Bryan Kramer

Posted on April 04, 2012 by Bryan Kramer 11

Six Steps to Becoming a Good (Social) Listener

Too many companies treat social media as if it’s a one-way conversation. They set up Twitter and Facebook accounts and then start pumping out updates. But guess what? Your followers, fans, friends and customers are talking back.

Social Media headphones imageListening in social media is all about monitoring, reading and understanding these online conversations. You have to “listen” in order to engage. There are conversations happening everywhere—some are brand direct, while others are indirect (they may be specific to the industry or a competitor). But both are equally important. Here are six steps to listening and engaging effectively.

1)    Identify your audience. Once you know who your audience is, you need to know where they are. A common misperception is that everyone is hanging out on the same social network. But that’s not true. For example, according to a study by Anderson Analytics, Generation Z (13- to 14-year-old) social network users are slightly more active on MySpace than Facebook, only 9% use Twitter and none are active on LinkedIn. If you tried to listen to Gen Z on Twitter, you wouldn’t hear much. They’re not there.

2)    Create a listening strategy. Once you know which social networks are relevant to your audience, you need to identify what words they’re likely to use in conversations. Create a list of keywords to listen for, including your brand, products, events, personnel and any topics relevant to your customers. You may also want to include your competitors and industry influencers as listening keywords.

3)    Choose your technology. There are so many social media monitoring tools for both desktop and mobile. Google Alerts is a free Google service that monitors keywords and sends you aggregated notifications. Social Mention, also free, allows you to monitor social media, blogs and blog comments and get e-mail alerts and “sentiment” analysis (an indication of whether the content is positive, negative or neutral to your brand). Ice Rocket helps you discover trends, top keyword phrases and mentions in the blogosphere, and search your keywords across thousands of blogs—and it’s free, too. Radian6 and HootSuite are a few others. Do your research and determine what works best for you.

4)    Appoint a savvy social media guru to be your designated listener. This is an important job. Big companies create teams of people to fulfill this role. You’ll also want to create a daily plan and regular schedule for monitoring. Ideally, you want to check your alerts and real-time tools every hour so you catch opportunities that are relatively fresh.

5)    Create a response strategy. What are acceptable responses for different types of comments? Make a list. Ideally, your designated listener is authorized to respond so you don’t waste time with review and approval processes. One thing to remember—be human in your responses. Stiff and corporate don’t cut it in social media. It’s Facebook and Twitter, not the boardroom.

6)    Be accountable. Be sure the execs know what’s happening on social media. Give them a report, yes, but also advise them on how the company may need to adapt. Things can spiral out of control quickly in social networks. Remember the latest brouhaha with Susan G. Komen For the Cure and Planned Parenthood? With social media, you need to be proactive. You’re not only trying to enhance your brand, you’re protecting it, as well.

Key Takeaway: Don’t just talk to your audience. Listen. Pay attention. How will you engage effectively with them if you don’t know what they’re saying?

  • Elizabeth Traub

    #5 Is the most important.  A Response Strategy that is real and authentic. So difficult in Social Media because 90% of communication is body language and we miss this part of communicating through SM, making that 10% “words spoken” into what needs to be our 90%.  In the same way I take notes when meeting a new client face to face I am learning to do the same here, as to be real in remembering the details and what is important to others, not just the message I want to communicate. Thx for this list to ponder. Elizabeth

    • http://www.facebook.com/BryanKramer Bryan Kramer

      That’s an interesting take. I agree with you. Actually, I have another post on Social Cocooning that may interest you on this topic. I think at the end of the day we all need social interaction, in person. And yes, in person can’t be replaced for the exact reasons you mentioned about body language and our interactions. I think both online and off, we could all listen a little more. Thanks for your thoughts.

  • http://twitter.com/callronan Ronan Callan

    Thanks Bryan. Interesting read. You mention ‘Social Mention’ as a monitoring tool. Do you know how it compares with any of the paid tools for accuracy? Does anybody know of any other good tools?

    • http://www.facebook.com/BryanKramer Bryan Kramer

      For the cost, it’s a great tool! Some other scoring tools that work really well on the paid side are Radian6 and Social Radar

  • http://twitter.com/JimdotJohnson Jim Johnson

    As an example of how fast technology is moving, Bryan points out that 13 – 15 yr olds are on MySpace and Facebook. However my 15-yr old has never been on MySpace, and has already moved beyond Facebook to Twitter.

  • Jim Johnson

    As an example of how fast technology is moving, Bryan points out that 13 – 15 yr olds are on MySpace and Facebook. However my 15-yr old has never been on MySpace, and has already moved beyond Facebook to Twitter.
    View on original pag

  • Ron

    Thanks Bryan. Interesting read. You mention ‘Social Mention’ as a monitoring tool. Do you know how it compares with any of the paid tools for accuracy? Does anybody know of any other good tools?

  • Elizabeth Traub

    #5 Is the most important.  A Response Strategy that is real and authentic. So difficult in Social Media because 90% of communication is body language and we miss this part of communicating through SM, making that 10% “words spoken” into what needs to be our 90%.  In the same way I take notes when meeting a new client face to face I am learning to do the same here, as to be real in remembering the details and what is important to others, not just the message I want to communicate. Thx for this list to ponder. Elizabeth

    • http://digitallyevolve.com/ Tim Delaney

      I agree with you Elizabeth – a thoughtful and acceptable response is extremely important. It is also important to remember that the response is not only going to an individual in this case, but to everyone else in that person’s and your own networks and you will be judged by all of these people on the quality of your response.

  • http://www.xbosoft.com/ Philip Hamilton

    I think you are right… What a novel concept that listening is just as important as talking. I think we all get caught up in the craze of social media… talk talk talk, but just like any other form of communication, listening is more important. And asking questions can show more intelligence than talking, but to ask the right questions, you have to listen. We are using a few twitter filtering services to ‘listen’ to what is important to our customers and our industry. You can get an great idea of what direction the market is heading, and adapt your services and value proposition.