Even a Chatterbox like Me Listens…
November 22, 2008
Okay, you’re probably reading that headline and thinking: ‘Chatterbox? GeekMommy, you hardly post regularly let alone frequently!’ and if we’re talking about this blog, well, guilty as charged. I’m trying to remedy that. But that last post of mine hit such a nerve that I was a little afraid about what to follow it up with. So I’ve been sort of, well hiding procrastinating. Waiting for the right escape route motivation.
But back to that chatterbox thing. Yeah, I was checking my stats over on Twitter tonight using Tweetstats and realized that even though I’ve toned it down a notch, I’m still one of the noisiest birds on the block over there.
Then one of the people I read and heed the most when it comes to anything on Social Media, Chris Brogan [@chrisbrogan] posted this brilliant piece on where to start if you are just getting in to the whole Social Mediasphere – If I Started Today.
How I wish that piece had been around when I first started trying to figure it out! It’s kind of like a shortcut on bypassing the early, awkward stages and getting right up to on-ramp speed.
But at the end of the, as he usually does, Chris asked for input from his community. Since I happened to be up right as he twittered it (who me? insomnia? nahhh) I noticed that he had left out the thing that I consider the most important part of learning how Social Media works – Listening.
It doesn’t surprise me that Chris forgot to add it initially – I think he does it so naturally it’s like breathing with him. Surprisingly, a lot of people jumping on the Social Media bandwagon these days think it’s more about being heard and don’t understand the power of listening. But Chris and pretty much everyone else I’ve learned from* over the past 18 months sure gets it. Listening is key.
Sometimes, because I’m so chatty (or noisy as some would say) people make the mistake of thinking I’m not listening. Then I end up repeating something back to them they said a few hours or weeks earlier and they seem stunned. You see, as much as I love to talk, share and inform, well… I love learning even more. You learn from listening, observing, and paying attention.
Granted, sometimes when I get excited about something you pretty much have to use a crowbar to get a word in edgewise – but rest assured, when you do get that word in? I’m actually listening to you, not just planning out what I will say next.
And that’s the most important advice I would give anyone wanting to know how to start in Social Media. Listen. Read. Get the rhythm of the conversation going on around you. That way when you start talking? You’ll have something really worth hearing.
Speaking of what you have to say? I’m listening!
*I’d list all of those folks I learn from but we’d be here forever – however, that is totally fodder for another post… hm. ~GM
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