Daddy, what do you do?

Okay, sorry, a slight correction.

I’m not going to bore you with a minute-by-minute description of what a business communications consultant does.

Because what *I* do might bear little or no relation to what Shel Holtz or Neville Hobson or Andrea Weckerle or Josh "theHyku" Hallett or Allan Jenkins or Paull Young or Kami Huyse or Donna Pepsicola or Mitch Joel or David Jones or CC Chapman or… [insert your favourite Comms blogger here] does each day. Goodness, some days what I did *yesterday* bears no relation to what I do *today*!

Thankfully there are so many specialities within the Business Communication industry that no two folks are likely to be doing exactly the same thing, although there will of course be many cross-overs.

But it must be the Masters season at the moment because in the last seven days I’ve been contacted by two Masters students—Michael Allison and Sharon Rode—and asked for my perspective on Business Communication.

With their permission here are their questions and my answers, including a small audio snackette I created for Michael and his project team.

It may give you some interesting food for thought as you approach your end of year celebrations. Or it may not.

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Do you work from home?

Yes, mostly, although sometimes I work within client sites. Certainly my office is at home and currently is shared as the living/family room of an evening.  No, I’m not entirely happy about that, but every bedroom is full and the garage shed in the back garden is so large it would be very expensive to insulate and kit it out as an office.

For your business structure, are you a sole proprietor/ partner/incorporated?

Currently sole proprietor. In a previous incarnation this business was incorporated (a Pty Ltd, limited liability entity) but I didn’t earn enough to warrant the extra expense of reports, fees, etc. An accountant friend of mine estimates that unless you earn over AUD$80k it’s not worth becoming a company. As I am still learning how to be better at managing money I take his advice.

Do you employ anyone or have any partners or sub-consultants?

No employees; I occasionally sub-contract work out when required (usually around design, web building, database back-end work).

Do you have a code of ethics, or certain standards and guidelines by which you operate? This includes social media ethics.

Personal code of ethics as a Christian (for what they are worth) plus I also abide by IABC Code of Ethics.

Do you calculate an hourly rate, a daily rate, or a fixed fee rate?

Taking my lead from the work of Alan Weiss, I usually prefer to calculate a value-based fee, as in I take into account the value of the project’s outcome to the client. If the value to the client is high I charge appropriately. If the value is low I may well decide not to get involved (projects that are perceived ‘low value’ by the client very often get railroaded, sidelined, mucked about, delayed… and so payment gets delayed. When the client is focused then things happen a lot more smoothly at their end, which helps me).

However, turning clients around who are used to receiving a ‘daily rate’ quote can be hard, sometimes very hard. In those instances I charge a daily rate. Allan Jenkins and I discussed this at length in a couple of our podcasts (here and here).

I often charge less than others in a similar but not entirely the same field, but then I ‘compensate’ by only travelling business class (at their expense). Those who really stick their heels in and say their policy is to only pay ‘economy travel’ rates have my daily rate increased to cover my upgrade charges.

At what intervals do you demand payment from your clients?

50% up front, 50% within 7 days on completion. They receive a 10% discount if they pay in full up front (saves me having to chase them for payment). If the project is a long one (lasting more than 2 months) I work out a 30% upfront, stagger interim payments monthly, and a 10% final amount on completion.

Have you ever had any clients who have not paid? What have you done?

Yes, once. Repeated calls, letters and emails to them. When that has failed just write it off as a bad debt (and let my peers and friends know about it).

We know you use social media to market your services. Do you use any other marketing methods, and which ones have been most successful?

I have tried writing articles for a business magazine here in South Australia, but despite an article a month for over a year no contact came of it except from an old school friend who recognised me and who subsequently turned into a client.

Because South Australian businesses, in the main, are very hesitant and risk averse in terms of anything to do with the internet, my efforts are usually spent networking with interstate contacts.

I’ve not bothered advertising here in South Australia – I am very confident that it would be a complete waste of my money.

Apart from social media I also put articles from my web1.0 website (LeeHopkins.com) onto article directory sites for others to republish on their sites and in their newsletters, etc. This is good for Google Juice but little else.

What gives you a competitive advantage over others in your field?

I am the only full-time consultant and trainer in Australia on Social Media as far as I know, and definitely the only one focusing on Business Communication. I am unique (but hey, we all know that! {grin})

Who are your primary clients? Are they in the public or private sector?

Both public and private, but at the moment leaning more to the private sector. That may change because of the numbers of Government employees who recently attended my Social Media Workshops in Melbourne and Sydney.

Who are your competitors? Do you compete with any big firms?

At the moment I am very fortunate to have no real competition in the Social Media space in Australia. No doubt the big firms may try and compete at some stage (I know Hill & Knowlton in Sydney have set up, via Steven Noble, a ‘digital’ arm, but so far I haven’t heard much from them; I expect they are servicing and advising existing clients.

Do you see yourself as a generalist or as a specialist? If a generalist, do you feel that providing a wide-array of services weakens your ability to command higher fees?

Before Social Media I purveyed my trade as a quasi generalist, with extended interests in Employee comms and Online communication.

