Are You Talking or Listening?
Social media is an interesting animal and one that has been capturing the attention of companies for quite some time. But the big question for most companies is how best to use this platform to their advantage – by the way, if you’re looking to create more traffic to your website, you definitely do not want to use social media as a tactic!
Take this example: Let’s say you walked into a room with a large gathering of people – what would be the polite thing to do? Would you immediately start telling people all about yourself and how great you are, or would you first listen to some of the conversations and then decide how (or if) you might be able to engage in those conversations to benefit some of the people?
Most people (especially on the Internet), no longer have patience for “in your face” conversations that revolve around marketing and selling. Rather, the social online arena is one where you start to build relationships by listening, rather than talking. Listen to what your potential customers in your market are talking about; become more focused on these customers by providing assistance and building goodwill.
It is critical to realize that you are not the center of attention and it is no longer possible to take control of the customer’s dialogue about your product or service. Rather, keep in mind that you are in a conversation with others to interact with your prospective customers in providing them with content that matters to them.
With or without you, conversations are happening online! Take a look at this simple video created by CommonCraft addressing “Social Media in Plain English:” [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpIOClX1jPE[/youtube]
Tags: social media