miscellaneous

“Hello — is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me”

Is it just me?

Does anyone else in Australia feel a kind of ‘wait and see’ reluctance of Business to enter into a conversation with its publics? Or are we so psychologically invested in the conversation pit ourselves that we are not seeing the wood for the trees, or allowing space for others to play ‘catch up’?

I know this is an issue that I and others have talked about before (and also here), but again within the PR/Marcomms Australian end of the conversation pit there seems to be a vague sense of dissatisfaction.

I have been talking with groups of business people (albeit in a city notorious for its reluctance to be a first, second or even fifth mover) and there seems to be plenty of head-nodding and eye-widening. Plenty of “we must get together again and talk about this further”, yet follow-up phone calls are blocked by secretaries, emails remain either unanswered or responded to with a polite ‘just got to get over the current project to create a space’.

I know that Trevor Cook does an admirable job ‘flying the flag’ over in Sydney and it would seem that the national broadcaster, ‘Aunty’ ABC, has realised (as did the Beeb and NPR before her) that podcasting her shows is a brilliant thing to do — increase audience size, increase reach of ideas, increase community, increase brand awareness. I’m not aware of too many other PR/Marcomms bloggers in Australia (and I’d love to see Trevor podcast, as a further way of showing his leadership of the new conversation in Australia), and I’d love to see the ranks swell.

To this end I am compiling a list over at Constantin’s superb PR wiki of Australian companies and also PR/Marcomms consultants who blog and/or podcast — if you know of any, please feel free to email me and I’ll put them up.

Perhaps one of the ways we in Australia can speed up the rate that Business is joining in the conversation is to ‘name and praise’ those companies who are.

And as a side note, is any other Conversation Evangelist so passionate about evangelising and helping others join the conversation that they forgo consultancy fees just to see their client ‘get out there’?

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  • http://youngie.prblogs.org/ Paull Young

    I must agree with you Lee, very little is going on in the Australian PR blog world.

    I’m an avid reader of both your blog and Trevor’s; aside from the two of you there is basically nothing out there.

    I note that Hill and Knowlton Australia are blogging; but they post infrequently and their content is not particularly interesting. It seems as though they are blogging for an audience that knows nothing about Web 2.0 (which is probably smart as that seems to be 99% of the Aussie public).

    I would love to hear a Lee Hopkins/Trevor Cook podcast – that could be brilliant. It would be like a cross between Shel, Neville and Mick Dundee.

    I guess I count as an Australian PR blog – but I am a complete newbie to both blogging and the profession.

    Keep up the good work Lee; the Australian blogosphere needs you.

  • http://youngie.prblogs.org Paull Young

    I must agree with you Lee, very little is going on in the Australian PR blog world.

    I’m an avid reader of both your blog and Trevor’s; aside from the two of you there is basically nothing out there.

    I note that Hill and Knowlton Australia are blogging; but they post infrequently and their content is not particularly interesting. It seems as though they are blogging for an audience that knows nothing about Web 2.0 (which is probably smart as that seems to be 99% of the Aussie public).

    I would love to hear a Lee Hopkins/Trevor Cook podcast – that could be brilliant. It would be like a cross between Shel, Neville and Mick Dundee.

    I guess I count as an Australian PR blog – but I am a complete newbie to both blogging and the profession.

    Keep up the good work Lee; the Australian blogosphere needs you.

  • http://leehopkins.net/ Lee

    G’day Paull,

    Thanks for confirming my fears re Australia and web2.0.

    I must confess the idea of podcasting with Trevor, as you say “a cross between Shel, Neville and Mick Dundee” is brilliant! I’ll propose it to Trevor…

  • http://leehopkins.net Lee

    G’day Paull,

    Thanks for confirming my fears re Australia and web2.0.

    I must confess the idea of podcasting with Trevor, as you say “a cross between Shel, Neville and Mick Dundee” is brilliant! I’ll propose it to Trevor…

  • http://trevorcook.typepad.com/ Trevor Cook

    I agree – its sad – I wish there were more evidence of progress but I’m sure it will happen. Between the three of us, I think its more evidence that Australian corporates are pretty hopeless when it comes to recognising the positive benefits of communications. There is a general ‘well, I guess, if we have to” approach.

