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Listening- a powerful communications tool

It has become very clear to me that listening is a more powerful communication tool than that of speaking (online or offline). I guess that is why we hear the expression we have “two ears and only one mouth” for a reason.

Think about it.

All human beings have the desire and need to “truly be heard”. In addition, human beings seek to be understood, appreciated and connected to others. Many painful times in our lives have come about because we said something we did not mean OR do not say something we should have said. Such situations often cause pain to both us and others. No good!

Does this apply to new communication mediums such as Social Media? You bet it does. In such new arenas- listening is more important than ever.

Missed opportunities for communications growth occur when we fail to further develop a relationship because we do not get to know a person better. In other words, we have “talked” to them a lot but have learned little about them– as we have instead focused on our needs, wants and desires.

The people I enjoy the most, in all parts of life, are those who are the best listeners. Why?

The reason is simple– these people make me feel important. Don’t we all want to feel that way? Don’t we all, whether offline OR online, TRULY want have a meaningful conversation?

Our goal should be to consistently improve our listening skills. And, remember “hearing and listening” are two very different things. Such strong listening skills– will not only make you a better person– but also a better communicator, marketer and leader in all endeavors- online or offline.

What do you think?

Ryan Sauers

Peeling Away The Layers

By nature, I am an analytical person. Growing up, I was that kid in class that was constantly raising his hand, asking more questions and wanting to understand why. I haven’t changed.

Lee Odden of TopRank (a personal favorite blog), wrote a great article this week titled, Why Do So Many Companies Suck at Social Media?

It really got me thinking. It brought back to mind a wonderful metaphor I learned over 10 years ago during Franklin Covey’s Helping Clients Succeed™ Consultative Sales Training program. It goes something like this.

In helping clients, before providing a solution, you need to discover the core of the problem. It’s typically something that is most shielded from view or not yet revealed (the core). As you peeling away each layer (by continually asking, “Why?”), you learn each of the surface issues until ultimately you are led to the deeper truth revealed at the core. The root cause of the problem.

In Lee’s article, Why Do So Many Companies Suck at Social Media?, he identified a number of the issues (layers of the onion):

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Optimizing the Enterprise Website for Demand Generation – Turning Traffic into Revenue

I wanted to share a technique my firm has used for the past decade to drive substantial improvement in converting website traffic into revenue. We have been able to prove this prospect engagement process out over a variety of different industries in both B2B and B2C enterprises. We developed this approach to solve a huge issue every single company we met struggled with: Lots of traffic – very little conversion.

Here is just a little example of some of the results our clients have been able to achieve using this approach are:

80% increase in qualified leads through the web globally (measured by calls to live sales agents). The only thing we measured was calls and inquiries to live agents so that it was directly linked to sales and not “false positives” like website registrations and other questionable lead gen measurements. The process we deployed involved 12 unique global sites in 7 different languages and ended up representing 50% of the total qualified sales leads globally and at a cost of 15% of the total marketing spend for lead gen.

$200K revenue in first quarter from zero revenue the year before (measured by web orders). Focused on three key audiences instead of 10 and designed the entire site around an option-based engagement process. Other results when combined with SEO/SEM were a 300% increase in traffic and a max of 4 clicks to delivering customer fulfillment.

So how did we manage to achieve this?

Well, its a synchronization of several factors that is all based on a single, ultra-powerful principle for human relationships: Everyone, without exception, makes decisions based on emotion which is then justified by logic.

Once you understand (and accept) this principle, you need to begin to develop ways to reach your customers emotionally on both a conscious and subconscious level. As human beings, we are constantly being emotionally influenced at a subconscious level by everything and everyone around us and our brains are designed to process this information subconsciously so as not to overwhelm us. The result is a complex set of behaviors, perceptions and belief systems that governs our decisions on a constant basis- all governed by emotions and justified by logic.

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How to create a content marketing plan — without any content!

When somebody talks about “content marketing,” they’re really talking about “content engineering” — scientifically optimizing documents such as blogs, case studies and white papers to create search engine results and sales leads.

This can be an extremely complicated, time-consuming and expensive proposition! So I started thinking about this in the context of my friends and small business customers who simply can’t afford that kind of effort. It led to this idea: micro-content, or marketing content when you don’t have time to produce content!

Let’s examine ideas about micro-content that even a time-starved business owner should be able to master in 15 minutes a day …

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Creating Multilingual Content on Facebook

English being the de facto standard of today’s communication, building a multilingual presence is quite challenging, particularly in the social media landscape. It takes time, resources and budget to ensure excellent quality.

