Content Marketers, Are You Listening?

August 23, 2011

I just got off a great call with one of our portfolio VPs of marketing and Senior Advisor Joe Pulizzi.  I love participating in these calls because I always learn something!  In about an hour we cover issues content marketers face like goal setting, common challenges, and ideas to solve those problems.  On a past call with Joe we covered the importance of integrating influencers into a content marketing program.  The biggest lesson learned on today’s call was…LISTENING.

First, what is listening?

This isn’t rocket science, but it is more than just participating in social media for customer service purposes.  Listening is just that – listening to what is being said about your company, products, and industry.  What are customers, prospects, and influencers tweeting about?  What are they posting on LinkedIn?  What questions are being asked on Quora?  What is happening on Facebook?  What are bloggers writing about?  These questions can all be answered if you are listening!

Why is listening important for expansion stage companies?

Listening on multiple platforms is extremely important for growing tech companies. Listening can lead to the following benefits:

  1. Help identify influencers.  By monitoring what is being said about X online, you will be able to identify thought leaders who consistently blog, tweet, and post valuable content for your target audience.
  2. Identify opportunities.  This is sort of obvious, but if your company is not listening, there will be missed opportunities in product development, customer service marketing, and on and on.
  3. Develop your personas.  Many marketers know that all effective strategies are targeted towards specific personas.  Smart marketers know that personas are more than simply titles.  By listening to what is being said only, you may be able to flesh out issues, pain points, interests, and goals that will add more life into your personas.

How can I get started today?

In an older blog post, Joe shared some tips on listening.  Here is what you need to know to get started today, but check out the full post for all of the tips.

  1. Determine a set of keywords and keyword phrases.  You can use Google’s keyword tool or stay tuned for OpenView’s guide to keyword research (coming soon!).
  2. Use Google Alerts.  Create Google Alerts based on your keywords to monitor what is being said on an “as it happens” basis.
  3. Tap into social media monitoring.  There are several tools that will make monitoring Twitter easier (HootSuite, TweetDeck, CoTweet, etc.) but don’t forget about Facebook, LinkedIn, Quora, Google+ and any other social network you know is a hot spot in your industry.
  4. Use RSS feeds.  If you already know the list of bloggers who regularly talk about your industry, ensure you can easily stay in touch with them by setting up RSS feeds.
  5. Now go listen and engage!  This is more of an important role than you may think.  And it takes time!  Joe recommended to our portfolio company that it should have someone spend about 50% of his or her time on listening and participating online.

Content Marketing Director

<strong>Amanda Maksymiw</strong> worked at OpenView from 2008 until 2012, where she focused on developing marketing and PR strategies for both OpenView and its portfolio companies. Today she is the Content Marketing Director at <a href="https://www.fuze.com/">Fuze</a>.