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From acting like Attenborough in Alligator Creek to horticultural headlines in Sydney
From acting like Attenborough in Alligator Creek to horticultural headlines in Sydney
Rebecca Harcourt interviews Vanessa Fuchs, News & Content Manager, Botanic Gardens of Sydney
Vanessa is a woman after my own heart: a fellow David Attenborough fan, who is passionate about science communication and enticing the public into the wonderful world of plants. I caught up with her online to talk about the role of communications in botanic gardens and to hear her advice on how to engage with new – and existing – audiences.
Describe your current role at the Botanic Gardens of Sydney and what lead you to it
My team is responsible for organic storytelling – finding and telling genuine stories that build trust and interest in the gardens. We tell these stories on our own channels, like our blogs, podcasts or social media, as well as channels like the traditional media – print, broadcast or television.
I grew up in north Queensland in Alligator Creek, just south of Mackay, surrounded by cane, coal and beaches. It wasn’t remote but there wasn’t a lot to do. My parents had a home video camera, and I would love making mock documentaries and pretending I was David Attenborough. I’ve always had a love for the environment and storytelling. That lead me to do a dual Bachelor of Journalism and Business degree with a major in Advertising.
I knew early on in my degrees that I couldn’t just work for a news organisation or an advertising agency. I had to use those communication and storytelling skills for something I cared about, believed in and wanted to promote. I worked for a series of not-for-profit organisations and government departments in various kinds of roles, either fundraising, communications or public relations. This slowly led me to the niche area of science communication. In my current role as news and content manager I oversee much broader content and news stories, not just science. But my passion is science communication.
I particularly love hosting and producing videos and podcasts, like the podcast Branch Out and the What the Flora?! video series. We’ve tried to make them as accessible as possible, to appeal to a wide audience − not just your usual plant enthusiasts or plant nerds − just everyday people that might have a slight appreciation of nature. The tagline is ‘discover the surprising world of plants.’ We want to show how amazing plants are, and their involvement with our lives, from wine, to chocolate, to sending seeds to space, to plant intelligence and fighting crime. There are endless numbers of topics! If you have a huge budget, you could do amazing campaigns with billboards and TV ads. The organic, unpaid stuff takes longer to build, but it is based on being real, genuine and authentic. Noone wants to listen to a podcast where it just feels like an ad. It should reflect people’s real experiences, show their personalities and tell something that’s true, interesting and engaging. It just takes a bit more work.
We want to show how amazing plants are, and their involvement with our lives, from wine, to chocolate, to sending seeds to space, to plant intelligence and fighting crime.
What role does communications have in botanic gardens?
It depends on the type of garden, how long it’s been around and how many others are in the area. Botanic gardens like the one in Sydney, which attracts international and national visitors, doesn’t need a lot of promotion. It’s so iconic and well known. But in smaller places, such as where I’m from, Mackay, there’s only one botanic garden, so it does need a bit more promotion to attract visitors beyond simply the locals.
In any garden, communications is important because you want to keep engaging the audiences you already have so that they keep returning. How are people going to know about your events and programs, what’s in bloom or what scientific research is being done if you don’t tell them?
You’re also trying to reach new audiences. A strategic communications plan, where you launch something new like a podcast or you have a newsletter or a magazine, is essential.
How do you find content − do you actively search for it or do people come to you?
It’s a bit of both. We’ve got a lot of scientists and horticulturists that have a genuine interest and ability in communications. They are great storytellers who create metaphors to explain complex things in layperson’s terms. They come and find us to tell us about their latest research publication or what interesting plant is in bloom.
Quite often I find that we live in our botanic garden bubble and are so focused on what’s important for the organisation and what’s going on inside our own garden that we forget to look at what’s happening outside. We also need to look at what’s trending currently in the news or in Google search terms. For example, the television series The Last of Us, based on a video game, presents a scenario of a zombie apocalypse resulting from the infection of humanity by a fungus. We capitalised on that as our Chief Scientist, Professor Brett Summerell, is a mycologist. We interviewed him to ask how realistic this scenario is.
I’m sure lots of people who watch the TV show had never thought about fungi before. It’s like this beautiful gateway drug into the plant world and we tried to leverage that!
Another tip for developing plant science or horticulture comms is to be a bit daring and have fun. There are so many quirky plant names and stories out there − it’s another gateway into the plant world for everyday people. A career highlight for me was a story I developed with the headline ‘Dog’s Balls’ stands out as a new species.' This got a lot of attention!