Traditionally, a company is able to control its online presence by driving its customers and prospects to its corporate website. For over 15 years, companies have been able to host a website, build a community in the form of a message board and customize the online experience for visitors to the max. Personalization actually has become quite sophisticated. Content can be adjusted to a particular audience and language preference is a given – language is determined from the visitor’s browser or selected by users and saved in cookies for future access. Visitors tend to expect the same behaviour on these new platforms.

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The Fuzzy Space Between Vision and Focus

Far too often, somewhere between the visions we conjure and the stuff necessary to realize our game-changing dreams, the magnificent work of the imagination becomes blurry and unrecognizable.

You know the drill. There is buy-in for a vision; goals and objectives are identified; planning completed and resources have been ear-marked.  Then something insidious happens: it comes disguised as a too-good-to-pass-up “opportunity” that demands immediate attention, or (often the case) as an even bigger, better manifestation of the original vision. And once this vicious cycle is set in motion the grandest of visions is almost always relegated to dreams of what might have been.

When it comes to focus, it is an unfortunate and problematic catch-22 that many entrepreneurs, innovators and yes, marketers, by nature see opportunity at every turn. For the glass-half-full leader, the reality is that conceiving a vision plays to a strength; maintaining focus often accentuates weakness.

Add to this the fact that in today’s marketplace good ideas are rarely enough to carry the day, and you’ve spelled Trouble (with a capital “T”) for many endeavors. Better mousetraps and newer/faster/more cost effective solutions are conceived on a regular basis. The few that make it to the market and win are either the byproduct of tenacious focus or pure luck. Ether one is good, but only one is conducive to planning.

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Lockheed Martin Launches Eureka Streams Open Source Project For Enterprise Social Networking

Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] today (July 26, 2010) launched the Eureka StreamsTM open source project for enterprise social networking. Eureka Streams helps knowledge workers make informed decisions by finding relevant colleagues and groups, following their streams of activity, and engaging in conversation. Eureka Streams represents a new communication experience for knowledge workers, empowering them to pick and choose the channels of news, information, and conversation that add the most value to their day-to-day work.

Over the past four years, Lockheed Martin has developed and deployed proprietary social media solutions across its own enterprise based on commercial off-the-shelf software. These solutions have enabled its employees to collaboratively develop and share content through such tools as blogs and wikis. Eureka Streams complements content-focused tools by providing a simple and fast communication experience knowledge workers are accustomed to outside the workplace. With Eureka Streams, enterprises can provide this experience to their employees in a secure environment.

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Does Your Personality Type Affect Your Social Media Success?

We’ve all heard of people described as Type A or Type B personalities. Type A’s are said to be impatient, controlling, ambitious and aggressive. They take their work seriously and stop at almost nothing to get it done. Type B personalities are the opposite: relaxed, easy-going and laid back. (Type As might call them lazy or unmotivated.)

You’ve probably considered your personality type at some point. But have you considered how your personality type affects your social media success?

Type A on Social Media

Type A’s are intense and hard-working people, so they likely approach social media accounts the same way. They may log in at the same time each day to post something thought-out and edited to perfection. They may take a systematic approach to growing connections and networking, adding 15 new Facebook friends every week or responding to 10 Twitter messages each day.

Type A personalities thrive on social media because they take their success seriously. In a world where many social media accounts go abandoned for weeks or even months at a time, Type A’s have no problem putting in the effort to update accounts regularly.
They may be turned off by social media’s casual atmosphere, where not everyone takes time to spell-check their status updates or respond to messages. If Type A’s vocalize complaints, they risk becoming unpopular.

Type B on Social Media

The laid-back nature of Type B’s is both a blessing and a curse when it comes to social media. Type B personalities usually fit right into social media’s casual, conversational atmosphere – if casual conversation is going on. They may also have a hard time getting their message heard.
“It appears that the more aggressive and outspoken you get, the more attention you get,” Frank Reed writes on his blog Frank Thinking About Internet Marketing . “I call this the Rush Limbaugh factor. In today’s world of ‘everyone is right. The bigger the bluster, the bigger the splash.”

Of course, Type B’s may be so laid-back that they don’t care about being heard through the din. Depending on the agenda, that may be fine. But Type B’s should approach social media with some agenda in mind; otherwise, social media may be a waste of time.

The Bigger Picture

Of course, any type of categorization is based on stereotypes. Your own personality – and your social media experience – is probably far more complex than the two described here. Use these insights as a springboard to better understanding your own social media behavior, including what you’re doing well and where you may need to improve.

