An excellent blog post from Washington DC communications firm Livingston talks about this. We have the step of “listening” as our very first element in working with clients. The difference in Social Media is that you don’t begin by vocally asking your “prospect”, in this case your market, what they want/need. You listen to them talking in various Social Media channels.

We work with clients to frame the questions for which they need answers. Then we do a lot of listening using our own set of proprietary tools. There are many On-Demand services that can do this listening from radian6 through to Buzzmetrics. Regardless of what tool is used (they all have good and bad elements) the act of listening is a critical first step towards engagement with Social Media on a business level.

While a company blog may be useful, it’s not where to start, for that is “telling” as opposed to “listening”. Through listening first, a business can understand the shape, tone, style and nature of the conversations taking place, or not taking place, in the Social Mediasphere. The insights from this “listening” will help form a better strategy for how a business deals with Social Media. You will be able to better determine budgets, resource requirements, technologies to use and more.

If you want to close the sale, you need to listen and understand the prospect, provide the right solution…and then ask for the sale.

(Author: Giles Crouch, Managing Partner)

The survey says “Fifty-seven percent (57%) say the government should not require websites and blog sites that offer political commentary to present opposing viewpoints. But 31% believe the Internet sites should be forced to balance their commentary” and this is a “politically” focused question as well. The Democrats oppose government mandated balance on the Web by a 48% t 37% margin, while 61% of Republicans reject government involvement in Web content. The conversation it seems, truly is king. Seems unusual that Republicans would be more favourable of independence in content than Democrats.

In short, I doubt we will see any significant debate or impending laws on governing content on the Web anytime soon. Regulating would be a sheer nightmare, and consumer content on the Web continues to grow apace, despite Gartner Research predicting a slow-down in blog activity. We suspect blogging and Social Media to rise in activity based on improved Smart Phone capabilities with the integration of Wi-Fi and 3G service, continued “cocooning” and more time spent at home in a slowing economy with high gas prices.

Do you think we’ll see a rise in Social Media activity in coming months? Will we ever reach a point where government might begin to regulate or attempt to regulate any form of Social Media? Would it even be possible?