Social Media Monitoring and Listening

This picture shows my command center--my work station. I enjoy having two monitors, and I can't imagine going back to just one. The two monitors allow me to work on one screen while the other displays information--such as recent tweets or Facebook posts to my work-related pages. In the world of social media and instant communications, it is very important to know what is being posted on our websites, and what others are saying about us. Our website is our online persona; if we don't protect that persona, we will lose our reputation and our customers or clients. In the spirit industry we have many small business owners whose gyms are their livelihood. Negative comments made on Facebook and Twitter can damage their business. How we handle those comments will have a major impact on our business in the future. "Corporate Facebook pages: when fans attack" discusses Nestlé's online reaction to fans who questioned their apparent lack of concern over their impact on the environment. After Greenpeace posted a video on Nestlé’s Facebook page which attacked their harming the rainforest while harvesting palm oil, Nestlé’s approach was to remove the video. Greenpeace launched a campaign to oppose Nestlé using a social media platform and email. Nestlé chose censorship to respond to much of the Facebook postings. When responding, their Facebook manager used sarcastic and inappropriate comments to respond to posters. Of course, this made matters worse. The dispute was picked up by news media—compounding Nestlé’s negative publicity.

Managing our online presence also means being prepared for the worst. We know that social media is an open platform—anyone can friend us or follow us and post freely. Small flames that are handled inappropriately can turn into wildfires. Professional and non-threatening responses are required. Having someone in place to monitor business Facebook pages and Twitter posts is a necessity. This may be the gym owner in a small business or a team of specialists in the corporate world. Tracking how your business is mentioned online is another method to spot potential problems. An easy way to do this is to use Google Alerts. I use Google Alerts to fetch articles about cheer safety, cheer coaches, and safety training. This is an easy way to find articles that mention your business without actually having to search for them yourself. This is also a great way to keep an eye on industry trends.

If a social media crisis appears to be in the making, act quickly and responsibly to handle the rude or abusive postings. It is a good idea to have a variety of responses planned beforehand for a variety of situations. Facebook is set up to encourage two-way conversations. Join the conversation to respond to the dissatisfied or abusive posters—again, use mature, appropriate language. Always keep in mind you represent the business. Apologies show the business is taking responsibility—even if the company is not directly culpable. Use Facebook to explain how the situation in question will be fixed and what steps are in place to prevent this happening again. A last step would be to move on. Send those who complain to another site and try to return to normal conversations on the Facebook page. None of us want to spend weeks rehashing mistakes. If Nestlé had followed these steps immediately upon noticing the negative posts, they would have greatly reduced their negative publicity.

Possibly, at the heart of Nestlé’s social media crisis was their inability or refusal to listen to their public. Whether we agree with our critics or not, listening to them is important. In fact, listening should be at the top of our communication check list. According to John A. Kline’s book, Listening Effectively, we spend 45% of our communication activity listening. Think about this—almost half of our communication time is spent listening. We take public speaking courses and composition courses but no formal time to learn how to be better listeners. Many people have the mistaken notion that hearing is the same as listening—wrong! Hearing is just receiving the sound; listening is an active and ongoing mental process. I must confess I have not always been a good listener and still have to pull my attention back to conversations, sermons or lectures. I know the importance of listening as a coach. If my cheerleaders did not listen to instruction properly, the stunt they build may fail and result in injuries. In some jobs good listening skills can be the difference in life or death—the military, air traffic controllers, law enforcement.

Twenty-seven months ago my husband passed away. Slogging my way through grief taught me several valuable life lessons. Early in grief I discovered I had no one to listen to me; I had lost my number 1 cheerleader. I had no one to tell my hurts, my small joys, my problems. After forming a grief group with other widows, we learned we all shared this same sense of loss—we had no one to really listen to us. As we journeyed through a grief study, we practiced “holy listening.” We worked in groups of two—one person speaking and the other listening. The listener could not interrupt or comment. The listener was to actively listen; this included suitable body language and eye contact. This taught me that too many times when I thought I was listening, I was not. In my mind I was composing responses or maybe even drifting away. My grief group now hosts lunches for widows in our church. I find myself using holy listening quite a bit as these women also have lost their partners, their No. 1 cheerleaders, and have no one to listen to them.

We all need someone to listen to us; we all need to develop better listening skills. While important in interpersonal communication, this is so important on the job. If we truly listen to our publics, we may be able to solve problems before they grow out of control; we may be able to regain trust that was lost. I often receive phone calls from frustrated coaches and parents. I now listen actively to their side of the story—without interrupting or interjecting comments. They often apologize for taking so much of my time, but they also tell me they just needed someone to listen—someone who understood.

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