How has your personality type affected your experience with social media? Or has it?

Renee Warren

The “Relationship” in “Relationship Commerce”

We’re hearing (and doing) more and more about “Relationship Commerce” these days — but what does that really mean? Does having 2,000 Facebook “friends” or “fans” mean you have 2000 relationships? Or 28,000 Twitter “followers” mean 28,000 relationships?

It depends. Any one of us obviously does not have time to keep up thousands of face-to-face relationships at a time, but with the help of social media, we can certainly build and keep substantially more relationships going. However, it takes more than simply sending a Facebook friend request or clicking the “follow” button on another Twitter user’s profile.

To build relationships online, you (brand or individual) have to offer something in return, such as valuable information, personal introductions to your already-established connections, or even part of yourself through engagement and interaction.

It’s no longer enough to just suggest that someone should be interested in your product or service. You need to engage your market — ask questions, propose ideas, or simply communicate through social media in a way that gives your followers a chance and a reason to respond.

Then when they respond, interact with them to solidify the relationship, or it will just fade out. Directly acknowledge their response, ask follow-up questions, and share their insights with others. Don’t simply be responsive, be incredibly responsive. Always acknowledge those who reach out or spread your ideas. Follow me on Twitter (@tedrubin) and you will see what I mean. Bottom line: the more responsive you are to your audience, the more responsive they will be to you.

Online relationships will not survive without trust. The key to building trust is simple, but not always easy: Always be good to your word (true to your brand), always be authentic, and always be genuine. Remember, most of your social media interactions are public and very much interconnected – let a positive, trustworthy reputation be the only thing out there to spread!

One final point in this post – although Facebook and Twitter are fantastic tools for meeting and engaging with your audience, don’t forget that you can use them in combination with other relationship-building tools. Email, phone, and in-person meetings are all essential tools for bringing the virtual world closer to your “real world.” Use whatever combination works best for you, and you will quickly turn your connections into raving fans and outspoken advocates!

As you can see, Relationship Commerce is not just about financial exchange; it’s about interpersonal exchange, aka the “relationship.”

Ted Rubin

Lennon & McCartney, a Lagniappe, and Social Media Muscle

Some things just deserve a spotlight. A Twitter friend — @9inchmarketing (John, IRL) – reminded me of this when he introduced me to the Purple Goldfish Project. This is an organized effort to draw attention to the existence of Lagniappes (the practice of giving something extra) in the course of everyday business. Herein is one such tale.

I met Bob Magruder more moons ago than either of us care to admit. Chances are, you know him, too; or you know his voice, at least. For more than three decades he’s been the “voice” of local, regional and national advertising campaigns, as well as the authoritative persuader on promotional, instructional and training videos. You can sample some of his work here.

I was an inexperienced ad guy. He was a pro. From the outset it was clear that Bob employed an approach to his business that set him apart. His “customer is the boss” perspective was surprisingly rare among commercial talent the agency worked with. And he always showed up prepared, wanting to give more than was expected to make every project better; but that is not the story.

Bob’s lagniappe is found in the significant something extra he did – and continues to do for colleagues, apprentices and out-right competitors.

Yes…even competitors. For years I watched as one of the busiest and most talented guys in the highly competitive and often cut throat “voice acting” business would invest in teaching aspiring talent how to take work away from him!

To be fair, he did sell his instruction from time to time; but, for years I’ve watched him give time and often even foot the bill to help scores of folks trying to make it in the business.

Now, this isn’t a conventional lagniappe. I don’t remember ever hearing him talk about why he did this. For that matter, he never talked about doing it at all. When he reads this he’ll wonder what the fuss is about, because this was not a strategy or tactical approach. It is born of who he really is, and what he believes in: give clients more than is expected; and give back to an industry that supports you.

In recent months, while reading, thinking, and writing about the growing impact of social media, I’ve been reminded of Bob’s style. He would talk with anyone, share ideas, wonder about trends, and always welcome a conversation. But it never felt like strategizing. It was, in my view at least, the natural response of a guy that enjoyed conversation and collaboration, was always willing to listen, and from whom you would always get more than you paid for.

A Lennon-McCartney tune on the “Let It Be” collection captures what Bob taught me (and hundreds of others). It is social media’s hidden muscle. “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

Magruder reminds me that nothing is more powerful than sharing with someone. This is the heart and soul of social media.

Eric Fletcher