August 10th, 2010
by internationalmanofmystery
Over the last week I have worked in Los Angeles with a variety of individuals and entities. The experience has been fascinating AND revealing.
One of the first observations I have is that most entities interacting for the first time with social media marketing truly struggle with the concept that relationship architecture and network analysis MUST be preliminary steps. And this is done using LISTENING tools like Radian6, Buzzmetrics, Trackur, Compete, JIVE and the like. The concept of listening to OTHERS as an INTEGRAL aspect of formulating marketing plans and models lies outside the conventional creative bent. Most of the super-creatives I have run into this last week are hell-bent on THEIR own vision, which is fabulous of course. AND it has been my job to be the listener and translator of what their prospective audiences say each day about their material.
LESSON #1: Transitioning creatives to customer-centric marketing/sales tactics IS JUST AS CHALLENGING as doing so with brand managers, marketing managers AND general managers at major corporations. BUT once both types of individual and entity see lists of top bloggers, top tweeters, top FB groups and top forums in which their audience resides AND the volume of their potential market…ONLY THEN do they wake up to the amazing POSSIBILITY that social architecture and relationship analysis provides. Again, employing strategists trained in LISTENING TOOLS is vital to customer-centric vs. product-centric business. (ie.- A single Key Influencer who tweets to 1.5 million of their prospects OR a FB group of 850,000 entirely populated with their kind of tribe members OR a blogger who over 2 million read every day. Those are NOT numbers to turn away from).
Web Marketing Therapy Related Links:
- TRANSMEDIA, ONDEMAND AND THE POWER OF LISTENING TO AUDIENCES
- Useful Questions to Ask When Creating A Social Intelligence Report
- Social Scouting: The High Seas of Business Intelligence
- Social Analytics in 2011: Part 1
Teresa Basich
(August 10th, 2010 at 10:30 am)
It’s so interesting what it takes to shift the creative mindset to understand the importance of front-end research and planning, isn’t it? But that type of intelligence is invaluable to ensuring your company takes the right steps into social media marketing. Without that initial listening effort (and without continued listening), there’s a good chance you won’t see the returns you’re hoping for.
Nice post, and than you for the mention!
Cheers,
Teresa
—-
Teresa Basich
Community Manager, Radian6
Lorrie Thomas
(August 10th, 2010 at 11:25 am)
Teresa,
Thanks for the post! We live in modern times where we listen with our ears AND our eyes via technology. We do no plan to fail, but too often businesses fail to plan. We plan by listening, understanding and serving our markets.
-L
PS We <3 Radian6’s social monitoring technology BTW
40deuce
(August 11th, 2010 at 11:28 am)
I agree that listening is one of the most important skills in terms of social media.
By listening to your community you gain insights into how they operate (how they talk, what they talk about, etc.), what interests them (teaches you ways to reach them) and how your company can improve (listening to your community’s ideas is the best way to figure out how you can make your products and campaigns better for them).
Listening to what people want is the best way to build something that those people are going to be interested in and want.
Cheers,
Sheldon, community manager for Sysomos
Lorrie Thomas
(August 11th, 2010 at 11:34 am)
Thanks Sheldon! The core roots of sales and marketing are all about listening, understanding needs, conversing and connecting…just applied on the web now!