    Maybe a podcast is a good idea. But I think it might take the enthusiasm of a young gun like yourself Paull. I’m happy to participate and promote but I’m too overloaded to take project management responsibility.

  • http://trevorcook.typepad.com Trevor Cook

    I agree – its sad – I wish there were more evidence of progress but I’m sure it will happen. Between the three of us, I think its more evidence that Australian corporates are pretty hopeless when it comes to recognising the positive benefits of communications. There is a general ‘well, I guess, if we have to” approach.

    Maybe a podcast is a good idea. But I think it might take the enthusiasm of a young gun like yourself Paull. I’m happy to participate and promote but I’m too overloaded to take project management responsibility.

  • http://leehopkins.net/ Lee

    I think that Paull is on to a good idea — whilst appreciating your workload, Trevor, a quick conversation over skype once a week might be a useful podcast. How about us three, with a five-ten minute chat, once per week over skype then released as a podcast on all three blogs?

  • http://leehopkins.net Lee

    I think that Paull is on to a good idea — whilst appreciating your workload, Trevor, a quick conversation over skype once a week might be a useful podcast. How about us three, with a five-ten minute chat, once per week over skype then released as a podcast on all three blogs?

  • http://leehopkins.net/ Lee

    Another option, gents, is to add a small ‘feature’ from you (a la my report for FIR) into my podcast…

  • http://leehopkins.net Lee

    Another option, gents, is to add a small ‘feature’ from you (a la my report for FIR) into my podcast…

  • http://youngie.prblogs.org/ Paull Young

    This sounds extremely interesting. Thanks for the invite to join the conversation.

    I’ll be in touch by email to discuss.

  • http://youngie.prblogs.org Paull Young

    This sounds extremely interesting. Thanks for the invite to join the conversation.

    I’ll be in touch by email to discuss.

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  • PR GRADUATE

    I must say I am not convinced that blogging is the next big thing… but then again i am open to ideas!

    I guess the question to all three of you, is: Is blogging going to be the “BETACAM” of the noughties?

  • PR GRADUATE

    I must say I am not convinced that blogging is the next big thing… but then again i am open to ideas!

    I guess the question to all three of you, is: Is blogging going to be the “BETACAM” of the noughties?

  • http://leehopkins.net/ Lee

    WOW! Great question — will blogging become the betacam?

    Personally, I very much doubt it. In my experience once someone is shown ‘how to’ blog, and ‘why to’ blog, and gets even a tiny bit of feedback from another reader, it starts the ball rolling. Sure, sometimes you have to help them over the first hurdle, but once they get going there’s no stopping them.

    Granted, blogging is not for everyone. But then again neither is sitting on a couch watching videos (or dvds) every day, either. I think blogging has been around too long, and there are too many people who have built up networks of colleagues and friends for it to die down.

    I just don’t know of any other way to gain massive exposure (courtesy of google, inter alia) for next to no financial outlay, with no requirement to know geek skills. Being able to string two or three sentences together seems the only requirement — oh, and having a sense of humour! :-)

    Podcasting? That’s another story… so is vidcasting. But blogging — I reckon it’s here to stay.

  • http://leehopkins.net Lee

    WOW! Great question — will blogging become the betacam?

    Personally, I very much doubt it. In my experience once someone is shown ‘how to’ blog, and ‘why to’ blog, and gets even a tiny bit of feedback from another reader, it starts the ball rolling. Sure, sometimes you have to help them over the first hurdle, but once they get going there’s no stopping them.

    Granted, blogging is not for everyone. But then again neither is sitting on a couch watching videos (or dvds) every day, either. I think blogging has been around too long, and there are too many people who have built up networks of colleagues and friends for it to die down.

    I just don’t know of any other way to gain massive exposure (courtesy of google, inter alia) for next to no financial outlay, with no requirement to know geek skills. Being able to string two or three sentences together seems the only requirement — oh, and having a sense of humour! :-)

    Podcasting? That’s another story… so is vidcasting. But blogging — I reckon it’s here to stay.

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