This is part of the series “Creating Social Media Value”.
After organizing, managing and administering your presence it is wise to listen and learn before you begin to engage.
When you consider the basis of any good relationship, any good
business decision and any worthy effort all are founded on listening
and learning before you act, speak or decide.
The social web provides a rich forum to listen and learn from the
markets of conversations discussing everything, anything and everyone.
However, to create social media value you must learn and listen for the
right things.
What Are The Right Things?
The right things to learn are relevant to your intent. Most
organizations are using social technology has a marketing channel and
are applying old methods to a new medium. That is not the right thing
to learn because the market is rejecting old methods.
There are several critical learning lessons people and organizations need to understand before they can learn the right things. In order to truly hear you might need to change your frame of reference from “how can I get results to how can I give results” Giving results means providing the market with value it seeks. Value is in the eyes of the beholder so listening
to the market means understanding what the market wants and it may not
have anything to do with your product or service. It has everything to
do with serving the interest of the market at any moment in time.
Your personal and professional reputation is based on relational
attributes created from experiences people have with you and your
organization. If the experience isn’t “social” or does not reflect the
interest of others then your reputation isn’t likely to be enhanced.
If on the other hand your interaction with the market creates
“experiential value” then you are likely to create a lasting impression
that people will share with others.
When Listening What Are You Finding?
There is an old expression “seek and you shall find”. The problem is
that most people seek to find opportunities to serve their own self
interest. If on the other hand we seek to find and fill the interest of
others something super natural happens….others will give back what we
ultimately are seeking ourselves.
As people and business look for innovative ways to improve results
the market of conversations is more than willing to collaborate and
help others find ways to improve. That is if you understand the very
basics of human nature and social relations. You see the reality is that we have to unlearn everything we’ve learned about markets, relations and creation of results. Chasing,
forcing and “pushing” for results has never been nor will ever be
considered relational, social or worthy efforts that create value.
Value is created from intent. Intent is reflected in behavior and
communications. Today your intent is transparent and when it creates a
negative experience the world is listening and learning from others.
There is a lot to unlearn and a lot more to relearn. The technology
itself is a learning process but you’d be surprised how many who have
already been through the learning curve are willing to help you.
If you are willing to relearn the basics of human relations then the
human network is awaiting to collaborate with you to create innovation,
value and market relations that want to consume that which you can
create or currently offer. Listening and learning has never before been so opportunistic to those who understand how.
Are you listening? What have you learned from this?