Listening and Broadcasting
Jim HarrisPhoto via Flickr by: Colleen AF Venable |
Photo via Flickr by: Anders Pollas |
As we continue to witness the decline of traditional media and the corresponding rise of social media, the business world is attempting to keep up with the changing times. Many organizations are “looking to do whatever it is that’s intended to replace advertising,” explained Douglas Rushkoff in a recent blog post about how marketing threatens the true promise of social media by “devolving to the limited applications of social marketing” and trying to turn the “social landscape back into a marketplace.”
We can all relate to Rushkoff’s central concern—the all-too-slippery slope separating social networking from social marketing.
The primary reason I started blogging was to demonstrate my expertise and establish my authority with regards to data quality and its related disciplines. As an independent consultant, I am trying to help sell my writing, speaking, and consulting services.
You and/or your company are probably using social media to help sell your products and services as well.
Effective social networking is about community participation, which requires actively listening, inviting others to get involved, sharing meaningful ideas, contributing to conversations—and not just broadcasting your sales and marketing messages.
An often cited reason for the meteoric rise of social media is its exchange of a broadcast medium for a conversation medium. However, some people, including Mitch Joel and Jay Baer, have pondered whether social media conversations are a myth.
“One of the main tenets of social media,” Joel blogged, “was the reality that brands could join a conversation, but by the looks of things there aren’t really any conversations happening at all.”
Joel wasn’t being negative, just observational. He pointed out that most blog comments provide feedback, not a back and forth conversation between blogger and reader, Twitter “feels more like everyone screaming a thought at once than a conversation that can be followed and engaged with” and “Facebook has some great banter with the wall posts and status updates, but it’s more chatty than conversational and it’s not an open/public environment.”
“To expect social media to truly emulate conversation as we know it is a fools errand,” Baer blogged. “The information exchange is asynchronous. However, there’s a difference between striving for conversation and settling for broadcasting. The success path must lie somewhere in the middle of those two boundaries.”
Regardless of how we are striving for conversation, whether it be blogging, tweeting, Facebooking, or a face-to-face discussion, we must remember the importance of empathically listening to each other—and not just waiting for our turn to broadcast.
An effective social media strategy is essential for organizations as well as individual professionals, but it is a constant struggle to find the right balance between the headphones and the bullhorn—between listening and broadcasting.
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Reader Comments (3)
Well spoken Jim.
If we look at the social media community around data governance, data quality and master data management, where you and I are engaged, I think it is pretty much in the first place about exchanging news, ideas and information very much in the same way as in the old days when a town had a guild for each type of craftsmen.
Seen in that perspective I also find it actually noisy when participants only contribute with one-way broadcasting of glorifying messages about their own products, services, conferences and so on.
Don’t get me wrong: I think it is OK to brag about a new earth-moving version of your product, the latest win of a new fortune 500 customer, a new record number of delegates attending your well esteemed conference and of course your new edgy blog post. But don’t expect to be read, commented, or re-tweeted very much if you don’t interact with others who also have a success or anything else to share.
Am I wrong? What I sense a bit is that it is the established vendors and gurus from the before social media time (but certainly not all of them) who are the most guilty of one-way broadcasting.
Thanks for your great comment, Henrik.
I like the Guild analogy for the social community around data governance, data quality and master data management, since it reminds me of the Smarter Edgier Collective recently blogged about by Julie Hunt.
Excellent point about how one-way broadcasting (especially of self-glorifying messages) does not encourage interaction and engagement with the community.
And I definitely agree that most of the offenders within our community are the established vendors and gurus who rose to prominence in the BSE (Before the Social Era) years. They are the ones who are simply treating social media as the new broadcast medium for their sales, marketing, and PR messages.
Great post, I couldn't agree more. I think the fact you took up blogging to help show your expertise is a good skill.
I have read an interesting survey this morning that found the term social media to be the most annoying phrase used by marketing executives in 2010. However, the reason for that is because if it is executed well - like on your blog the results speak for themselves and it works.
I currently write on a similar data blog that we started to help show the diverse skills within their consultancy.
Social media can do this and do it well but I do think the term is over used at the moment.