5 Starter Moves - Listening and Hearing Come Before Speaking

January 11, 2008

Our first Starter Move gave you an idea how to set the stage with your organization. Let’s learn now about listening and hearing.

It’s a lot of pushing and shoving to show someone why they should use blogs, and heaven forbid you try to launch them into Twitter too soon. Instead, start with listening. It’s easier, and makes for a more compelling demo.

Get a Google Reader account.
In another window, use Google Blogsearch, and enter your company’s name.
Take the results, and find the RSS link on the mid-left area of the page. Click it.
Take that long link that comes up, COPY it.
Back in Google Reader, click ADD SUBSCRIPTION in the mid-left area (see image)

A green box opens up with room to put in a URL.
Paste the URL from the search in there.
BONUS ROUND: Go back to the Blog Search page, and do the same for a competitor.

You should now have a Google Reader showing the result of searching for your company name (or product name, or what people would talk about) as it appears out and about in the wild. Repeat this a few more times with related search terms if you want.

Do the same by searching on Technorati as well. (This is another company that searches and indexes blogs and web sites). You’ll see another feed subscription button like this:

Click it, add it to your Google Reader. Repeat as necessary.

You’ve just built a decent listening device. Listening is the best of demos for an organization because it’s where we first realize that people are talking about us, and we probably don’t know it. And worse, if NO ONE is talking about you, that should tell you something, too. I think listening is the first big step to getting into social media for an organization.

By the way, the way I described building a listener is ONE way. You can also buy tools that are much more refined to do this, like Radian6. I think both have their place, as once you get over thinking of Google Reader as a “blog” reader and think of it instead as a serious console for any RSS-enabled data that’s useful to your company, that’s when the value happens.

Next up: Should Blogging Be Next?

Images Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

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Comments

Comment by Marina @ Sufficient Thrust on January 11, 2008 @ 12:37 pm

Don’t forget to setup a Google News Alert (http://www.google.com/alerts) on your name, domain, company name, etc. while you’re at it.

Comment by Miloš on January 11, 2008 @ 12:42 pm

Nicely said! I agree that it is important to get people to become aware of where and in which context their company is being mentioned.

To support and promote the use of blogs is to understand the importance of getting your own message out and marketing your brand in as many ways as possible. Once an individual understands the benefits on their own, without being pushed into it they are more likely to internalize it, make it their own and want to dedicate time to it.

Comment by Fredrik Johnsen on January 11, 2008 @ 1:36 pm

Listening is perhaps the most important advice we can give any client. I see too many companies wanting to “start a blog” without knowing who they’re trying to reach or what they’re going to say… Patience is key!

Comment by Marcel LeBrun on January 11, 2008 @ 1:45 pm

I like this series of posts; I am sure it will help a lot of businesses looking to get started. I love your continued emphasis on listening before speaking which is so critical. You are definitely THE how-to guy for social media. Thanks for the mention, Chris.

Pingback by 5 Starter Moves - Listening and Hearing Come Before Speaking | Links Makers on January 11, 2008 @ 2:02 pm

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Comment by Jen Zingsheim-White on January 11, 2008 @ 3:34 pm

Great idea with the starter posts, Chris. I had long been trying–with very limited (almost no) success–to explain to my parents exactly what it is that I do. While I was home over the holidays, I decided to set up a Google Reader account for my dad, and loaded the Media Bullseye RSS feed into it; I explained how this makes things simple, it brings the content to you, etc.

The next time we talked, he asked if I had written anything recently (yes, the ‘rents still want to read what I write). When I told him yes, he asked for the web address to go check it out. I then asked if he’d looked at his Google Reader…”oh, yeah, that…” *Sigh*

I’m going to forward your post, maybe that will do it!

Jen

Comment by the constant skeptic on January 11, 2008 @ 5:38 pm

you are definitely right about the need to listen…. I manage all of my ears on netvibes.com and google alerts….

Comment by John Meadows on January 11, 2008 @ 7:18 pm

Great post Chris! There are at least 5 marketing types at work who will be getting this forwarded to them!

Cheers,

John

Comment by Laura "Pistachio" Fitton on January 12, 2008 @ 12:18 am

Thanks for this, it’s well timed for points we were trying emphasize at PRSA last night.

Adding on to Marina’s point about search alerts, also search on for ex., “yourname sucks.” Hopefully not an issue, but if you’re big enough, someone’s bound to be kvetching. So can you be you learning and growing from it consistently?

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5 Starter Moves - Listening and Hearing Come Before Speaking

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