A great friend and colleague from that freezing but surprisingly hot Midwestern city of Omaha made an excellent point recently on why so many marketers are not having much success with their social media efforts. "They are broadcasting too much and not listening enough," he said.

A thundercrack filled the heavens and the scales fell from their eyes. The social media marketing word had been spoken, and it was true.

Damn right it’s true. A real expert in web and direct response marketing, my friend hit on one of those rare bits of true wisdom that people sort of realize on an intellectual level, but seldom actually follow.

Simply put, if you want to succeed at social media, try talking less and listening a lot more.

Of course, that is much easier said than done. Listening is a lost art in this incessantly talky culture, and that is doubly true of marketers. Many of us probably became marketers in the first place because we are outgoing, verbal, promotion-oriented extroverts. At least that is the popular image of marketers. The fact is, the most important thing we can and must do as marketers is to listen.

That listening function is particularly important in social media. Everyone talks about joining the conversation these days in social media. Well, it takes at least two to tango in a conversation, which means you should be listening at least 50% of the time in that conversation. (I actually suggest that you should be devoting more than 80% of your social media efforts to the listening side.)

But, for marketers who love to broadcast (LOUDLY) all the neat, unique, proprietary and breakthrough attributes about their brands, the listening activity typically takes a back seat to the talking, talking and more talking.

It has always been an article of branding faith that marketers should seriously listen to their customers and consumers. That is true whether you are marketing a car, a political candidate or an idea. Listening is the foundation on which a marketing strategy is built.

Actually, marketers frequently get it right when it comes to listening at the front end of the marketing program, when they are developing the overall strategy. But, then they kind of lose it when it comes to implementing the campaign. At that point it becomes all about telling, selling, promoting, shouting and boasting how great our product/service is.

As we all know, the whole point of social media is that the average person now has a voice. She can weigh in with her opinion on anything. In many cases, lots of other people will be listening and maybe even basing their purchasing habits based on that opinion. Just look at the power of customer reviews in today’s web economy. Just one or two "one-star" reviews on a popular e-commerce or consumer review site can discourage lots of potential buyers.

The new social media empowered consumer needs to be listened to a lot more. If you are using Twitter, or Facebook, or your blog to just broadcast to him or her, then you are missing the point — and a big opportunity.

Listen up, marketers. Start listening in your social media activities (or listen a lot more than you are dong now). You will be surprised at what you learn, and what you can then do to improve your relationships with your various communities.

It all starts with just listening.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS