Listening to the unsaid in your audience

Liz Gross leads the team at Campus Sonar, an agency which empowers colleges and universities to find and analyze relevant conversation, learning and engaging with them. She calls it social listening.

The cost of not listening has led to public distrust of these institutions in the USA, and this distrust fundamentally undercuts tertiary education's mission of access to learning. It also carries a financial cost in slowed enrollments, and legal fees.

Liz speaks about the importance of listening in a crisis situation. It's these moments when trust will be lost the fastest and will cost the most to repair, but good listening can mitigate these.

Whilst it's tempting for Liz and her agency to bring new clients onboard as quickly as possible, she has found that taking the time to listen to potential customers leads to better outcome to both her and the client.

Campus Sonar reveals that there's often a disconnect between owned and earned conversations about a college. Clients need to get on board with the conversations that are already happening, alongside looking for results of their own campaigns.

Listen to hear about the example of Spring Hill College, and why 'family' was such a topic of discussion. Spring Hill College were able to embrace this and make it a key part of the college's identity; engaging everyone from parents, prospective and current students, to alumni decades out from graduation.

Tune in to Learn

• Cost of not listening is financial, legal and reputation
• How to go from purpose-driven listening at work, to listening without an agenda
• How listening to your audience makes speaking to them more effective

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