Webinar Recap: Foundations of Listening and Engagement
Monday, November 2, 2009 | 1 Comment
Tags: engagement, Listening
Posted in: Listening, Webinar
We had a great time on the Foundations of Listening and Engagement webinar last Thursday. But if you couldn’t join us, never fear. We’ve got the recap of the presentation for you right here (and for future webinars, we’ll have archive recordings available for you). Below are the slides, and if you download the PowerPoint file, the talking points are right in the speaker notes in the deck. Also, keep reading for a recap of the live session Q&A.
Foundations of Listening and Engagement: Q&A
Q: In a severely resource-constrained environment, is there any 1 listening/engagement technique you’d recommend as the most valuable?
Definitely the first thing you want to do is see if there’s conversation about your specific brand happening online. If there is, that’s the place to start. Start by looking at any negative conversations first, and address those by reaching out and connecting. Thank folks for any positive comments, and if you have time participate in some larger industry conversations. If there isn’t buzz about your brand yet, I’d start by looking at competitors to see what they’re up to, and then pick 3 or 4 online conversations each day around your industry (pick a specific topic to focus on to keep your efforts very specific).
Q: Knowing you might have people listening who aren’t necessarily the owners of the answers, is it better to reply with a “Thanks for the question, I’ll find out the answer and get back to you” type interim post, or just wait until you have the answer to reply back, even if it means a more delayed response?
I’d definitely recommend the first approach. Most folks are super appreciative about being acknowledged and responded to, and are more than willing to wait for a response that’s accurate. Better yet, tell them you’re forwarding the post to a member of your team that knows the answer, and have that team member engage directly to follow up. Really shows that you’re communicating internally, and that their request is important to you.
Q: What would you suggest the ratio to be between ‘conversing’ and ’selling’ on the social sites?
First, it’s important to say that blatant “selling” on social sites rarely works well at all. If you’re talking in terms of promotion of your stuff/work vs. talking, it depends on the conversation and the medium. If you’re on Twitter, 85+ percent of your engagement should be just chatting it up with folks, providing information, connecting with your community. When you do present your stuff, it should be information that could be of value to the community, not just sales pitches. On your blog, I’d say keep the promotion to a minimum and focus on contributing valuable insight and expertise (folks can find your “stuff” elsewhere on your site if they want it, they don’t need to be hit over the head with it). On other people’s blogs, never ever pitch your stuff in the comments. It’s a breach of etiquette and largely frowned upon.
Q: You had mentioned business to business practices. What do you see doing differently in a B&B setting.
Truly, not too much. In fact, B2B is really well suited to social media because of the longer sales cycle and the importance of relationship development, which is where social media excels. B2B conversations are often focused on more “how does this help me do my job better” topics, because that’s the nature of the work. But listening and engaging online for B2B is much like business development, but in an online setting. We’ve been building relationships and doing deals on the golf course for years. Now, we get to know those folks on the social web.
Q: Social media is centered on individuals; how much should companies engaging in the practice expose the individuals behind blogs/tweets/etc.?
As much as you can comfortably do within your legal/regulatory standards. People don’t usually want to make “friends” with logos. The beauty of social media is in giving folks a bit of the behind-the-scenes look at the people that drive the company. That’s where the gold is, and where the long term, repeat relationships are formed. As a customer, it makes me feel like I have a more personal line to that company if I know Bob in marketing, or Sue in customer service. Whenever you can, let the humans behind your company communications shine.
Q: How can social media work on a hyper local or niche environment where the potential audience is smaller? multinational brands have large pool of audience to draw, a small community paper has a smaller group.
The size of the community isn’t where the gold is. It’s all in how engaged that community is, so hyperlocals can definitely tap the potential of social media, even if its for a smaller group of people. Focus on connecting with the individuals, and not how big the group is. Organic growth is how it works best. Plus, there are plenty of larger industry conversations that can be places to get your local folks engaged on a broader scale online, and build awareness for your local efforts.
Q: Can you please talk a little bit more about what to do after you listen? that is my main concern, that people stop at listening.
Indeed, that happens sometimes. Companies are overwhelmed by the volume of conversation, and sometimes don’t know where to start. Listening can provide a great observation point to help find the right entry into dialogue online. The key is to pick a type of conversation and start there. For some companies, the first step is to work to correct reputation problems, like negative comments or posts. For others, it’s just to establish a presence in the communities where their customers are already talking about them, to demonstrate that they’re listening and available. And for those that don’t yet have buzz about them, the place to start is by contributing to larger conversations – the ones they want to be associated with. Listening is what should inform the engagement strategy, but it’s not an end in itself.
Q: What size company do you typically see needing help with listening beyond the free services?
It’s usually much less about size, and much more about available resources and what you’re trying to listen for. In general, you’re ready to graduate to a more robust monitoring tool if you’re spending more than an hour or two a day aggregating and collecting all the posts you’re searching for, and if you’re spending more than a couple of hours a week doing analysis on those posts. That’s time you could be spending gleaning insights instead of doing the manual labor.
Q: How would you marry traditional research data with information gathered from listening (all forms).
If you’re a company that’s invested enough to be doing traditional research, it’s important to see if the conclusions and insights you’re seeing from that research are corresponding to what you’re learning online. See if the trends and indicators are the same about how your customers react and behave. And integrate some questions and hypotheses about online and social media factors in your traditional research to see how they play out. The social web is often an unfiltered source of opinions and feedback, and you might spot some interesting ideas that come out when the community isn’t taking formalized surveys, but is just speaking from their interest and passion.
Looking for More?
We’ll be kicking off November by focusing our content and discussions around Getting Started In Social Media. Learn more over in our Engaged Brand section of the website. And mark your calendars for these upcoming web events:
Thursday, November 5th at 2:00 PM EST: The Engaged Brand Twebinar with Kodak
Join Kodak’s Chief Blogger, Jenny Cisney, as we chat with her about what Kodak is up to in social media, how it’s changed their brand for the better, and what they’ve learning about the importance of listening, engagement, and measurement. We’ll even ask her the dreaded ROI question. Bookmark HERE to join the Twebinar on Thursday.
Thursday, November 12th at 2:00 PM EST: The Engaged Brand Twebinar with Dix and Eaton
Join us as we talk with Chuck Hemann from Dix and Eaton about the evolution of public relations under the influence of social media. He’ll weigh in on how the industry is changing, and what he’s learned as he’s been involved in the trenches of social media. Bookmark HERE to join the Twebinar on the 12th.
