Grow Bigger Ears in 10 Minutes

January 28, 2009 · Comments

he's so little I’m a huge proponent of professional listening as part of a business communication strategy. Lots of people will sell you ways to speak. They’ll give you lots of ways to get your message all over the place. Me? I’m passionate about listening as much as I am speaking. You know: two ears, one mouth, that stuff.

I love many of the professional products out there like Radian6, Techrigy, BuzzGain (just launched today!), and Crimson Hexagon to name just a few. But you know, there are ways to listen simply, and though they’re not perfect, they’re free.

I always recommend both. Use a professional platform to get the depth, the reporting, the other added value. But I recommend setting up a free listening station, too. Here’s a quick step by step to start that kind of station off. You might have more ideas for the comments section.

Grow Bigger Ears in 10 Minutes


  1. Get a gmail account. – http://www.gmail.com
  2. Log in to Google Reader. This will become your home base for listening. Note the position of the “Add Subscriptions” button (mid top left) – http://www.google.com/reader
  3. Now, go to Google Blogsearch. Type in your query about your company, your organization, your competitors, and the like. We’ll use the results in the next step. – http://blogsearch.google.com.
  4. Note the “Subscribe” links on the bottom left of the page. Right-click the RSS link, and select copy.
  5. Go back to Google Reader, click Add Subscription, and select paste.
  6. Repeat this for as many variations of searches you want for blogs.
  7. UPDATE: I hear this feature is going away. You can do the same thing at IceRocket, if so, just do this step at Icerocket instead of Technorati. Go to Technorati. Perform the same queries there. Neither Google nor Technorati finds it all, so cross-posting works. – http://www.technorati.com
  8. Go to Twitter Search. Do the same. – http://search.twitter.com
  9. Fine tune your searches by seeing what inaccurate results come from your first attempts, and replace bad searches with better ones.
  10. Take the payload of all that raw searching and SORT it using Google Reader. By this, I mean the following: when you find something to note, either Share it (Shift S), or email it to a core team ( type E on the keyboard). Send only the important stuff. Then, let internal employees see the RSS feed of the shared items, or just use the email feature. Whichever works best. This is how you sort the larger pile of info into the smaller and more useful packets that your organization can consume.
  11. Most important to the process – DO something with what you’re learning. Figure out the business value of the listening you’re doing, and route it to the right places. Listening isn’t for marketers. It’s for the organization. It’s for customer service, for product management, for the senior team, etc.

In a nutshell, that’s the plan. You can do this. It’s not especially tricky (though the tuning can be challenging). My question to you: why wouldn’t you?

get the best premium Wordpress theme out there
Photo credit tanakawho

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Tagged as: , , ,

ChrisBrogan.com runs on the Thesis Theme for WordPress

Thesis WordPress theme

Thesis is the search engine optimized WordPress theme of choice for serious online publishers. If you’re a blogger who doesn’t understand a lot of PHP, Thesis will give a ton of functionality without having to alter any code. For the advanced, Thesis has incredible customization possibilities via Thesis hooks.

With so many design options, you can use the template over and over and never have it look like the same site. The theme is robust and flexible enough not only to accommodate a site like ChrisBrogan.com, but also to enable the site to run far more efficiently than it ever has before.

  • This finally clicked for me this morning, in conjunction with your post about twitter. Time for me to start growing bigger ears!
  • jonnybgood
    Thanks for another call to arms for listening. I think we need to add understanding then taklng action on the insights deriving from these. I particulalry like that fact that you stress the need for listening to be a mindset for all the organization. We constantly stress the need for buy in from customer service/engagement, R&D, HR etc.where appropriate.

    There's a lot to be said for setting up some "free" listening. I say "free" because this still takes people and time. It just has to be very targetted at the particular role and scope the person listening within the organization is dealing with, otherwise they can be overwhelmed and end up tring to "herd cats". Here at ASOMO, we've been working with clients globally in understanding what people are saying about them, where, who they are and with what impact. Clients need to see the big picture as well as being able to focus on the detail about what is driving comment.
    You have to perceive before you can protect, participate and project.
    Jon Moody
    Market Engineering

    jon.moody@asomo.net
    skype: jmoody-asomo
    Twitter: asomouk

    ASOMO Service
    www.asomo.net

    socialware
    Lemon Studios 85 Clerkenwell Road
    London EC1R 5AR United Kingdom
    tel. (+44) 207 681 4036


    LONDON FRANKFURT AMSTERDAM PARIS BILBAO
  • This post still ranks among my all-time top faves.
  • embarkd
    You can add Google Buzz to the above setup described by Chris also. Do a search from within Buzz, copy the resulting URL into Google Reader. It's not a feed url, but Google Reader will convert it into one for you (a recent feature of Google Reader is the automatic generation of rss feeds from watching for changes at non-feed pages...)
  • danawormer
    So "doggone" practical and digestible - again! Thanks so much for cutting through the word clutter.
  • Chris,

    Thank you for posting this. I've been looking for a concise checklist to follow that has been effective for someone that is already successful at listening. I agree completely with the emphasis you put on listening.

