The Secret of Listening

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When I talk to people about business blogging, the first thing I usually recommend they do before anything else is work on their listening.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not telling them to listen to me; I advise them to look at the tools they can use and information they can gather by listening to what’s being written on the web.

Listening Tools

I personally use NetNewswWire synched with Google Reader to follow a hotch-potch of blogs, news sites and google searchers.

It’s the first port of call every day after I’ve checked and responded to my mail; I look at what’s important, thought-provoking, and what catches my interest.

I make sure I limit my time so the day doesn’t disappear, but I do allow myself to follow my curiosity. Part of being a communications consultant means keeping up to date with new trends in digital communication and that means reading books and reading on the web.

As a business owner I also monitor my brand, looking for mentions of “Jon Buscall” or “Jontus Media”. I want to be able to follow any conversations I’m involved in, react to what’s being published and generally keep an eye on what’s being written. If there’s something I need to respond to, I think about blogging it.

Listening, for example, is important if you want to use your blog for crisis management. For example, I discovered that one of my clients was being critiqued in a local Swedish newspaper. I discovered the link just seconds after the paper updated its site via my RSS reader and was able to advise my client to respond immediately on their corporate blog as they weren’t aware of the story.

Blogs are great ways of responding to a crisis. But you have to listen to what’s being said before you can write.

The Emergence of Real-time Search

I then switch over to Twitter and quickly check my keyword searches, again monitoring topics that are important to my interest, my skills, and the clients that I help. I use Tweetie to handle twitter accounts and monitor keywords related to my industry and clients on the Twitter network.

By listening each morning, usually over a cup of coffee as I gear up for the imminent rush of writing, phone calls, meetings and possibly training seminars, I keep in touch with what is happening out there, feed my creativity and curiosity; I’m also able to see if there’s anything on the web that I need to respond to, start new conversations and be social.

EasyJet are an example of a company monitoring their brand on Twitter. I’m not sure I agree with their strategy entirely, but they’re exploring how social media can help bring them closer to their customers.

Creating Online Spaces Where You Listen

There are stacks of other useful “listening tools” out there. Facebook Fan Pages, for example, are great places to listen. People are increasingly using social media to connect and engage and many will look up your company on Facebook. Better still, link to your Facebook Page from your website to show you’ve created a resource for them.

Here’s a real world example of how I work with Facebook Fan Pages.

Yesterday, for example, I saw that a student had asked a question about Application Deadlines on Int. Engelska Gymnasiet’s Facebook Fan Page. By responding promptly with the school’s official account (Disclosure: I’m helping them build their community with social media) I was able to help her and also share that information with the other 200 fans the page has.

On the surface this probably doesn’t look like very much. But the same strategy repeated regularly would help show that the school cares about its students, and –tied in with its other online outposts– is willing to help its community in a friendly way.

It surely doesn’t take much imagination to realise how this could impact of this on your business.Of course, there’s a fine line between providing online help and engaging on social media networks and drowning in digital noise. If there were 200 requests for help per hour on the IEGS Facebook Page this wouldn’t work given the resources available. But as it stands, listening and participating on social media is a good strategy.

Other Ways of Listening

I use Google Alerts sent direct to my email to help me monitor news, industry competitors and other key searches. This is particularly useful if I’m away from my desk as email alerts picked up on my phone can keep me in touch with what’s going on. It’s free and easy to use. If you haven’t checked out what it can do yet, give it a try.

Listening Leads to Good Writing

A lot of the content I write comes from reacting to news, ideas or information that I gather through listening. Listening also informs the way I write and, although I like to think that each of us has a unique voice that comes alive when we put words together, I’m still influenced by listening to other people’s web writing.

By this I mean that it’s only through listening to good web writing that we can hope to take on those strategies and skills ourselves. Just as your high school teacher told you to read scholarly texts to improve your own formal, scholarly writing; you need to read great bloggers to learn about blogging.

I have a few writers who I really enjoy on a daily basis but part of tracking what’s happening on the Net and with digital communication is that you discover new voices all the time. That’s part of the thrill of listening, I guess.