Listening

http://www.radian6.com/blog/2009/10/how-much-time-does-it-take-to-listen/

Listening is an interesting issue when dealing with Social Media since it deals with two different forums:  forums created by the company in which users/stakeholders can offer opinions on the state of the organization and forums created by the users/stakeholders, who determine the purpose and function of the forum.  Listening in the former sense can be routine since responses can be controlled.  For instance, mystarbucksidea.com is owned by Starbucks who has set the discursive purpose:  give you ideas to Starbucks.  It is based on additive measures to improve the company and its practices.  And Starbucks has a hold on that discourse in that forum.  

Then of course, there is stopstarbucks.com, which is blatantly out stop Starbucks.  Ooh!  Don't forget starbucksunion.org, which is bent on uniting Strabucks employees to help maintain fair treatment for employees.  These blogs our out of Starbucks' hands.  

Not all independent forums are negative, they work well to illustrate the point.  Fighting against independent Forums is nonsense.  Creating indipendent forums out of benefit for your company instead of rallying against naysayers is smart.  Each type of forum requires a different approach:  MyStarbucksIdea, listening is expected since Starbucks owns the space.  In the other forums, customers have to be convinced that Starbucks is listening.  Engagement is crucial and must be active other wise, the users of these alternative sites may be alienated and be discouraged from taking part in any Starbucks forum, including buying coffee in their store.