Social Media’s takeup has allowed me to focus solely on Social Media, but with the added advantage that my experience in online and employee communication is able to inform my knowledge about Web2.0

The websites [LeeHopkins.com and LeeHopkins.net] are very informative, but it seems like you might be giving away a lot of "free" information – how do you close the deal or turn a web site visitor into a potential client? Moreover, do you consciously take any steps to keep from giving away free consulting?

I work from the position espoused by Robert Middleton, of being an ‘Information Guru’. Middleton suggests giving 10% of your knowledge away for free so that people can feel comfortable about your skills and abilities.

Social Media and the web in general demand more than 10%, so I give away lots in the hope that by showing a lot of my thoughts and ideas any prospective clients can see that I have a long and focused background on social media, employee comms and online communication and so build up a level of trust about my abilities even before contacting me.

I used to do a LOT of free consulting in the hope that Robert Cialdini’s ‘Reciprocity Principle’ would bring work and money back to me. I got burnt so badly by this that I now do nothing for free; I have found that people don’t ascribe any value to something they get for free. So even non-profits have to pay for my time and knowledge (sometimes at a reduced, ‘mates rates’ price). My colleague-in-arms Mitch Joel commented to this effect the other day about Podcamp Boston2 and how ‘free’ seemed to mean ‘of little or no value’ to attendees, guests and invited speakers who didn’t show up and didn’t advise anyone they wouldn’t be coming (after having originally said they would).

How do you monitor the ROI from social media marketing in attracting clients?

I don’t monitor it (gasp!). I do what I do because I genuinely love doing it (does my enthusiasm show?!? {grin}) and if I get to share that enthusiasm with others then even better!

Because I am ‘supposed’ to be focusing my energies on my Doctoral research I am putting my business on the back burner. Well, that was my intention, but in the last 2-3 months the interest in Social Media within the Australian corporate environment has grown and as the only one that is doing this full-time in the corporate comms space I am getting more and more enquiries. I’m not complaining, but my own doctoral research is suffering…

Can you give us a brief description about your PhD. project on Second Life? Will the knowledge you gain help you become better positioned to help clients? Will you be considered an expert on Second Life afterwards?

Me? Be ‘brief’? You kidding?? {smile}. Okay, here goes:

You can gain a richer, more informed picture of my research from my uni page (http://people.unisa.edu.au/lee.hopkins) but here’s a synopsis:

We are in a mirror image of what happened at the advent of the world wide web in 1993/4:

In 1994 corporations saw this new communication channel, didn’t know what to do about it but threw a few dollars and some staff at it, asking them to play and see what they could do with it. At the same time, solo entrepreneurs wondered if they could make any money out of it, giving birth to the ebook, making a lot of people (“infopreneurs”) very rich in the process. But SMEs (small-to-medium sized enterprises) could neither afford the money or the staff to ‘play see what shakes out’ with it, nor could they suddenly start creating digital versions of their goods and services without risking massive brand dilution, which their PR companies and marketing consultants strongly advised them not to do. If asked if they wanted to have a website, they very often replied, “why would I want a website… I have a Yellow Pages ad.”

Fast forward to 2007: corporations can throw a few $m at Second Life (using it as the most prominent example of a 3D virtual environment) and ‘see what shakes’, see what the new rules of communication are in this new virtual space. Solo entrepreneurs can create and sell digital goods again – this time digital frocks and socks. But what of the SME? They can neither afford the money or the loss of productivity from moving staff away from their core responsibilities to ‘play’, and they can’t create digital versions of their existing products and services (for example, what could a plumbing franchise or chain do in-world?) without risking the hoary ol’ beasts of brand dilution and market confusion. SMEs that I talk to about Second Life say, “why would I want a Second Life presence… I have a website and a Yellow Pages ad”.

I’m trying to find ways that the 3D virtual environment can provide value to SMEs, and my research will hopefully point out a few ways that they can profitably engage in these new spaces.

For me the spin-offs from my research are two-fold:

1. I will be able to offer consultancy services to corporates and SMEs about business communication in a 3D virtual environment;
2. I will be placed at the forefront of the academic community about this (from a business comms perspective; there are already others who are ‘big names’ in 3D/online communities within academia, but not from a business/marcom perspective).

How do we define the role of the communication consultant today?

The role can be multifarious, dependent entirely upon the requirements of the client. For example, depending on our personal experience we can offer and provide advice—both strategic and tactical—on public relations, employee communications, marketing communications, print communication, online public relations, online marketing communication, online community relations…

For me, with over two decade’s experience of employee communications and nearly 15 years of experience of online communication, I can responsibly offer only part of the whole ‘business communication’ package. Those who are able to offer solid, experience-based insight and wisdom are highly sought after, highly paid and rare as hen’s teeth. Many a mid- or senior-level PR practitioner will ‘tell’ you they can offer the entire mix, but it is the rare practitioner indeed who has got every base covered.

What has affected the role of the communications consultant?

