Listening is Key

“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”

– Epictetus

This is one of my favorite quotes, and is key in today’s social media environment – especially since 3 out of 4 Americans now use social media.

The problem is that social media is often controlled by marketing folks who see social media as a (free/cheap) way to broadcast their message to more people. Sometimes, it’s the PR people who handle it, who know they sometimes have to respond directly to consumers for reputation management. Least often (but probably best case scenario), social media response is handled by customer relations people (assuming they’re well trained on handling consumer questions and complaints).

I’m generalizing how most businesses are built, but the statistics show many companies are still more concerned about talking instead of listening:

• 75% of brand Pages on Facebook and 93% of brand profiles on Twitter didn’t answer even half of the questions they received. (Socialbakers)
• 45% of retailers ignore inquiries on Twitter because they do not have resources to manage the channel, despite the fact 88% have a Twitter presence (Eptica via Sentimentmetrics)
• 11% of retail brands respond to customer tweets within an hour (Brandwatch)

What social media has done is change consumers’ expectations of brands. Just by the fact that your brand is on social media, they believe you are following the general human rule that you’re listening twice as much as you’re talking. More proof that consumers expect you to be listening (Ovum):

• 70% of consumers would use channels other than the phone if they felt confident they could get a resolution on the first attempt.
• 66% of consumers expect a response on social media within an hour, and 56% of consumers want a response within 30 minutes.
• 76% of customers stop doing business with a brand following a bad experience

Many people compare social media to being at a dinner party – telling you that social norms and good etiquette require more listening than talking.  They’re right… participation requires a careful balance of listening and sharing.  Unfortunately, it’s not always so easy to execute that on social media in a corporate environment – where different areas have different priorities.

Marketing and sales often has the money and power, since they are seen as a source of growth for companies. Public relations often has a reputational role, which is frequently reactionary to prevent losses. Less often PR is able to be proactive to make some brand gains (but is less tied to direct sales).  Finally, customer contact centers often have the most direct contact with consumers, but are mostly seen as an expense, or at best, a retention area.

How these areas are viewed within a company is important, and it takes cooperation across all of them – marketing, public relations, and customer contact/relations departments – to be successful in social media.  The real key is getting all of them to spend more time listening when more traditional structures encourage more talking.