Any advice for other gardens looking at expanding their communications and/or for smaller gardens with a lack of resources – what do you think is a key area and message they could focus on?
I don’t know if this is because my parents are German, but everything for me is about efficiency! With content it’s the same thing. Create as much evergreen content that’s not going to go out of date so that you can repurpose it for different formats multiple times. Create a base of content that you invest initial resources, time and effort into. If you’re creating one long video about spring, for example, and what’s in bloom, how can you create a longer sort of educational video for YouTube or Facebook? How can you cut it to make smaller teaser content that can live on your website or that you can share to the media? I never create content for just one purpose. I’m always looking at how I can repackage it for different audiences and mediums. For example, we often use our podcast episodes instead of writing a media release to pitch the story to media. We simply email a link to the episode and a short summary rather than write another media release. We’ve done that successfully with the Sydney Morning Herald and Cosmos magazine.
Another example of efficiency is working with other content creators. For example, there’s a YouTuber called the Sydney Plant Guy who has a massive following. He has huge indoor plants and shares how to look after them. He came to the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney to do a ‘behind the scenes’ video about our orchids in the nursery and put it on his channel. This is great PR for us – and he did all the work! So, my advice is to collaborate and use other people’s channels and resources if you can.
Another key piece of advice is ‘quality over quantity.’ You don’t need to post on social media every day. You want to get as much engagement as possible, so focus on one or two platforms and try to do them well. If you can’t do a podcast and run social media channels and do a newsletter etc., maybe just pick two and try and do those well. Think about your local community and audience − who are they and how do they consume media? Maybe for a small regional botanic garden a podcast isn’t the best approach − maybe it’s more about Facebook and community pages because it’s a smaller community.
Are there any upcoming media and communications trends that smaller botanic gardens should be aware of and preparing for?
The really big thing now is video content, like Instagram reels and YouTube shorts. For example, our What the Flora?! video episodes are typically eight to 10 minutes long. This is considered very long. Reels and shorts are between 30 seconds and a minute. The great thing is that they don’t have to be well-polished and of high production value. They could involve asking your horticulturists for a tip on how to prune roses or how to keep aphids off. Keep it simple and targeted with short, sharp answers and lots of personality. You can make these great little videos, which you can edit in Instagram on your phone. For example, we’ve got a great Horticulturist in the nursery who primarily looks after orchids. He sets up his cameras and does time lapses of orchids flowering, which are mesmerising!
You might need to get some initial training in how to use reels and shorts. There’s a lot of free tutorials on YouTube that are a good way to get started.
What does success look like for the Botanic Gardens of Sydney – in media content –over the next 12 months?
We’ve moved away from just focusing on how many followers we have on our social media platforms. This metric can’t be used in isolation. You can’t simply say ‘we’ve got 10,000 followers’ because if they are only engaging with your posts through liking, sharing or commenting, they’re not really understanding or enjoying the content. Engaging with the posts means people have not only seen the content, but it’s had an impact on them – they felt compelled to respond or send it to their friends. So, you could have less followers, but a higher engagement rate, which is more meaningful. A 1−5% engagement rate is considered sound.
There’s also a new metric called ‘social echo.’ It measures the performance of a media article that’s been shared on social media, so it’s looking at the engagement that it gets outside just appearing in the news, like the impact factor of academic publications in journals.
What are you listening to, reading or watching?
I don’t think I’ve read a book since before I had my two-year-old daughter! But I do listen to podcasts. My favourite, where I get a lot of inspiration, is Radiolab. It combines interviews with music and storytelling. I highly recommend it to anyone considering starting their own podcast or who loves incredible stories about science and people.
If you’ve got great media contacts in the area, or photojournalists that want to take amazing pictures of your plants, and the local papers are the way that people find out about what’s on − then stick with that strategy. It’s not a one-size-fits-all.
Do you have a favourite plant?
It’s the Red Flowering Gum Corymbia ficifolia.
It is just so Australian − with its contrasting colours and unique stamens, just beautiful.
Finally, I have to ask, how do you pronounce your surname?!
Like ‘books’ (which I don’t read!) but with an f instead of a b. It means fox in German.
Editor’s note: While researching this article, I came across this fact: Leonhart Fuchs (1501−1566) was a founding father of modern botany, and is the namesake of the plant genus and corresponding colour, fuchsia.
If you would like to feature in one of Vanessa’s podcasts, or have a story that might interest her, let Vanessa know at media@botanicgardens.nsw.gov.au
