5 Reasons Why Listening is so Much More than Monitoring

The whole conversation around social media has somewhat taken a turn for the obvious. And much of it runs the risk of sounding trite and overstated, which will mean missed opportunities for many.

Earlier in the year, many were saying at conferences and events that they were ready to move beyond the basics.

Advice like "you need to be listening", "you need to participate", "social media means free marketing", etc. made the rounds post after post, and talk after talk, until it was taken for granted -- background muzak.

Yet, many are still struggling with implementing this advice in a way that makes their resources allocation worth something to the business.

The good news is adoption and experimentation by businesses and brands has accelerated. The bad news is much of the free advice they experiment on is generic, and the tools are still very much geared toward individual vs. organization's use, and imperfect.

They are great for streamlining a process, allowing a team to collaborate and get everyone on the same page, for example. Hardly a perfect one-stop solution for most other needs.

How do you dig yourself out of the great stagnation?

If you're an organization, start with looking at the reasons why listening is so much more than monitoring. Here are 5 cases when listening means more. It means:

(1.) being in tune with what your customers want and expect

This helps in the service and support department, and goes beyond that. It opens up all kinds of customer insights and can improve or kick start product innovation.

Initiatives like P&G's Tremor and Home Made Simple cater to understanding why consumers talk, the first to ignite word of mouth, the second for R&D purposes. Both are opt in communities. Would this kind of thinking help you with loyalty?

(2.) playing into the need for status and gratification people have

The gaming industry got a head start on this one. And you can certainly borrow from the dynamics of gaming.

Look at what Bravo did with Foursquare. Foursquare is essentially a game. Another example is The Huffington Post, which has totally revamped their comments section along these lines. users are rewarded with special badges and "moderator" status for being active. They use a "fan" functionality, too.

How about shifting sentiment about your brand from mostly neutral to positive?

(3.) helping people reward themselves by being generous to others

The whole "pay it forward" movement latches onto the built-in desire for purpose that is greater than self. You see some of this dynamic at work when you belong to a tightly knit brand community or tribe. People share and pass on information for much this same reason.

An implementation of this concept is Kiva, an altruistic brand. The financial rewards of microloans are modest, but it's obviously playing to the need for meaning. Care2 has a lot of built-in features which reward users for making social actions, and users can reward each other with badges and stuff.

(4.) tying what happens online directly into the real world

Which is where most of the real stuff happens anyway. That's where people eat, shop, get together, enjoy experiences, and talk about them.

To an extend, IBM's virtual events do that. Think also about how TwelpeForce by Best Buy on Twitter drives traffic to its retails stores. There are plenty of other examples, and we should delve into this one in future posts. It's that important.

Does what you're doing have consumer appeal?

(5.) being able to identify and capitalize on future patterns early on

You would think that with so many brands and individuals participating there isn't much left to do. Yet, the white spaces are there, particularly when it comes to execution.

Is there a new product in what you're learning? Is any other brand playing in that space? How are people discussing it?

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The overall why this is a good idea comes down to providing consistency over the short term, which becomes continuity over the long term. We're done with the basics. Now, it's about developing a coherent story that both the organization and the people who are part of its ecosystem -- customers, prospects, employees, channel partners, etc. - embrace.

 

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Comments

[Alexandra Reid]

It's true that as businesses and brands are accelerating on the social media front, their execution is still imperfect. You can blame part on the generic advice being offered and part on the tools that are still in their early stages. Although the conversation has been focusing on the importance of businesses listening and engaging with customers through social media for a long time now, you're right that it is the process of implementing social media strategies for ROI that is the hangup. I work with businesses who are still in this stage, using social media as their own personal broadcasting system because they don't understand how listening and engaging is profitable and good for business overall. I read a good article the other day that suggested that perhaps instead of businesses focusing on ROI, they should be focusing on the "return of avoiding pain." You offer a lot of other great reasons why listening is beneficial for businesses. I hope the conversation keeps moving in this direction.

[Dean Holmes]

Hey there. Thought some of the "Listeners" here would be interested to hear the webinar series I did for NetBase ConsumerBase's Product. Great points here, no Agenda on my part, just solid Insights from Conversational Data and Listening to what Consumers say.

Listening is not understanding. Monitoring is great for engagement not Sentiment at most brands.

Link to the webinar can be found at my blog if anyone is interested. http://bit.ly/baSfLy

Your thoughts?

P.S.: I need to get to Philly soon :)

[Jeff Hurt]

Can you explain more about the difference between listening and monitoring?

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Alexandra - the whole focus on ROI is getting a bit tiresome, too. Of course you should be able to have a correlation - direct and indirect - between what you do and why you're doing it (answering: what's in it for the business). So you make two bucks from one buck but you piss off a whole bunch of people. You may have ROI that one time, yet nobody will be back. There is also a trite ROI conversation making the rounds...

@Dean - thank you for stopping by and for the link.

@Jeff - monitoring generally means to be aware of the state of a system, to observe. Listening includes tuning in, being aware, hearing. To take listening to the next level, you act upon what you hear.

[Andrea Raquel]

Nice!

[Sue Anne Reed]

Valeria - Thanks for your mention of Care2. Our team really believes that small actions can lead to big social change. We reward our members for doing good (butterfly rewards) and then they can use those rewards to do even more good with advertiser supported donations. We also find that members like to reward each other, and that's why we implemented green stars on the site.

- Sue Anne Reed
Care2
Communications Manager

[Gabriele Maidecchi]

Lurking vs. being actively engaged. That's a common problem for many brand, giving the human touch to their social presence. Automatic programs can monitor (like the AT&T automatic monitoring tool), but it takes real people to listen, and to act.

[Rusty Cawley]

I hope most of you noted the great concept found in Alexandra Reid's comment: "Return on Avoiding Pain." If more CEOs would put as much emphasis on that as they do on ROI, they would truly operate in the best interests of their shareholders.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Sue Anne - rewarding each other is very powerful. I've always loved giving gifts. It's a reward to be able to offer a gesture, or a thing, and let the other know you thought of them.

@Gabriele - after so many years of corporate inquisition, it's quite hard for people on the inside to not be scared.

@Rusty - the truth is everyone is talking about ROI because they want to look like they have a clue. When that is one single metric. And at times it won't tell you whether something is worth doing or not, either. Really, how hard is that? It's one financial measure: are you spending more than you are making? Period.