Social Media Basics: Are You Listening to Conversations?

How are you doing with your business?

Using Social Media Marketing to connect and attract customers? Yes?

Are you listening? What do I mean?

Let me explain:

When I say listen, are you one that connects and talks or you one that actively listens to conversations before you connect?

Are you listening to conversations about your products or services, your name, your niche or even your competitors? If you aren’t you really should. By actively listening first, you get to know what customers want and how to help them.

Examples of Listening

Issue: Someone is saying something negative about your product on Twitter.

Solution: You can find out what the problem is, offer to help fix it and turn that negative review into a positive one.

Question: Someone posts in a forum in your niche about how they are looking for something that you sell.

Answer: You post back to them with helpful information, find out more about them and offer your product as a solution for their needs.

These are just a few simple ways to listen for opportunities and to connect with your customers.

Some Simple Ways to Listen

If you were in a face-to-face conversation with a potential client, would you immediately try to sell them something and then hold your hand out for their money?

No, of course not. You would listen to their needs and concerns first before you would do any type of selling.

There are MANY ways to listen, but here just a few simple ones to start with:

Twitter Search – Do some searches on your company, products, services or your niche. See what people are talking about and learn from it.
Forums – Visit forums that relate to your industry. Read the questions and what answers are offered from others. Add your feedback when appropriate. Forums are a great way to listen in on what others are saying.
Google and Google Blog Search – This one is a no brainer. Do a search on your industry, your products and your competitors. You should also search on keyword phrases that you may be targeting with your SEO content on your web site and blogs. You might be surprised what you turn up.
RSS Feeds – Find a good RSS feed reader and start subscribing to feeds on sites that are in your industry, your competitors and targeted searches. I personally like to use Google Reader for my RSS reader. I spend around one hour or so a day reading RSS feeds.
Whos Talkin – This is a search that will tell you who is saying what on many different social networks at once.