What is Louder Than a Shout?

Like many bloggers, I receive a fair number of pitches each week. They range from well-reasoned, clearly personalized emails to the comically awful (Hint of the Day: the subject header of something you'd like to get read should not be "blogger Pitch").

The other day, through a blogger friend of mine, I received a come-on that was clearly transmitted by a new web-based service for marketers interested in using social media. I clicked back to the service and read their presentation.

There were some interesting tools. This service is targeted primarily to corporate marketers who feel pressed to produce ROI metrics. Many of the site's features contained some impressive ways to track the way people interact with the RSS feeds, emails, and multimedia enclosures managed by the program.

But the site consistently referred to social media interactions in a way which really caught my attention. It termed all these various communications as "shouts." This is exactly wrong. Social media is about a lot of things, but not shouting at your customers. And that's exactly what you're doing when you force information down the pipeline without making yourself available for a real conversation with its recipient.

Social media isn't a broadcast. It's a whisper. That's right: a whisper. Social media is simply a way to get next to your customer and speak only with them. Whispering is intimate. It's done up close. And it's closely related to listening.

The candles are lit. The lights are low. Social media has set the table, and your conversation partner is waiting to hear what you have to say. There's no need to shout. They're listening, and expect you to do the same.

Comments

[Jeff]

Made me think of a funny book I recently picked up, "Hatch's Order of Magnitude: Methodical Rankings of the Commonplace and the Incredible for Daily Reference by a Man of Extraordinary Genius and Impeccable Taste." There's a ranked list for almost everything.

...whisper...shout...

;-)

[Tom O'Brien]

Hi Valeria:

Nice post - and you actually have to appreciate that they tell you right up front that they don't have a clue as to what they're doing!

TO'B

[Matt @ Montge UK]

Valeria,

Nice post. I agree there are subtle differences between broadcast (limited time and maximum impact), press (must be subtle and follow the outlet's agenda) and blogging (a personal conversation).

As a PR who's team edits a business magazine, we get to see both sides of the pitch.

Every pitch must sound genuine and NOT be marketing brochure speak (especially for blogging). If your blog post sounds like a brochure, people are not going to engage with you as it will not sound natural.

I am frequently surprised how many PR's get this wrong, both sides of the pond.

Matt

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Jeff - Was the association mind stimulating? I hope so ;-) That title is a mouthful!

@Tom - right, if the message is nice enough, I will even reply with a tip. Maybe they are willing to listen.

@Matt - you're getting into it. I find that what people most object to in the term social media is the "media" part. Outlets have an agenda, indeed. How about press releases that are like brochures? Aaaargh!

[Chris Baskind]

Well, maybe PR and communications are sexier than I thought.

[Mike Wagner]

A "whisper" not a "shout"!

The figures and images we use to describe anything reveal so much.

And no one figure or image can carry all the freight.

What other images are people using to get at the nature of social media communications?

Keep creating,
Mike

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Chris - they are!

@Mike - thank you, I have been thinking about it. Each image reveals more about us, too.

[Ricardo Bueno]

I know you don't need me to say this (I mean c'mon you're the Conversation Agent) but you are so dead on with this post.

As much as people write "how to's" on social media I think this is one of the finer points that fails to get mentioned.

Now being accessible across various forms of social media isn't necessarily shouting...

[CK]

Why would we shout at people we wish to engage?

Excellent, excellent post, graphic, metaphor and, most important, message.

Thank you, Valeria. For teaching us how to communicate (said ever so softly over a fine glass of Chianti).

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Ricardo - being accessible means you are listening ;-) That was a good word choice.

@CK - thank you. Something done with passion and gusto yields results. I once had a teacher who was so soft spoken (yet so amazing) that you could hardly hear a peep in class. He had this talent of seeming to talk just to you - each one of us felt that. You bet everyone was paying attention.

[Daniel Udsen]

I dont think your entirely right about blogosphere being some civilized dinner conversation, a big portion on the blogsosphere can be compared to people on their soap boxes in Speakers corner shouting their messages.

Whispering is something you do when the customers come to you, you need shouting to make them aware, and there is a lot of shouting going on on social media sites, peer pressure is there, Mobs are also social things so they thrive in social media aswell.

Shouting might not actually be that bad a metaphor, sure it's breaking someones Utopian view but that dont mean it's not the way you need to go get attention.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Daniel:

Of course, you understand that I am talking about the tools - the dynamics depend on who shows up, just like in life.

"The best way to make me ignore your message is to shout at me," this is what I hear over and over. My personal preference is to have a conversation, I tend to turn off noise.

Maybe civil is a better way to describe it than Utopian ;-) Then again, I don't have to be right.

[Matt @ Montage]

[...]Blogging and social media should be very much as conversation, one-to-one, with your target audience. This is a concept that Valerie from Conversation agent blog feels passionately about and I agree with wholeheartedly.[...]