Too many businesses are social media narcissists. They use their channels to promote themselves shamelessly without displaying any awareness of the fact that their medium gives them the potential to interact with followers and fans directly. Sure, “content is king,” as we’ve all heard by now, but attention is the queen bee in this hive — and it’s mutual.
Paying attention is a form of altruism, or behaving selflessly, with the interests of other people in mind: and everybody wants to be heard. For example, listening and responding are key ingredients to managing your reputation. Whenever anyone posts something, be it positive or negative, take the time to let that person know your thoughts. Be a real presence.
Paying this kind of attention to comments posted creates familiarity, helping you get to know your clientele more intimately. You can also “listen in” to what’s being said about other brands, using the information to help you refine your brand position.
Two recent communication tools are key:
- Socialmention.com collects data about you from multiple platforms, including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, generating a Social Media Snapshot along with Sentiment Scores that gauge your reputation and an analysis of your digital reach.
- Tweetdeck.com is Twitter’s platform for managing your reputation on its site. You can use the deck to schedule and post your tweets while creating an interface of columns that summarize @ mentions, activity and followers, among other things, so you can monitor your buzz.
Sites like these will make you a better listener — and enhance your ability to give back to the online community. For a detailed altruism action plan, contact Wax Custom Communications at 305-350-5700, or visit waxcom.com.
