WeAreMedia: Why Putting on Your Listening Ears is the First Step

My Listening Ears, Flickr Photo by niclindh

During the month of September and into October, the WeAreMedia project will be discussing the content in the tactical modules on the wiki. The first module is on Listening.

Why listening?  Learning how to listen using a couple of social media tools and the active task of listening is something that can be easily learned in a few hours and if an organization invests 1-5 hours per week in this task it will definitely return value to strategy development.   

As the ExperienceTheBlog suggests:

Simply put, the best way to use social media is to use it. Don't jump into the deep end of the social media pool, but you won't get any benefit nor gain any knowledge by staying dry and arguing over where and how to leap. Dip a toe into the water, test the temperature, and see what you learn about your consumers and your brands.

The point was driven home to me by a commenter from a nonprofit organization named Paulette who works for an arts organization who left this comment on the interview with Marc from the Chicago Symphony:

We're trying to figure out how to best engage in social media. I'm advocating for us to use it more as part of our outreach efforts because I think we're missing an opportunity to communicate with the new audiences we're always talking about developing for the arts. The ROI ideas were particularly helpful as you're correct, it is important to be adding more value than just "keeping up with Joneses." And I'm especially keen on the idea of listening first, as, of course, inevitably the push escalates to "act and get big results" long before you're actually ready for that.

I thought it was right on.

Defining Listening

I like how Josh Bernhoff definesit on this YouTube video from the Forrester Consumer Forum. "Learning from what your customers are saying."

In the chapter on listening in Josh Bernhoff and Charlene Li's new book, Groundswell they point out that listening is nothing new - it's market research. There is a difference between market research (using surveys, focus groups, and interviews to collect data) and listening (using social media tools). Market research generates answers, while listening using social media generates insights.

Bernhoff and Li point out in their book that there are problems relying solely on social media to do your listening. While you'll gain new insights, the people you're listening to are not necessarily representative of your total client or audience base. The other issue is information overload due to volume.

Why Important

As a listener using social media tools, you become a Jane Goodall observing your clients in their natural environment. On the social web,current and potential supporters for your nonprofit are sharing opinions, concerns, and ideas; some are even sharing their day-to-day experiences with your issue area or why they care or what might motivate them to make a contribution.  If your first tactical step is to spend 1-5 hours per week putting on your social media ears, you can glean the nuances of what's on your supporters' minds.

Help us flesh out the Listening section by answering these questions on the wiki:

• What are some basic beginner steps for listening?
• What are some advanced techniques for listening?
• What are some of the best resources or blog posts about social media listening?
• We are REALLY need examples, stories, or case studies about nonprofits and listening.   Share a "nugget" or drop a comment and I'll interview you for a blog post and addition the wiki.

Comments

[Ben Martin, CAE]

Beth, I definitely agree with the listen first mantra:
http://caeexam.blogspot.com/2008/02/antisocial-media-why-most-associations.html

At my nonprofit, we're making converts through social media. Here are two examples of how listening first paid off:
1. Probably 75% or more of the Twitter users on this list would not be registered for our convention if not for our social media efforts: http://www.varconvention.com/why-var-members-really-come-to-convention-the-twitterazzi/

2. Three new additions to our Leadership Academy are social media mavens: http://varbuzz.com/leadership-academy-class-of-09-anyone-you-know/

[Trish]

Our presence on social media sites seems to be the number one referral with twitter coming in first and MySpace second. Social media has also been huge for us whenever we launch a new support project or campaign. Our recent Operation Soldier Care received over $3100 in contributions just from our social media contacts. That's huge for us.

Our presence on twitter can be found at @MailOurMilitary, @eMOMs for our feed and @Dayngr

[Beth Kanter]

Trish,

Can you tell me a specific story about how you used a listening tool - like technorati, google alerts, or twitter search - and how that paid off for you?
Thanks

[Beth Kanter]

@Ben can you share a story or two about how used listening tools to get these news prospects? I'm talking about technorati, twitter search, RSS reader, google alerts,etc

[Trish]

Beth,

Absolutely! We've used twitter search and tracking along with google alerts to listen when people have had questions or needed information on military/veteran topics. We've then responded to those folks with the answers they were looking for. In most cases, those people then turned into followers or members. That's an amazing payoff.

[Danielle]

This was a fantastic post. I think listening is the most effective first step you can take when it comes to getting started and learning from the community. I haven't stopped listening and because of that I haven't stopped learning!

[Jennifer Caleshu, Bay Area Discovery Museum]

We use RSS to track reviews on sites such as Yelp and trip advisor. We also watch for del.icio.us saves using RSS, and we use tweet scan to track tweets that mention us as well. With yelp, we use their "compliment" feature to thank reviewers for their post (positive or negative) - if we weren't using RSS, we'd have to remember to check it... and tracking the number of del.icio.us saves is a nice metric to know how we're doing as well.

[Beth Kanter]

Jennifer - thanks for your story .. can you remember a specific review or situation where thanking the compliment lead to purchasing a membership or donation or something else? Also, how do u handle negative comments?

[Jennifer Caleshu, Bay Area Discovery Museum]

I don't know if we've seen specific reviews translate into memberships or donations - though I've seen updated reviews on our yelp (http://www.yelp.com/biz/bay-area-discovery-museum-sausalito) where someone has reviewed us, then later updated it to say they bought a membership. Negative reviews still get a thanks for taking the time to write - and if I can, I try to address the issue in a low-key but specific way in the 'compliment' feature, not publicly by posting a review back, of course. The nice thing about yelp is that people try to help each other out - and tend to write about other reviews if they disagree with a negative poster. We're fortunate to be pretty well-liked, so it doesn't come up too much.

[Beth Kanter]

jon, your org is: YSA.org

[Ben Martin, CAE]

@Beth - When I first started this job, nobody anywhere cared to keep tabs on who the bloggers in our space were. Nobody cared to engage them in Facebook. Nobody cared to find them on Twitter. I was fortunate enough to come in at a time when social media was really taking off in our industry. With some background in social media, a lot of luck, and a lot of hard work, we actually became like the social media hub for our constituency. We're basically at the center of the social media scene for our constituents (but not in a controlling or middleman type of way). We nurture our online communities, organize meetings of our social media types, and try to give them greater exposure throughout the industry. Now I basically know all of the players, and I've helped introduce them to the others. I use a bunch of techie tools to stay abreast of everything happening in our community's social media space: Twitter search alerts, Google search alerts, Technorati alerts. But the best way to do it is, as you say, by listening (online, by phone, and in person too).

For specific stories of how social media paid off for us, check out this article about our efforts that was recently published by Associations Now. You'll read about two members that were turned around by our social media and listening efforts: http://www.asaecenter.org/PublicationsResources/ANowDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=35071