Posted on August 10, 2006
Listening is Critical to Entering the Online Conversation
BY JAMES CLARK
Greg Clemenson had a great post on the WOMMA Blog about 5 Tips for Joining the Conversation.
Greg's 5 Tips from the WOMMA Blog are:
#1. Have a valid place in the conversation
#2. Use your voice and have an opinion
#3. Be relevant
#4. Be responsible
#5. Remember that it's a social phenomenon
But I would say there needs to be another tip (I know, WOMMA's format only allows for 5), and it should be the #1 Tip and that is Listening.
We often get too excited about talking and forget that the best conversationalists are the best listeners. Teaching someone to be a good listener is much harder than teaching them how to talk about what they know.
Listening takes patients, focus and attention. In the online world, listening also takes some technical skills too. One must set up an RSS reader, use scouts such as Technorati and Google Alters to find the conversation, understand blog comments and trackbacks to drive the conversation, analyze and interpret web analytics to understand behavior, and blog to capture the conversation.
The art of listening often overwhelms those trying to enter the conversation. This is why we work with our clients to customize the listening systems and analyze the conversation to ensure their online communications success.
For those interested in starting this on their own, we've created a set of DIY online video tutorials for Getting Started.
