How to Start Listening with Social Media
March 25, 2009 at 11:12 am | Posted in Branding, Getting Started, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter | 5 CommentsTags: Marketing, Social Media, Twitter
What organization wouldn’t be interested to leverage the ability to sell to, listen to, build loyalty with, create with, promote with and participate in conversations about their brand, product or industry?
If you are a doubter, or not sure about dipping that toe in… start by just listening. Listening is one of the most important sales skills – why? Because it’s how you find out what your customer wants. Good sellers are good listeners. This can work on the brand level as well – via social media, you can listen at the brand level.
How To Start Listening With Social Media – 5 Steps
- Get yourself a Twitter ID
- Make it a personal one, something you can play around with (worry about the brand later)
- Learn the basics and the simple jargon
- Start with the FAQs
- This will help you understand what you find
- This will help you listen/search effectively
- Start following a few people or brands
- Like me
- Twitter will recommend some when you sign up…
- Now Search for you, your brand, your industry, your product
- Use the handy search box on the top left
And Step 5…Analyze what you find.
- Who is tweeting?
- What are they saying? Do you like it?
- What can you do with this?
Step 5 isn’t really a step, it’s a choice. What are you going to do with what you heard? There’s a lot more to social media of course, but this is a simple way to start.
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Carson McKee,
Digital wing man and social media consultant. -
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Interesting post.
While I’d agree that it does help to learn as much as you can about social media outlets (eg. reading FAQ’s is a surprisingly easy and effective way to learn about a service), I think that doing research about the best way your organization can use social media should be required.
For example, Twitter or Facebook may not be because you may not be a B2C company, however an account on GetSatisfaction may be. It depends on your target audience and what they need from your organization.
Good point bringing up the FAQ’s though. I always forget about them, but they can be really helpful for new comers.
Comment by Oliver Nassar— March 25, 2009 #
Hi Oliver, yes – research is important. The great thing about Twitter is that it is so simple as a concept and the faqs can get you up to speed quickly on the lay of the land. Thanks for your comment.
Comment by Carson McKee— March 26, 2009 #
Good point Carson. It is incredibly easy for an organization to at the very least start participating in the community, and from there gauge their direction and how to use it.
Good read.
Comment by Oliver Nassar— March 26, 2009 #
Twitter is a great place to start and be in the social media realm. It is not just for B2C, it is for everyone. B2C, B2B, JV, its about relationships.
It is a very good idea to sign up and listen to get a feel of the system and how it works. Then jump in and see where it takes you. You may stumble here and there, but overall as long as you are being you and not being spamming you will find your place to belong on twitter.
Comment by dawntrenee— March 26, 2009 #
Thanks Dawn – I agree that social media is not just for B2C… just checked out your site and I appreciate your comments.
Comment by Carson McKee— March 26, 2009 #