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If you know something, and don’t act on it, you might aswell have never known. Listening isn’t enough. Once youhave put in place the tools and processes, you need toknow what the Horizontal Influencers are saying about you. You must quickly establish a response strategy.We recommend that you build this around four key ideas:
i. Be Fast
Timeliness of response is essential: news spreads muchfaster on the web than it does in traditional media. Theglobal Internet audience is “always on”, and doesn’tadhere to predictable news cycles. Stories can blow upquickly as audiences in different time zones and countriescome online. Plus the Internet doesn’t stop working atweekends. However, a good monitoring system shouldalways give you enough advance warning to respondspeedily to both good news and bad.So you need to be prepared: establish clear policies andcrisis management procedures that describe who shouldrespond, under what circumstances, and the nature of theresponse. Above all, establish clear responsibilities.
ii. Be Honest
Honesty is essential when trying to encourage, or respondto Horizontal Influencers. Spokespeople must maketheir position clear, and not pretend to be anything, oranyone other than they are. Painful experience showsthat the public are much better at uncovering commercialactivity masquerading as grassroots communications thanorganisations or agencies think. Do not underestimatethem. Furthermore, spokespeople must be honest in whatthey say and the way they say it: their response will bepicked over by many readers and commentators.Bear in mind, too, that each and every employee of thecompany will be perceived as a spokesperson. In mostcases, they will be your best ambassadors to the HorizontalInfluence because they are real people, and real peopleare what drive Horizontal Influence. Blogging policies andsocial media policies should make it clear to them that theymust
always
identify themselves as employees, even whenthe views are clearly their own.
iii. Be Relevant
The world of Horizontal Influence is a globalconversation, where you should follow the usual rulesof polite society: don’t interrupt or try to change thetopic. You should be sure that what people are saying isrelevant and adds value to what has already been said,not simply cut-and-paste a pre-agreed company line.Above all, you must take their time to familiarise yourselfwith the opinions, attitudes, and conventions of thecommunity or blog in which you are responding.
iv. Be Personal
Understand and adhere to the basic principal of netiquette,“remember the human.” Be personal. Just as you should tryto get to know the person, or community before they beginto respond, you should work to make yourself known, andestablish yourself as a real person.People respond better to people than they do toanonymous positions or roles, and that’s part of theattraction of Horizontal Influence. Phone conversations,or even physical meetings with key Horizontal Influencestakeholders will help develop personal relationships thatwill afford your responses better reception.
2. Respond
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