Hello...Are You Listening?

Recently, someone that I know said to me "people just don't listen," which got me to thinking about what they meant and what it really means "to listen."  In your lifetime you've probably heard someone say "you hear me...but you're not listening to what I'm saying."  For the most part, "hearing" is a passive activity, while "listening" requires active participation.  Being an active listener requires interpretation, analysis, understanding and action.  And, it goes both ways.  Effective dialog requires active listening, engagement and bi-directional sharing by participants.

So, I ask the question: Are marketers today listening to their consumers; are they even hearing them?  I'm anticipating the standard response to be "yes, we run focus groups, we perform voice-of-the-customer studies and we employ customer surveys to understand how to improve our products." There is no doubt that these are great listening and learning tools, but you'll have to agree that [a] you probably don't do them enough, [b] they're expensive to execute, and [c] there is a time lag from what you've learned and when you choose to respond.  What if I told you that there was a faster, better and less expensive way to listen to your customers? Would you listen? 

If so, here goes:  Social Media (blogs, photo sharing sites, audio/video sites, microblogs, social networks, wikis, text marketing, review/ratings sites, etc.) provides a set of tools to the modern marketer that will allow you to not only listen to what your consumers are saying, but to also respond to them in a timely manner.  Sound fascinating?  It will take some work on your behalf, but the rewards are happier customers, which leads to positive commentary (both online and word of mouth), which will result in increased revenues. 

Below I've outlined some ways that you can listen to your customers and how you can respond.  Both will assist you as you set-out to define your listening and consumer dialog strategy. 

Listening Tools:

Search:  Use Google, MSN, Ask and Yahoo to search on your company name, product names, competitors, URLs, taglines, logos, company executive names, etc.  Searches should be performed on a regular basis and alerts can be set-up with each search engine to do some of the work for you.

Blog Spotting:  Today, there are are millions of bloggers in the blogosphere that are creating millions of new entries each day.  If you're thinking "bloggers don't matter, they're too small to have significant influence," think again.  Even small blogs have arms and legs that reach all corners of the web via social bookmarking, search engine indexing, tagging, linking, etc.  Social Media makes it all possible and you need to know what they're saying about your company and your products.  That said, there are some great tools out there to know what is being said in the blogosphere.  Start with Google Blog Search, BlogPulse, Technorati and IceRocket  Again, search on your company name, product names, competitors, etc. and trend it over time.

Linking:  Start by entering your company and product URLs into the top search engines.  You'll quickly find-out who is linking to you.  Alternatively, regularly check your analytics service provider (Omniture, Hitwise, Google Analytics) for incoming links to your sites.  Know who is linking to you and what they're saying about you, both positive and negative.  Linking is often the best source of understanding where your traffic is coming from and why.  Remember, not all traffic to your site is a result of something that you're doing right.

Microblogging/Twitter:  Sign-up for a Twitter account and download and install TweetDeck, which will allow you to set-up groups based on keyword searches of Twitter conversations; such as "your company name" or "your product name."  Then, all you have to do is to check these groups on TweetDeck to know what is being said about your company or your products.  As a bonus, set-up groups for competing products to know what is being said about your competitors.  If this is too much for you, simply go to Twitter Search and enter details in the search field to "see what's happening - right now" on Twitter.  Search anything, it's amazing what you'll find.

Wikis:  Regularly check your product entries at Wikipedia and other relevant wikis.  As you likely know, these entries are consumer generated and often change.  Also, check your competitor's products to see how they are positioned vis-a-vis your products.

Product Review/Ratings Sites:  Some of your best source of product information will come by way of consumer ratings and reviews.  These sites can be stand alone sites such as Epinions or can be supplementary features on expert or shopping sites such as Edmunds or Amazon. Either way, consumers that are at these sites are likely in the consideration phase of the purchase funnel and are subject to the the influences of others; especially people that have purchased your product or are your current customers.  Carefully review these ratings and review sites and determine how you should respond to consumer dissonance or complaints.  Also, review what consumers are saying about your competitor's products as well.  Note that you should not seek to publish false reports on these sites to balance or counter criticism; this will only lead to trouble.  In the digital channel, transparency and authenticity deliver consumer trust. 

Consumer Dialog Tools:
It is important to point-out here that your tone should be conversational, authentic and timely with the goal of influencing the conversation, which is why it's now being referred to as Influence Marketing.  Below I detail a few ideas, however know that your choice of tactics will depend on both your strategy and individual issues that arise.  Many companies are now employing company communications professionals whose sole job it is to dialog with consumers via social media.  This role is a combination of both marketing and operations, which entails gauging whether or not consumer expectations are meeting the delivered experience, and if not, work to fix issues both internally and externally.

