Aussies have already jumped. Yet the one thing that becomes obvious to me when getting deeper and deeper into social media – is that there seems to be few notable experts and innovative thinkers of international standards operating in Australia. The best thinkers and organisations are overseas. But this again is yet one other reason that makes social media so appealing. Social media helps keep Australians in touch and on top of with new happenings elsewhere in all fields of life. Whatever one wants really. These new ideas and practices can be creatively and laterally used to fuel new ideas and practices within Australia. Space for experimentation, play and practice goes far to helping new procedures in all fields. yet it takes some guts and even more guts in Australia. I can’t help but feel Aussies as a collective have an inferiority issue. We think small, not big. We knock, not dream – and support each other in our dreamings. If you’re flying too high, we can’t see the benefits on offer for everybody – we’re too quick to take other peoples success personally. As if it’s a blight on our own position. We can’t let anybody stand out, too much – they have to be incredibly modest, giving, a nice unassuming bloke and grounded if they start to get ahead in certain fields. This I see as the largest and most pressing issue – whether we can admit and appreciate it or not – facing Australia today.

Go get ‘em Aussie – oi oi oi!

Regards,

Chris.

I enjoyed reading your spiel Mike Hickinbotham .
I think “social media” changes on a daily basis. It is hurting traditional Media financially for sure, more to the point The Web is hurting them. Social Media is not here to stay, in my opinion.
Anyone silly enough to throw away there landline for a Web enabled Mobile phone will be blind in frive years, have cancer, and arthritis, all because it was trendy to be on Facebook, and Twitter in 2010. Doesn’t the term “twitter” suggest your a “Twit” to belong ? It’s all so funny that it’s serious. The National newspapers and Television are definitely being hit by the Internet, but they’ll catch on. I read the Herald Sun in my Gmail account, it’s just so simple, and you don’t get that yucky black print on your hands. Google Reader, RSS feeds, fantastic ! Social sites however, … Unsafe gateways to Malware, plus I don’t like to be called a “Twit”, let alone hang out with people willing to be.
A site like this, Telstra Exchange is more the template for the future. A lot of companies do this, not quite to the extraordinary lengths gone to by Telstra, but maybe a change of perception is a lot to do with this site.
So they have a ‘I Hate Telstra’ Facebook group, how hilarious !
The infinite scope of these social sites is intiguing, I’m almost tempted to start a , “We love beer” Facebook group, but it probably already exists, and it’s so much more fun to drink away from the computer with real people.

I agree with the points in your post, Mike. I think the other see change for corporate communications is a shift towards visual and rich media communications. The industry has been very ‘word reliant’ – we now need to learn how to convert those words into engaging, personable and compelling visual content that works online. Research has shown that people are much more likely to click links with visuals and Google ranks video content highly, which ties into your points around SEO.