    I personally like to use feedly (www.feedly.com) for all of my feed reading. It organizes the content a little cleaner than Google Reader, IMO.

    Out of curiosity, which of those professional products that you mentioned above do you use personally? Why?
  • oakees
    Thanks for the easy-to-follow list. Seems easy enough! I´ve set this up now and will start monitoring some topics. Sadly if you want to monitor some competitive keywords there´s a lot of spam-posts out there to filter through. As always!
  • ShopTheAndovers
    Jumped here from How To Promote Your Work. Very helpful information!
  • Extremely Helpful information! My company recently blocked all of our personal email accounts and I have been struggling to "keep up." I founded a non-profit for single parents and I do a lot with social media and this is super advice so I can stay connected. Thank you.
  • I'm listening to Chris at www.summitup.org, where he tells us to Google "grow bigger ears" and here I am.
    Listening is the new secret to marketing. We're not selling by telling anymore- unless the story is really good, and it's not about us, but about the customer.
  • livemercialsarah
    I think this is a great post! I just started a new position in social media and am learning how to search blogs on Google Reader. I will definitely be checking out Technorati so I am sure not to miss out on valuable information. Thanks:)
  • livemercialsarah
    I think this is a great post! I just started a new position in social media and am learning how to search through blogs on Google Reader. I will definitely be checking out Technorati to be sure I'm not missing out on valuable information. Thanks:)
  • A couple of months ago I switched hosting companies because I lost trust in the people I dealt with. Trust is big for me. My new hosting company explained that I had a "low level trojan virus" and he scrubbed it for me. All that to say that having gone through your 10 steps "listening" process, I've discovered that Google and Technorati think I'm a stranger. Apparently, I've been blacklisted.

    I'm working in getting reinstated with my new hosting service. Those of us who are tech challenged would never know stuff like this. I provide consulting services to my clients to help them grow their business through trusting relationships. Here's just another example of the financial impact of trust.

    Just picked up Trust Agents and can't wait to get into it more.
  • markslatin1
    Chris,

    I went through the steps and noticed something disturbing. My blog and site weren't coming up. I recently suffered through a website virus and moved to a new hosting company and scrubbed out the virus, upgrading WP. Although bad news, I'd rather know that Google and other search engines had black listed my site before I got "cleansed" than live under the perception that everything was fine.

    I've asked my new web hosting company to see what he can do about reinstating me.

    The blog was useful to me for more than just marketing reasons!

    Nice work and thanks.
  • scotglen
    I'm running a small boutique social media management firm with clients in the residential service and repair business. There is not much chatter about them online. Except... they are very concerned with reviews on Google Local and the other local search/review sites. I find that most of the "listening" solutions are sledgehammers for my gnat. Am looking for a right-sized solution to monitor just customer reviews. Any ideas? Suggestions? Thanks!
  • Great starter tip that never get old. I'm no seasoned professional, but i've been at Social Media for a little while now. I just added some google blog search RSS feeds based on this post. Thanks Chris

    http://twitter.com/franswaa
  • *STUMBLED* I will give a try to your tips, thanks chris, really nice blog!!
  • Fantastic blog post- very clever and inviting.
    thanks,

    Josiane
  • I think think this is soooo helpful and appreciate all the step by step instuctions. I have had my own business for the last 3 years and did not realize how in the dark I was? I recently started a new job and need to make up for 3 years of very little technology use. Thank you,thank you, thank you!
  • This is exactly why I read your blog, Chris. Thanks for the instructions!
  • I'd say it is really a chore to listen but to do otherwise is to not care at all.

    You could start growing the big ears using 'free' from Google - Alerts, Search RSS and from Twitter, too but even the 'pro' products do offer free subscriptions that really feels like you've got additional persons doing those listening things along with you, just more comprehensively. I've tried a couple and Radian6, Filtrbox and even CustomScoop and I'd say they bring that definite extra to the monitoring table.

