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Figure€7.3╇â•W‰ e’re Listening: Café Coffee Day

Start By Listening
So if avoidance of change is at the top of the “don’t do” list, what is the right thing to
do? Instead of avoiding change, develop a listening-based and policy-driven response
channel. Yes, social media can be tricky. And yes, conversations that you can’t control
can be a challenge. So, start by listening—actively listening. Begin collecting social
data, create a historical baseline, and use this to chart your way forward and to pull in
the rest of your team.

By establishing a solid baseline, for example, you set up robust measures of suc-
cess. That is always helpful. Second, you develop a sense of when conversational levels
or topics “aren’t right.” You can use this knowledge to trigger responses when situa-
tions that warrant a response arise.