Page 138 - Social Media Marketing

chapter 5: SOCIAL TECHNOLOGY AND BUSINESS DECISIONS ■Active Listening

Active listening, a term coined by Rohit Bhargava, implies integrating what is being
talked about outside of your organization with the processes inside your organiza-
tion that are driving those conversations. In other words, it means listening intently
enough that you actually understand not only what is being said, but how and why it
came about, and formulating at least a basic idea as to what you will do next because
of it. The implication here is deeper than what social media marketing would typically
consider: The ensuing analysis and response will more often than not involve the entire
organization, or the better part of it.

Rohit Bhargava

Rohit is a founding member of Ogilvy’s 360 Digital Influence and the author of Personality Not Included
(McGraw-Hill, 2008). Rohit blogs actively and also teaches marketing at Georgetown University.
116 You can follow Rohit on Twitter (@rohitbhargava) and read his blog, aptly named the
“Influential Marketing Blog,” here:

http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/

Consider the case of Freshbooks, a small business billing and time tracking ser-
vice. Freshbooks makes a practice of paying attention to its customers, including what
they are saying on Twitter. One post in particular caught their attention: Freshbooks
customer Michelle Wolverton had been stood up on a date. Freshbooks’ response,
shown in Figure 5.3, taken from social media pro Erica O’Grady’s series on using
Twitter in business, got right to the point: “We would never stand you up.” But then
they did one better: Michelle is a Freshbooks customer, so Freshbooks sent Michelle
fresh flowers. The result is near-legend status on the Web. Google it.

Figure 5.3 Freshbooks would never stand her up.

The point of the Freshbooks example is this: Listening alone didn’t win
Freshbooks praise. Instead, there was a process inside Freshbooks—at an operational
level—that flexibly provided for an appropriate response to customer conversations. It