Microblogging/Twitter:  Many companies, such as Starbucks, Baskin-Robbins, Jet Blue, IKEA, and Zappos, are now Twittering to engage in two-way conversations with their consumers.  Twitter allows consumers to "follow" you; which is essentially a subscription to your Tweets, or micro-messages.  Products, such as the aforementioned TweetDeck, facilitates this process as it allows a company to organize their communications with consumers.  There is a 140 character limit to each Tweet and companies should know that the style of conversation should be personal and informal.  Other microblogging services exist as independent services or as part of a social networking site such as Facebook, however, Twitter is the standard at this point.  Your company's listening strategy will dictate how little or how much you chose to engage in microblogging.  However, know that microblogging is becoming more and more popular everyday; even NBC's The Today Show and Fox News now Twitter.

Blogging:  Many companies are now setting-up company blogs to engage in two-way dialog with their consumers. Though a recent Forrester report, titled Time To Rethink Your Corporate Blogging Ideas, found that consumers distrust corporate blogs, I feel that authenticity engenders trust, which should be what you set-out to do with your blog.  Be honest, be authentic and be apologetic, if necessary.  Beginning a blog post with something like "We heard you..." is a great way to let consumers know that you're listening.  Again, the blog should be conversational and informal.  Be careful though, sometimes the corporate blogger themselves will gain some level of fame, so make sure to have a succession plan in place if your blogger quits the company.

Social Networks:  Creating a "Fan Site" on Facebook and other social networks is often free.  Set-up a fan site for your products or company and frequently communicate with fans providing some level of value for becoming a fan of your company or product.  Additionally, the fans of your products on social networks form the foundation of an advocacy network; a segment that you may want to treat differently by providing them with product samples, coupons, exclusive demonstrations, etc.  Making them feel special and valued will pay dividends.  Your social media advocacy network will likely create the buzz or word-of-mouth exposure that you're looking for at a fraction of the cost that word-of-mouth companies such as BzzAgent charge. 

Sites/Microsites, Email, CRM and Online Advertising:  With all of this talk about social media, it's easy to forget about the core; that is your website, email/CRM programs and online advertising.   I sometimes jokingly refer to these as "traditional digital," since so much has changed in recent years.  The new mantra is Distributed Presence, which entails being everywhere. Though, be sure to integrate your listening and social media strategy with everything else that you're doing in the digital medium; each tactic should complement the other.  Your company voice will likely shift based on your digital channel, though make sure that the message is integrated and consistent.

Traditional Media:  Of course, integration is key here; whether it's TV, Radio, Print, Direct Mail or Out-of-Home.  As I stated in the in the last section, your voice will change based on channel, but the message should be consistent across mediums. It's important to call out here that your Public Relations strategy should be tightly integrated with your listening and consumer dialog strategy.

Keep in mind that the above serves only to get your started.  Once you begin to understand both the complexity and rewards of participating in Social Media, you will naturally augment your strategy to include other tools and tactics.  As you head down this path, recognize that it's a best practice to baseline and trend social media conversations over time so that you can demonstrate your listening strategy's impact and return on investment.

If for some reason at this point you're think that it's not for you, keep in mind that these consumer-led conversations are taking place with or without you.  By not listening and not responding, you're taking the position of agreement; silence is consent.  That said, dig-in, listen, analyze, understand, and do your best to influence these conversations through active participation; your job may depend on it.

(Note:  I apologize for the long post, I didn't have time to write a short one. ;-)

Comments

[Anne Mai Bertelsen]

Keith,

Nice post summarizing the ways brands can listen and converse. I see so many brands "listening" but still not dipping into the waters to participate in the conversation.

Anne
@annemai

[Amber Naslund]

Keith,

Fantastic and comprehensive post that really underscores the benefits and methods of paying attention in the social space. There are so many relevant goals for listening, but as you pointed out, listening should be *active*. Building brands that can endure in today's splintered world of communications means creating long-tail relevance. You have to be speaking not in just the language you think your customers want to hear, but in the language that they use themselves. Listening and actively engaging is the key to bridging that gap.

Thanks for carrying on this important conversation. Hope lots of folks are paying close attention.

Cheers,
Amber Naslund
Director of Community | Radian6
@AmberCadabra

[Jeanne]

It's also essential to develop an online presence in the new social marketing sites, paying careful attention to one's profile page. And networking is about giving - as well as receiving - from the network, part of the listening bit of your post.