Social Media, Blogs and Emotional Intelligence

Does it take emotional intelligence to have a good company or business blog? Yes, and it's also no substitute for real interaction with customers and clients.

In some circles it's called "Social Media," and that's all about people skills, or emotional intelligence.

In this article What's Next in Social Media: Q&A with Josh Hallett - Articles by Marketing Profs Hallett talks about how often a company will start a blog and then run it poorly, or else let it drop. They think they have "control," he says, but "ultimately the organization needs to be willing to talk about things they might not want to talk about."

Interesting point.

Sounds like "growing" -- talking about things the need talking about. Interacting and learning. It's also about "humanizing" the company, as Hallett says.

From the article:

First off, [a blog is] a long-term commitment—and [the company needs] to set aside much of the marketing and PR spin that sometimes creeps into some corporate blogs. There is sometimes the thought that since it's their blog, they have "control." Well they do to some degree, but ultimately the organization needs to be willing to talk about things they might not want to talk about.

From a resource standpoint blogs can require a bunch of time. However, blogging does become easier with time. What I mean by that is the writing/finding/linking becomes easier once you have some experience.

The other thing to think about is offline interaction. Get the corporate bloggers out to conferences and other events to interact with customers. Yes, blogs are great for building online relationships, but there is no substitute for face-to-face interactions. We talk about how blogs can help humanize a corporation... actually meeting the human behind the blog is the ultimate extension of this.

Another good reason to bring Emotional Intelligence in to your corporation or business. Establish a company culture of Emotional Intelligence.