Increasingly, my conversations with companies about social business are focusing on the steps communicators must take to encourage mindset shifts and behaviour changes within their organizations. Those steps require courage and perseverance. This deck focuses on listening - a courageous step when the pressure to talk instead seems overwhelming.

1. TAKE COURAGE 2 BY NEVILLE HOBSON 1
Listen, Don‟t Talk
Take Courage (2)
Neville Hobson
+44 7577 997 222
neville@nevillehobson.com
www.nevillehobson.eu
@jangles
July 2013

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Yoda
Jedi Master

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Becoming
A Social
Business
Is…
• About People
what they do with technology tools
• About Change
connecting with changes in society, technology,
the marketplace, the workplace
• About Calculating
Risk
to enable people to confidently engage in the new
landscape
• Disruptive
challenging established
orders, hierarchies
and cultures

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http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/2007_05.html

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Five Trends That Matter To Us
1. Search is most often the place first impressions are formed
2. Media is no longer “offline and online”: it is now just “media”
3. Consumers like to do three things:
1. Share ideas
2. Share product knowledge
3. Share solutions
4. Issues (and opportunities) can be discovered and addressed
weeks / days / hours before they become public
5. Listening / monitoring / measuring is key

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Major Challenges
1. Understanding audience desires, needs, and
intents
2. Selecting the tools and channels preferred by our
audiences
3. Being trusted participants in our audiences‟ peer
groups
4. Integrating social and traditional
5. Embracing open/sharing ideals – rewards are not
only financial

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Always
Make
New
Mistakes
Esther Dyson
Catalyst
of Start-ups

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What Can You Do?
Right
Now?

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Calculate Risk
1. Recognize and understand change
− Society
− Behaviours
− Your landscape
2. Take the lead to eliminate FUD
3. Know who your advocates and detractors are
4. Listen

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http://www.briansolis.com/2013/04/qa-why-the-future-of-business-is-shared-experiences/

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Understand Who To
Pay Attention To
• Identify influencers
and influencees

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Considerations
• What to pay attention to
– Pinpointing conversation trends: are there recurring or key topics
being talked about?
• Who to pay attention to
– Determining influence level of those talking: who‟s listening to
them?
• What to do about it
– Engage? How and when?
– With what measurable goal?

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Who Are „Influencers‟?
Influencers: people who –
– get involved with their
communities, political
movements, charities, etc
– have large online social
networks
– are looked up to and are
trusted by others
– have multiple and diverse
interests
– tend to be early adopters (or
leavers) in markets
http://klout.com/

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http://gapingvoid.com/

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The Two Most Valuable Commodities
1.Reputation
2.Trust

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It‟s Not about Talking, It‟s about Listening
• Listening to who‟s
saying what, who they‟re
sharing it with and where
they‟re saying/sharing it
• Applying what we
hear to our beliefs and
pre-conceptions
Then:
1. Building our brand‟s narrative
2. Telling and sharing our stories
• Directly and with our
influencers
3. Being discovered by the „right
media‟
• Mainstream and social
4. Participating in and influencing
the online conversation

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• What the top relevant issues are that matter to our target
community
• Where our community members live online
• How we can add value for our community
• When we should engage the community
• Why people are passionate on certain topics
• Who is driving share of voice for our brand
What We Learn By Listening

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What We Learn By Listening
It‟s about knowing…
 Where the conversations are happening
 What our share is of those conversations
 What are the conversations that we could / should be
in
 Who are the key influencers who can help build our
brand

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Courage is what it
takes to stand up
and speak; courage
is also what it takes
to sit down and
listen.
Winston Churchill
A leader
with courage

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Listen, Don‟t Talk
Take Courage (2)
Neville Hobson
+44 7577 997 222
neville@nevillehobson.com
www.nevillehobson.eu
@jangles
July 2013