Listen First, Speak Later
Many people are poor listeners. Quite often we meet people who like the sound of their own voice and can seem compelled to share that pleasure with others. They update us on everything they do, no matter how unimpressive and irrelevant to our own lives and interests. To be honest, most people do not have much to say that could not be improved by considering its relevance to others before open their mouth.
Everyone has experienced the boring drunk at a party: they are always the one who will not stop talking when, in fact, they have very little to say. They go on and on, as if everyone within earshot deserves their pearls of wisdom. In fact, they are just tiresome. After the humour has worn thin, they move quickly from fun to dull and then become really quite annoying, and all because they refuse to shut up. The same can be said for many brands.
There is too much chatter on social media channels. Facebook, Twitter and the others are crammed with people sharing their every thought or move. More often than not, these updates are pretty dull and do not add anything to the sender or the recipient. Quite often, public replies are strung into a conversation that would be better placed in a private message but, either through laziness or ego, they prefer to say it out loud for everyone to hear.
Brands can be just as inappropriate with their use of social media. Even some pretty big names can clog up their Twitter stream with low impact updates that do not drive sales, increase brand affinity or enhance personality. The urge to share is too great and they let rip with witty asides and product news that would not normally warrant sharing. Brands say that they want to be part of the conversation when what they really need to do is listen. Shut up for a moment and listen to what their customers and competitors are saying.
So many brands and businesses have rushed to jump on the social media bandwagon without giving any consideration to the actual relevance or benefits to their brand. They can be so afraid to miss out on the trend that they sign up to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and expect their business to improve immediately. Many even start their own blogs to sit alongside or even replace their website, without actually thinking first about what they might have to say.
If brands and marketers would take a step back to listen before rushing in to talk, they would learn far more about what people actually think about their product or service, and they would be able to better react to their (potential) customers. But it would seem that this key stage of the process is often bypassed in their haste to share. As with any other communications channel or marketing tool, in social media one size does not fit all.
What can than using social media as another channel for advertising or PR, it could be seen also as a fast and effective form of consumer research. If marketers monitor the conversations that are going on about their brands and products, they can get first-hand feedback. The clever ones can then act on this information with a speed that was previously not practical. To do that, they need to listen. Listen first, speak later.
Most consumers are very savvy. Indeed, many are better acquainted with social media than most marketers and they can see through fake attitude and brand posturing quite quickly. They also quake at being bombarded with unsolicited sales messages, even if they are disguised as links or humour. Just because they signed on to a brand’s Twitteraccount or ‘liked’ its Facebook page does not mean that they want to receive incessant ad chatter. They want to associate with the brands they chose to align themselves with, but most of them do not want those brands to overpower the relationship they have with them. That is a very thin line. To many consumers, a conversation is a good thing, as long as it is on their terms and fits in with the many other inputs to their life.
Many of us are familiar with the saying, ‘You have two ears and one mouth, use them in that proportion’. It would be encouraging if we could remember that message and use it wisely when switching on our computers or smartphones. There is already too much chatter online.
Marcus Agar has been commissioned by Branding Magazine to write commentaries on PR and marketing. Click here to read Branding Magazine (with thanks to Aleksandar Djurić).
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