Leadership by Listening?

A recent survey, from SmartBrief and research partner Summus, contains some surprising findings about the adoption and use of social media within business.

SmartBrief surveyed some 6,000 US participants in June 2010, making the resulting report, The State of Social Media for Business, one of the most comprehensive current surveys undertaken on how businesses are using social media.

While it’s relatively easy for business to start experimenting with social media, SmartBrief’s survey points to a mixed picture, with some surprising phenomena in the way organisations are embracing – or not – the ‘big 5’ social channels: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, and blogs. For starters, only about half the companies surveyed have turned to these channels only within the last 12 months. The survey also shows that it takes most companies up to 24 months to incorporate social media tools and platforms ‘confidently and purposefully’ as part of everyday operations - but a significant 60% of respondents said they have lingering doubts about the effectiveness of their social media strategies in helping deliver business objectives.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s the communications, PR and marketing sectors that have been the quickest to embrace the potential of social media, recognising their potential to reach out to customers.

As customers – potential and existing – increasingly participate in social activities, there’s a corresponding need for business to integrate the ‘customer conversation’ into the way they reach and engage consumers. With a mass of information coming from social and internet channels, businesses need to be quicker to understand and act on customer opinion and preferences, using a mix of technologies (blogs, wikis, forums, podcasts) – because different people respond to different mediums.

But of course, all of that hinges on having an understanding of the role social media can or should play in your business … and having both confidence and the capacity to use it. As The State of Social Media report makes plain, despite their stated goals of building brand awareness and communities for customers and fans, the majority of companies in this survey are actually using social media in ‘broadcast’ mode - pushing out information, instead of creating two-way conversations.  

The art and science of using social media effectively is to create a presence that’s authentic, attractive, and aligned with business goals. That presence simply has to be based on dialogue – not talking at but with customers, respecting the power of a multitude of voices, and earning presence, credibility and profile through genuine one-to-one exchanges.

This is a kind of leadership by listening. Simply by listening to who’s saying what about a brand, a product or service, and taking the time to understand the tone and qualities of the conversation, businesses have unprecedented opportunities to find customers, engage existing ones, innovate, and collaborate.