The Answer to Sean's Question: Tools for Effective Listening
Sean of the Tactical Philanthropy blog called me the batman of nonprofit technology. I've never been referred to as an comic strip character. (It reminded of Gary Turner's Webmaster Traffic Art and his batman creation.) Okay, so let me answer the question by posed by The Tactical Philanthropy blog
Does anyone know of any other audio or video programming that has mentioned philanthropy blogs? If so, let me know. I guess it still takes good old fashion word of mouth to stay on top of these mediums. Or maybe Beth Kanter will save the day and point us all to a nifty new gadget that makes things easier (Beth Kanter: The Batman of nonprofit technology! “Where does she get all those wonderful toys?").
The premise is that listening must become a priority in order to use the Web2.0 tools successfully. I think it is a pretty critical marketing practice despite what technology tools you are using.
Allison Fine in her book Momentum notes: "Listening requires genuine interest in what that person is saying and a willingness to change as a result of what was said." She gives examples of the listening deficits, but also the ways that social media tools can facilitate listening. She acknowledges that it takes time to listen and that there is no way around it.
The Zoomerang Study of Marketers and Web2.0 also identified the importance of listening.
"Smart marketers understand how important it is to engage their customers in a dialog…The advice for marketers looking to embark on a Web 2.0 strategy is to “shut up and listen…Your customers have a lot to say. Stop broadcasting messages they TiVo out anyway and hear what they have to say. Once you’ve done that, you can think about a thoughtful engagement strategy.”
In article about ego searching, Robin Good adds
If you can track what the rest of the world is saying about you or your products and services, you have a great deal of valuable information at your disposal. Knowing what others say and think about you is the best and most effective way to improve your profile, positioning, price without needing to hire any expensive marketing consultant.
How do you listen carefully? Ego searches. Web2.0 marketers use them to get attention. These are free and simple searches designed to monitor blogs and news sites for mentions of your organization, services, or other specific keywords. These help you stay informed, but may also help you keep a strategic advantage in the marketplace. Ego searches can be set up very easily - no special geek skills required -- and the services, are, of course, free.
Some tools and techniques follow below. For almost all of them, there are general steps to listening:
- Do a search
- Click on the RSS button in the results page
- Add the feed to your RSS Reader
- Follow the feed and leave comments when mentioned.
Tracking Blog Conversations
News Feeds
You can also use RSS to "listen" for mentions of your organization in the news. (Gavin wrote some excellent advice not too long ago on a listserv and if we're lucky, he'll write it up as a blog post)
Additional Resources
Marshall Kirkpatrick's Article on Netsquared: How To Track Mentions of Your Organization
How To Create Your Circle of the Wise from CoolCatTeacher - best place to start for beginners
Robin Good - Who is talking about me on the Web today?
Robin Good - Ego Searching
Will Richardson’s Quick Guide for RSS Feeds for Educators - has advice on setting up search terms.
And, of course, a little fun! How many ego points do you have?
This is a great list and discussion of this! Wow!
Posted by: Vicki Davis | July 17, 2007 at 10:28 PM