    Best.
    Alain
  • Powerful exercise. Thanks Chris!
  • I think it's good to be responsive to what people are saying about you and/or your business but it's difficult to be everywhere all the time especially when you're a solo-practitioner. That's why I think setting up your Google Reader and/or Google Alerts is a great way to capture the bits and pieces that make a mention of you and your company's name. I use both and I recommend anyone else do the same.
  • Nothing really to add to your post or the comments... except to say that that's one cute Boston bull! ; )
  • Jeremy LeRay
    Great info for the beginners and seasoned bloggers as well. The easy to follow directions helped me figure out how to get everything organized. It's easy to get overwhelmed. Starting to get the hang of this.
  • Chris

    Great Headline!!!

    I knew it was about listening but I just had to click anyways. After all
    who really wants bigger ears. When an open mind can take in so much more.
    Thanks for the info.

    Gary McElwain
  • OMG Chris!! Usually I read your blog and think maybe I will be able to do that someday. BUT NOT TODAY Today I had actually already done a couple steps--thank goodness I am learning something. Now I just want to learn how to pimp out my word press blog but I know nothing about coding . .lol
  • amurphy13
    Totally agree with your list. I use Google Reader everyday and find it incredibly helpful to monitor brands, but also to stay on top of my blog reading.

    Only thing I'd add is to make use of folders and tags. I probably have close to 100 Technorati/Twitter type searches and blogs in my Reader, so it really helps to categorize them. I've even started a "Must Read" folder so that if I'm short on time, I can go to my must reads first and feel like I'm getting the stuff I need. (And yes Chris, your blog is in my Must Read section.)
  • Thanks for a great post on moving beyond the basics & providing a way to set up some strong searches & then parse out the information to various departments. The key thing is that that may be quite an eye opener for some of those departments. But it will definitely be motivation to get involved in the conversations around their brand.

    This is a great quote:
    "Listening isn’t for marketers. It’s for the organization. It’s for customer service, for product management, for the senior team, etc."
    This is how we feel at Techrigy (and I'm the Community person there). Our social media monitoring tool provides a versatile solution for the whole enterprise. Thanks for the mention!
    Connie@Techrigy.com
    Freemium version http://sm2.techrigy.com
  • Great post Chris. We're exploring ways to do the same thing in FriendFeed Rooms as FriendFeed allows room participants to "Like" and "Comment" on things in the Room itself. This way, conversations don't have to go to E-mail in a point to point matter. They stay point to group.

    You never know who will have an insight. :)

    Another cool feature is the fact that FriendFeed allows you to widegetize the output of rooms so a widget of the listening station can be placed on an internal site that everyone uses already to conduct business. This way, they don't have to do anything special (I.e. set up/go to their Google Reader) to participate.

    I think that the coolest thing about feeds and readers/widgets, as I wrap my head around business uses for them, is their portability.
  • Some of the other search feeds I've used in my DIY dashboard are twingly, flickr, bloglines and delicious. I've also set up multiple twitter search feeds to include competitors, and specific keywords that might lead to people I'd like to follow and/or interact with.

    I've kept these feeds out of my reader (it's cluttered enough) and have used netvibes to create an at-a-glance dashboard of all of these searches, updated as soon as I hit refresh.
  • Curtis @23 -- In general, (at least in my experience) once you get used to using Google Reader, it's much easier to process things that way, especially if you can go through whole folders of item in "List" (rather than "Expanded") view. If you're not already used to it, it pays to make a habit of navigating with the J & K keys -- you can *fly* through the items with just a little practice.
  • Chris,
    Brilliant suggestion. Is there any difference between having the stuff show up in the reader vs. email ala Google Alerts?
  • Awesome info chris thanks!
  • anyone know of an app on Facebook that will do this like the above mentioned twitter search?
  • Like Andi @15, I use folders extensively within Google Reader (and Bloglines before that) -- makes it *very* easy, for example, to separate searches about your company from those about your competitors, your own name, technologies you're tracking, etc.

    One shortcut: like Nigel said @18, if Firefox knows that Google Reader is your default RSS tool, you don't have to copy-and-paste RSS links -- you just click the RSS link, keep clicking until you get to Google Reader, and assign the feed to a particular folder. Easy-peasy.
  • Another great article. It does truly amaze me how often people fail to listen to what their customer wants. The funny thing is it is something that is really easy to do, and usually costs nothing.

    It astonishes me even more when it comes from sales people. If they just listened they would be able to find out exactly what their prospect is looking for. I've been able to be top in sales in various organizations. Not by using hard sales techniques, but by simply asking questions and simply listening. It works.

