If you aren’t listening, then you will never know. 

During a recent  #AwarenessInc webinar, “Answering the Social Phone,” David Alston of Radian6 discussed what organizations should listen for online, what to say when you engage, and of course, how to measure your efforts and ‘convince the boss’ on the importance of using social media to answer that social phone. Because if you’re not answering it, your competitor who is more involved and engaged will.

It was a very informative and interactive session for the social media novice and even those who have been around the block a few times. If you have never heard David speak before, I highly recommend taking a peek at the video below for yourself.

While tracking the discussion during the webinar online,  I pulled out some key points from the audience. What are your thoughts? Get involved in the discussion yourself by tagging any discussions with #AwarenessInc like these webinar attendees did below.

stephen_lamb: RT @BostonSarah: Think of ROI for social media in terms of “Return on Ignoring.” What is the cost of opportunity lost? -David Alston #awarenessinc

jerrycameron: Purchased mass media is essentially the “rental” of eyes and ears. Social media is about hearts and minds; engaging with them. #awarenessinc

@sarahnohr: If you suck offline, you suck online. Best quote of the day. #awarenessinc

BostonSarah: There is no silver bullet on measuring social media. Set your objectives up front. -David Alston #awarenessinc

AlexisDias: Why are people obsessed with the number of followers? Let’s  focus on ENGAGEMENT instead… #awarenessinc

mrktgeek: Do “Targeted Listening” to find conversations that you can add value to. #awarenessinc

btrandolph: thank you @davidalston #awarenessinc for saying “numbr of followers not always the most important thing” #beyondcpm

mrktgeek: Building community through connections with #awarenessinc

tanmoyroy: “The brand is the sum of all conversations” – @DavidAlston #awarenessinc

ajrinaldi: From @davidalston The beautiful thing about social media is it is digital…[and] leaves digital bread crumbs #awarenessinc

I also pulled a few of the tweets that highlighted some of the key discussion points/quotes from Katie’s webinar and pasted them below. If you would like to continue the discussion, feel free to add your comments below or via twitter with the hashtag #awarenessinc.

amybomar: People use & prefer different channels, expect different responses from the different channels. #awarenessinc

kellyrfeller: Wow, great objective: “Move folks from (neutral) conversation to engagement.” Big opportunity since 95% of content is neutral. #awarenessinc

IT4GenY: “research without insight is just trivia.” #awarenessinc

amybomar: Focus on fewer key messages with shorter sentences. #awarenessinc

msmamet: Blog and Twitter are the most common social media for Consumer brands @kdpaine #awarenessinc

goodridge: “There is no Audience, ther are multiple consituencies” – @kdpaine #awarenessinc

tguch: “You become what you measure” #awarenessinc

joshgunkel: good quote @kdpaine “you become what you measure” I also like “what gets measured gets repeated” #awarenessinc

amybomar: Should you blog or Twitter? Ask your customers! (via @kdpaine webinar) #awarenessinc
 

What’s Coming Up Next?

On January 28th at 2PM ET the amazing David Alston, VP Marketing and Community at Radian6 will be the featured guest for the next Awareness webinar. During his session, “Are you answering the “social phone?” David will talk about what to listen for, what to say when you engage, and of course, how to measure your efforts and ‘convince the boss. Additional details and registration form can be accessed here: http://info.awarenessnetworks.com/SocialPhone.html

Rachel Happe of The Community Roundtable

Chris Brogan wrote about the difference between audience and community where he said “The difference between an audience and a community is which direction the chairs are pointing.” Well, I happen to love that statement and believe in it completely. What he was trying to say, or at least what I interpret what he was trying to say (Chris, you can correct me if I am wrong later)  is that slapping up a bunch of content on your site in an effort to attract an audience does not a community make. It’s effective if you want to draw some eyeballs – especially if the content is really great, but you can’t call that community.

So what is community?

In the latest Awareness webinar, Rachel Happe and Jim Storer of The Community Roundtable along with Adam Zawel, XPC Community Facilitator at Palladium Group presented “The Community Maturity Model.”

During the webinar, Rachel brought us through the different phases of The Community Maturity Model while Adam shared his first-hand experiences building and managing Palladium Group’s community.

According to Rachel, community is about the relationships between the people in your community and not just a content-rich website (the “audience” Brogan referred to). It is these relationships that drive engagement, passion and long term relationships. Reminds me of Ford Motor Company and their success in using social media to drive that passion for its vehicles.

A few key takeaways were shared by listeners via Twitter. My favorite, of course, is the tweet about the correlation between offline and online building community

• themaria Lessons in community: if you drive a lot of members to a site without prior relationships, it will fall off. (via @rhappe) #awarenessinc
• themaria .@rahppe says she’d prefer a smaller, passionate community than larger community that just languishes, i couldn’t agree more! #awarenessinc
• dltegart (via @rhappe) “managing a community is like making risotto” #awarenessinc
• mightymegasaur love the idea getting members to an in person event, something we are looking at next year#awarenessinc
• karyncooks @mightymegasaur We believe in offline/online building community. Hard to convince clients that offline will drive online. #awarenessinc
• themaria Internal evangelism and education are a huge part of community management. There should be other people helping out #awarenessinc
• karyncooks 1 in 1000 rule: Likely to have one problematic community member in 1000 member pool. Make them adhere to TOS. #awarenessinc
• karyncooks Track community month over month – not any 1 thing that moves the needle that much within smaller time increments. #awarenessinc

You can check out the complete webinar below in case you missed it or just want to watch it again. Slides are also available for viewing here.

So, where does your organization fall within The Community Maturity Model? I would love to hear what you are doing within your organization to drive engagement. Have questions? Share those in the comments too.

What’s coming up next?

Be sure to register for the next Awareness webinar taking place on Thursday, December 10, 2009 with Caroline Dangson of IDC titled “Socializing the Enterprise: Breaking Down Operational Barriers to Social Business Success.” Register here.