Chris Brogan, Social Media, and listen first, Be the Voice

Begin by listening – Be the Voice podcast

November 10th, 2008

Social media consultant Chris Brogan is one of the top 200 bloggers and considered one of the top 50 men in social media.

What is the “Be the Voice” podcast? Interviews with individuals developing thought leadership for themselves and their organization to drive business growth.
Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes
Subscribe to the Be the Voice blog

Here are some of the highlights from my interview with Chris Brogan:

Summary (Chris Brogan):

Large companies know that their marketing dollars aren’t cutting it like they use to.
While not everyone is ready to publish in social media, everyone can agree to begin a listening campaign.
When you listen, don’t just look for your company name, but think how the consumer would write about issues related to your product.
Begin building relationships now with influencers. It’ll be a lot easier to talk with them down the line when you have positive and negative news.
Brogan purposely doesn’t finish his blog posts and that invites lots of comments. People love to give their opinion and he wants readers to feel welcome to do that.
Transparency is a misused term. Not all companies can be transparent, but everyone can disclose a relationship where others may perceive a conflict if it wasn’t disclosed.
Being part of the conversation means actually learning the language and being more of an appropriate immigrant to this new digital community.
Don’t assume social media doesn’t exist until you arrive.

Read the entire article and listen to my interview with Chris Brogan [34:20 m].