I’m curious about this new phenomenon called “listening.”
In the April 5, 2010 Advertising Age, a sub-head of a larger story says “As social media continues to grow, marketers place more emphasis on listening to consumers instead of just asking them questions.”
In the last three years I’ve heard one of my clients tell me they listen to their corporate customers and as a result they provide better client service; really? I’ve stated that blogging makes you listen differently. (I still concur with myself.) Now this headline about marketers who listen versus ask.
Social media has adjusted the balance between marketer and consumer. Where before consumers were preached at by integrated marketers, now they are sending messages in the reverse direction. The balance of power has shifted, and listening is indeed a new phenomenon, although now a different one-way street.
Online buzz provides much of the fodder for companies and organizations to grasp the conversation via monitoring and tracking and, hence, listening. Perhaps social media defines listening as new consumer-driven positive or negative content about brands being created every minute via word-of-mouth marketing with no pattern, no campaign, no budget, and no director in charge.
Perhaps.
Although I understand the point about the need for more listening, shouldn’t this be an innate, basic skill? Isn’t success embroiled in listening?
Strategic listening requires comprehension and action. One can hear, but without full comprehension, there’s no action, and potentially failure. For a story to suggest listening is now being emphasized because consumers are armed with social media tools implies to me we’ve not been listening too well of late.
What’s your opinion about how you listen? Is social media forcing improvement of listening skills, merely pointing out how poor our skills were to begin with, or making listening temporary until another something comes along?
“Strategic listening requires comprehension and action. One can hear, but without full comprehension, there’s no action, and potentially failure. For a story to suggest listening is now being emphasized because consumers are armed with social media tools implies to me we’ve not been listening too well of late.”
Wonderful point. Unfortunately, some are motivated by the stick as opposed to the carrot – they weren’t going to listen to their customers until there was a possible penalty (negative review) for NOT listening. I don’t know if this is an improvement so much of listening skills as it is of customer service. Which, great!
You also make a great point, and thanks for saying so to the section that resonated with you, Jenn. I wholeheartedly agree with you on the “possible penalty.” When you really dissect the social media prowess of keen consumers and associate that with brands, everyone ought to be sitting up and taking notice big time.
Like many things, blogging among them, listening is an art.
You are precisely correct. This is just a new (and powerful!) way to do what companies should have been doing all along. I recently did a guest post for Danny Brown offering that “listening well” and “responding quickly” was the true heart of competitive advantage. I think it is a good companion to what you wrote here!
https://dannybrown.me/2010/03/23/are-you-strategic-by-mark-w-schaefer/?
Thanks for making this post more rich with yours, Mark. People are forgetting the basics with the advent of social media, and listening is one of the very first.