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First off, I want to preface this post with the fact that social media shouldn't be done only with the goal of making direct conversions. Social media is about building new relationships, generating word of mouth marketing, and strengthening brand loyalty with your customers.
Editor's Note: This belongs to a series of contributing guest author posts from LinkedIn users sharing tips, tricks, and tweaks on getting the most from your LinkedIn usage. Dan Schawbel is the author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan, April 09).
Marketers are known for talking, not listening. That is not to suggest we have not used tools like focus groups, user surveys or other research instruments in the past. It's just that, in the era of the participatory web, listening is not an option; it is a mandate.
Back in May, a colleague pointed me to Groundswell, a new book out by the folks at Forrester. The notion of social technographics resonated with me right away, it was similar to the idea of the motivations of iCitizens, as explored in the book The OPEN Brand by thought leaders at my company, Resource Interactive.