The explosion of internet-based communication and community building has created massive earthquakes through the consultant community. The IABC—the International Association of Business Communicators—is a great reflection of the Business Communication consultant in general; many of the IABC members have experience of the traditional tv, corporate video and print world but are complete novices regarding the online world. The result is that online communication has been ‘handballed’ to professionals from other disciplines (most notably marketing and IT) without any consideration of the realities of ‘Communication’ practices within the online world.

As an example of this, consider any major corporate website: it is full of marketing-speak, full of “best in class, world leading, paradigm realigning” nonsense. It is full of obvious ‘stock photos’ of bland corporateness, devoid of any real ‘humanness’. The site is also probably very technically adept, even laid out in an aesthetically pleasing manner via the designs of a corporate graphic designer.

But it fails to ‘communicate’ to its publics precisely because the Business Communicators have not had any input into it. Even if they might have been invited to the early meetings, their lack of interest and experience meant that important decisions were left to the marketing and IT folks.

The rapid development of the power of ‘community’ and its ‘voice’ (witness the turnaround of HSBC over student loan interest rates, and Cadbury over the removal of the ‘Wispa’ bar) has taken corporations by surprise, and most are unable to find the ‘talent’ to manage it. There is no lack of interest from younger members of their staff, but these staff members lack the overarching ‘Communication’ training and experience. The older and more senior ‘communicators’ in the company lack the experience and understanding of this new community power. Therefore corporations rely on the traditional methods of engagement and hope that this Social Media/Web2.0 world will ‘go away’, be just a fad, and that life can eventually go on as usual. After all, it could reasonably be argued, the investors are usually gray-haired or market savvy (or both) and so these ‘noisy uneducated masses’ can safely be ignored.

Whilst the current ‘head in the sand’ approach for small to mid-cap enterprises (aka SMEs) remains, it will only be the Fortune 100 and Fast Company-style companies who will embrace these new communication channels and realities. Thus the Communications Consultant can, in the main, still ‘get away’ with only having experience of the traditional media.

However, eventually progress will catch up with the SMEs and Communication Consultants with proven experience in these fields will be in demand. Of course, vacuums get filled by all sorts of detritus and there will be many who will claim ‘Consultant’ status who are little more than one-trick ponies. As if it has ever been any different in the b2b consultancy world…

Why would an independent communications consultant be more appealing than an internal (in-house) communicator?

Mostly due to the experience that the external consultant can bring to the table (assuming that the consultant’s experience was actually valued and required, rather than a consultant being brought in to ‘rubber stamp’ and ‘validate’ the governing viewpoint).

Whilst an internal comms consultant should be very adept at managing the politics and understanding the culture, the external consultant can bring in a ‘fresh pair of eyes and ears’ to the environment, offering new ways of looking at situations and experience with new tools.

Neither would, ideally, be more appealing than the other; in an ideal company both would work hand-in-hand to meet strategic goals in the most effective manner, a mix of cultural relevance and wider industry/technological experience.

What skill sets and benefits should an entrepreneurial communicator offer in order to be competitive?

The required skill sets for which they are being hired would be a plus (no, I’m not being facetious here; I have seen too many expensive consultants who can only talk someone else’s walk). They would need to be up to date on the new technology, and whilst not needing to be involved ‘in depth’ with every new tool, they would certainly need to be aware of the tools and what each tool’s strength and limitations are. In addition, they would need to be well connected so that they can bring in the ‘micro niche’ or particular tool expert when required.

The consultant shouldn’t need to be able to ‘build’ the tools, but certainly know who can and have ready access to them.

I also believe that they should be aware of their own limitations and honest with their clients about them. It does nobody any good when expectations are not met and when disappointment leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.

A commitment to lifelong learning is a must; not only for their own professional development, but because their passion for their work drives them to learn and grow far above any monetary consideration of what a particular training course might mean to their resume (Bryan Person—aka ‘Bryper’—has a particularly good Social Media resume).

In addition, the entrepreneurial communicator should be aware of what is happening in not only their own industry, but the industries of their clients. This is not just from a ‘broad’ business perspective but also a consideration of what their clients’ competitors are up to, what new threats or opportunities may be around the corner, what new legislation might mean.

Given the trends, what changes will have to be made both by businesses and communicators to stay competitive and current?

An understanding and embracing of Social Media imperatives and cultural drivers. None of the ‘old’ stuff will go away—print, tv, video, radio—but the new online communication rules (still being shaped by us all) will add to the communicator’s ‘mix’ of channels and responsibilities.

A recognition that Communications can and must support specialists. The day of the Generalist Business Communicator has passed (although their wisdom is still invaluable and should be sought wherever possible) and specialist communicators will populate the corporate communications environment. These specialist communicators will need to learn to work in partnership, where no one specialist has the final version of ‘truth’; PR, Marketing, Employee, Online… all will need to work together to produce a communications output that is coherent across all channels and publics, yet also relevant to each distinct group in their own way, speaking ‘their’ language and helping to co-create the received ‘meaning’ of the communication.

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And here’s the audio file I talked about at the top of this marathon post — an introduction to myself, what I would do differently if I had my time over again, and what regrets, if any, I have [5.89mb / 6mins 20 secs].

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