We Hear You Talking, But Is Anyone Still Listening? TMJ

Mike Jeffries current CEO of  Abercrombie & Fitch has been credited for breathing new life into the once dying company. In 2006 he gave an interview with Salon Magazine about the brand. In the interview Mike was asked why his company failed to make plus size clothing. His response was shocking.

Facebook post

Now seven years later the interview has gone viral. People are so upset they have called for a boycotting of the brand. Why now?  Has the attitude toward this topic changed that much? Were the offensive words he spoke not as offensive seven years ago?

FACEBOOK , TWITTER and YOUTUBE has spoken and everybody is listening.

Social media has a major effect on  the way we get our news.  It also affects our attitudes toward the news we receive. Jeffries was called to respond to his remarks.

Listening to Social media in regards to this story, people are not mad because Abercrombie is exclusionary. Most companies do have a target market. However what I have found is that people are upset about the way the CEO chose to address the issue.Everyone deserves to be respected. Don’t put others down to make yourself seem more superior.

Now he has found himself having to back paddle in order to provide the company some damage control. His press release was a total contradiction of his previous statements. I, as a reader found no sincerity in it. Pure Public Relations Garbage (IMO)

PT- STFU and listen

“When people talk, listen completely.  Most people never listen.” E. Hemmingway  

This holds true in social media also.  We have seen time and again examples of companies not listening to their social media.  They wrongly believe that simply saying anything is enough. So they’ll say things like the following:

Seriously?!? “Sorry about____(fill in the blank)____, but here’s our product.”  Supremely bad taste, and an excellent example of not listening.  And then when called out on it, they sent an auto-response.  Talk about gasoline on a fire…

Read the full article here.

MasterCard, on the other hand, has set up a command center for social media listening so that they can immediately engage customers.

http://www.digiday.com/brands/inside-mastercards-social-command-center/

MasterCard Command Center

As you can see above, a huge monitor in the room tracks conversations about MC.  They do in depth Analytics.  They involve other departments within the organization.  By doing so, they are able to act on what they learn, which makes them listeners instead of merely monitors.

The book describes the difference between monitoring and listening in this way:

“Monitoring has an impersonal feel to it…you think of negative situations. Listening, on the other hand, is an important human process.” (p. 16)

Social media is interactive, so organizations must interact with their followers/customers.  Engage them in conversation.  Listen to them and react accordingly.  This does NOT mean you must respond to each and every posting and comment personally.  But you must engage them.  Very few companies have the capacity to create a command center like MC (Dell, Cisco and Gatorade are also mentioned in the article above.), but you should pay attention.

STFU and listen.