    Thanks for showing us one more method for making listening easier online.
  • Chris, thanks for this- the only comment is Step 4 has been replaced by a "subcrbe to this in Google reader"... Thanks Chris, thanks Google..
  • I love this method of using Google as a 'listening platform' - very cool use! You just gave me another reason why I think more and more people will build their businesses - and their lives - on Google.
  • Chris - that was a very valuable post, I did not realize that you could subscribe to searches like this. This is a very important way to help track my blog, but also keep tabs on how my name is viewed/used online.

    Thanks

    Harold
  • Thank you for the tips Chris! I'm a huge fan of Google Reader and I love how simple it looks... and then, once you get into it... I love how simple it really feels and IS. This is great advice. On an additional note, make sure you begin creating folders to organize your feeds. Organize by client, topic, people, etc. Before you know it you'll be subscribing to more feeds than you can handle in one day so you'll want to have them in order so that you can prioritize and go back to get "fed" over the weekend - or whenever you catch a break.
  • Thanks for articulating this in such a clear simple way.

    I've also started recommending del.icio.us to follow keyword tags - helps refine the searches when you see that something has been tagged 525 times.
  • Chris,
    I was watching "40 Year Old Virgin" yesterday, and in a sequence Steve simply asks a girl questions to which she becomes more involved in the conversation. He really didn't break new ground, just proved to be a active listener. I thought it was not only cute and insightful.

    Restating and clarifying what the other has said, not asking questions or telling what the listener feels, believes, or wants always helps engage the other person.
  • I've just revisited my Google Reader as of last week and that's how I found your post. I am also adding Twitter feeds of interesting people to my Reader. The Reader is great! Dulcita Love @dulcitalove
  • AmberNaslund
    I completely love your approach about using the professional tools as well as the free listening outposts (and full disclosure for your readers: I'm the Director of Community for Radian6 so I'm certainly a proponent of Chris' listening approach and appreciate his recommendation for our platform).

    *The* most important piece of what you've described above is #11. Truth is, listening is labor. It's much more an active process than a passive one, and it requires intense levels of organization and parsing of information. It certainly doesn't have to be complicated, but it does have to be tended so you can act on what you learn, in small steps or in big ones.

    And you naturally nailed it re: listening being organization-wide. Communication should be, too, in my view (but this for a whole different discussion perhaps). It's not about quantifying and qualifying messages, it's about streamlining how you solve problems for your customers, and finding ways show up early enough to the next problem that you're there *before* they need you.

    Lovin' the how-tos in addition to the how-comes. Cheers.
  • Chris,

    Thanks for breaking this down into easy-to-follow steps. I use Google Reader and keep trying to get clients and co-workers to understand the value. I'm going to share this with them so they aren't overwhelmed by all the information. I think social media in general -- and listening in particular -- can be overwhelming for people who aren't sure where to jump in. This provides a great starting point.

    Heather (@prtini)
  • This is fantastic advice and one of those golden nuggets that I can't do without. Thanks again, Sr. Brogan.
  • Chris, a similar post you had in the past got me interested in this crap :) Thanks!
  • Chris,
    We all want to be listened to. Hard part is listening to others. I think some great companies listen and treat customers as equals. Others, not so good. They talk at you, have crappy service, and make it really hard to have a conversation. I think the tools are out there to open up conversations.
  • great step by step instructions. i've used google reader for awhile, but have never taken it to the next level, which is what these instructions allow you to do. the secret sauce to listening, is to refine, refine, refine what you are listening for - otherwise the avalanche will overwhelm.
  • I just had to transition all RSS/twitter search/ feeds from my personal account to a new Gmail account on Monday to prepare for the person taking my position. I wish I had set up a special account when I started the job 20 months ago. Would have made the transition go much more smoothly on my end :)

    @bradjward
  • nailed it! love the last point DO something with what you've learned. Listen, information junkies :)
  • This is great stuff, Chris.

    Even easier is to set up a free Google "Alert" that scours the web for you. The alerts will email you back any mentions it finds of your name, your company, your URL, etc..

    These free alerts land right in your inbox. I find that they provide a lot of actionable info for almost zero additional work.
  • I have also noticed that www.glassdoor.com is a way to "listen" to unhappy employees.
  • Why wouldn't someone do this? I can only think it's because they're subscribing to one of two mindsets - either "ignorance is bliss" or "What I don't know can't hurt me."

    You've done a great job of laying out the baby steps needed to gather this information. Surely this will help those who want to move from "ignorance" to "enlightenment" in taking the first steps out of the darkness and into the light.
blog comments powered by Disqus

Previous post:

Next post: