choose your own expert: listening
DESCRIPTION
September 23rd break out sessionTRANSCRIPT
Listening
WeAreMedia Webinar: September 23, 2009
Your Session Leaders: Beth Kanter and Wendy Harman
Topics
• Case Study: Red Cross
• The Six Steps
• Questions/Reflections
This is a Remix of a Remix
http://www.wearemedia.org/Listening+and+Engaging
Listening in an connected world …
::assumptions
There are people out there who are interested in your issues or
organization’s programs.
(whether we know them or not)
“It is important to connect with people based on their interests (I will sometimes search twitter for "kids outside" and then compliment them on giving their kids a green hour!) ”
Danielle Brigida
Those people are active in our communities or organizations.
(whether we help them or not)
Source: Nina Simonhttp://museumtwo.blogspot.com
We want to engage those interested and active people in our work.
(whether we agree with them or not)
That’s the heart of social media success …
Engaging with interested and active people to take action.
The Red Cross Case Study: Listening Comes First
• First foray into social media was a listening project in 2006
• People were talking and they needed to listen
• At first, felt like going to war, but changed internal perception of social media
Listen: Monitor, Compile, Distribute, Reflect
I took an American Red Cross class I thought was less than satisfactory. […] The local chapter director. called me to talk about it honestly. They care about me and they’re willing to go the extra mile. I am now significantly more likely to take another class than I was before.” - Blogger
Look for Trends Over Time
Very important
step!
Relationship building
Customer service issue
Influencer complaining …
Staff determines comments or tweets that need response
Listening doesn’t have to stay in the communications department – becoming a listening organization leverage more dramatic results
What’s in Wendy’s Tool Box?
• What can professional tools do that free ones can’t?
• Start with free tools, perfect your radar, look for ways that professional tools can save you time
• Growing number of vendors, do your due diligence
• Demo
• Changes internal perception of social media value
• Improves relationships with audience and identifies influencers
• Incremental improvements for campaigns
• Working with affiliates
Listen: What’s the Value?
::the six steps1.Get your organization ready2.Use your RSS Reader like a Rock
Star3.Brainstorm Keywords4.Set up your listening dashboard5.Make listening and engaging a
practice an ongoing process6.Build in time for reflection
1. Get your organization ready to listen
How will you organize listening?
•Who will do the listening and responding?•Response policy?•How much time will you allocate? •How will you analyze the results and share insights? •How will you know if listening has be useful?
2. Use Your RSS Reader Like A Rock Star!
Which one is right for you?
Small block of time for daily reading
Clean house, reorganize
Don’t feel obligated to read everything
Good RSS Habits
• Nonprofit Name • Other nonprofit names in your space • Program, services, and event names • CEO or well-known personalities associated with your organization • Other nonprofits with similar program names • Your brand or tagline • URLs for your blog, web site, online community • Industry terms or other phrases • Issue area, synonyms, geography• Your known strengths and weaknesses.
3. Brainstorm Keywords
Try to avoid generic terms. If your organization's name or program names contain generic words, use Boolean operators like "AND" or "NOT."
What NOT to search for?
Think Offline, Involve Other People in Your Organization
List Your Key Words/Phrases
Why Important Brainstorm Related Words
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Use Online Keyword Tools
4. Set up Your Feeds and Add To Your Reader or Dashboard
Ego Searches Basics
Persistent Searches Key words/phrases
Influencer Bloggers Blog Feeds
Other Where else is does your audience hang out?
What
Where
Don’t Panic!!
5. Make Listening and Engaging a Practice
Just Starting: Lurk for the first 30 days
Start with a small, select number of feeds
Review feeds as part of your routine
Open interesting links in new tabs
Read and follow interesting links in comments
Subscribe to new feeds
Revise keywords as you go
Identify mission critical keywords
Share a summary weekly w/others
Establish Good Habits
Example: Finding Influencer Bloggers
Look for bridge bloggers
Add them to your reader
• Slow growth at first, spider out
• Don’t be afraid to clean, unsubscribe, and reorganize
• Check out Google Page Rank
• You can check out their monthly views
• You can check out their technorati ranking
Building Your Feeds and Finding Influencer Bloggers
Source: Kd Paine – Buy her book, read her blog
Start engaging
Not Problem
If you find people talking about you ….
Keep track of themesKeep track of positivesEngageLook for stories to repurpose
Respond like a queen
Add value to the conversation
Don’t be afraid to disagree
Keep to the point of the topic
Point to relevant sources if you have more information
Watch the conversation develop
Humor works
Avoid big brother
Problem
If you find people talking about you ….
Big ProblemLittle Problem
Track themesBe prepared to engage
Be prepared to act swiftly
Listening for Tone, Volume, and Sentiment
Swing into crisis mode and call in the boss
6. Regular Time for Reflection
Are the topics of conversation changing?
Is the tone, sentiment, or volume changing?
Where are the most interesting conversations taking place?
What does this mean for your strategy or programs? How can you use the information to improve what your are doing?
Is there great content (stories) that you can repurpose elsewhere?
Questions? Reflections?
::the six steps1.Get your organization ready2.Use your RSS Reader like a Rock
Star3.Brainstorm Keywords4.Set up your listening dashboard5.Make listening and engaging a
practice an ongoing process6.Build in time for reflection
Thank You
Slides and links at: http://www.wearemedia.org
Ending Plenary Session
• Call this number:
• Be prepared to share one thing you learned
Ten Minute Break
12:10-12:20 am PST
3:10- 3:20 pm EST