Trevor Young | PR Warrior blog | Where PR meets social media meets content marketing

Perspectives on Trust from Edelman Sydney {Video Interviews}

This week saw PR firm Edelman Australia launch the local findings of the global Edelman Trust Barometer at events in Melbourne and Sydney (disclosure: I work for Edelman).

The report was launched by Michelle Hutton, CEO Edelman Australia and included a panel of support speakers including:

• Greg Baxter, Former Corporate Affairs Director, News Limited
• Professor Jim Macnamara, Professor of Public Communication, UTS
• Hailey Cavill, Founder + Director, Cavill + Co
• Laurence Evans, President International, StrategyOne

While at the Sydney event I managed to catch up for a one-on-one chat with all of the speakers - below is an edited video of my interviews (thanks Ed Courtenay for filiming/editing).

The following is from the Edelman blog:

The 2012 Edelman Australian Trust Barometer was launched today at an event at Sydney’s Mint. The key findings:

• 60% of Australians do not trust government leaders to tell the truth 
• Business, more trusted than government, has the opportunity to move from a license to operate to a license to lead 
• Technology the most trusted industry sector in Australia, while trust in energy industry is low 
• Trust in media increases; Social media increasingly trusted as a company information source amongst informed public 
• Peer to peer trust is rising: 31% increase in ‘a person like myself’ and 17% increase in regular employees as credible company spokespeople

Click here to see more, including a Slideshare copy of the Australian presentation and infographic.

Here is the official global website dedicated to 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer.

FURTHER READING:

• Edelman Trust Barometer - Intro by Edelman Australia CEO Michelle Hutton
• 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer - Global Deck
• Richard Edelman on the 2012 Trust Barometer Findings (VIDEO)

 

How Social Media Stacks Up in the Australian Small Business Sector

Social media continues to grow in Australia, with close to 30% of small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) using the likes of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter in their day-to-day operations.

According to the Optus Social Media Index for SMBs:

• 1.88m SMBs are operating in Australia, of which 536,400 are using social media in their businesses, with another 300,800 planning to do so in the next 12 months. 
• Service-oriented businesses are the heaviest users of social media (31%) compared to the goods industry at 21%. 
• Social media decision-makers tend to be over 40 years old and in senior roles.
• Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn are the tools most used by SMBs, while Facebook is the most popular (used by over half of those Australian SMBs involved in social media).
• 80% of SMBs allocate - or plan to allocate - less than 20% of their marketing budget to social media.
• On average, 6.6 hours per week are invested in social media by Australian SMBs.

SMBs believe the benefits of social media include networking (78%) and increasing sales through customer engagement (82%).

Interestingly, 14% of those not planning to use social media believe it's a fad, while 53% think it's not appropriate to their industry.

SMB Versus Corporate Sector

These figures would suggest SMBs have embraced social media pretty quickly, which is understandable given Australians are the heaviest users of social networking sites in the world.

No doubt many entrepreneurs who actively participate personally in social media are also using it in their businesses.

I've tried to find recent statistics on social media uptake by Australia's corporate sector but to no avail (although this article might provide some indication of how our big brands are using it).

Intuitively though, having given many presentations on the subject to organisations and big companies these past 12-18 months, I'd say there is still strong reluctance at the big end of town to embrace social media in any significant way.

Click here for more on the Optus Social Media Index (note: you'll need to register first).

Hat-tip to Sam Mutimer for alerting me to this report.