chrisbrogan.com - Latest Comments in The Importance of Digital Touch

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

micro sd card — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 04:01:33 -0000

Digital touch I like that idea. Keeping a connection between your customers and give them that they matter to you most retention and WOM is crucial for future sales and marketing. I think too many modern businesses business customers are focused on quality rather than quantity. More business than a good customer and then back to a great client who never will create for your product or service.

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

Data Quality — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:31:59 -0000

I like that idea of digital touch. Keeping a connection between your clients and letting them know that they matter to you is extremely important for retention and future sales and WOM marketing. I think many modern businesses are too focused on quantity of business instead of quality of clientele. A good customer will create more business than one great customer who never returns to your product or service again.

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

frank barry — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 12:05:19 -0000

I think this ties in directly with your "How i manage twitter (insert any other tool here)" post.

In my opinion we can only manage so many online relationships well. At least close connections where we are actually interacting. Reaching out and touching someone :) takes work. Having hundreds or thousands of followers that we're (most people) are actually touching is a very tough thing to do. Maybe impossible for most.

One thing that I've found useful to me on Twitter is Grouping people in Seesmic. When i sense i'm actually connecting with a person beyond a mutual "following" or "friending" then I'll add them to a column/group for "Connections" or "Nurture'em" ... This helps me pay attention and prompts me to reach out regularly.

Another thing I try to do with those that I really want to connect with, but find it hard to is head over to their blogs and read, interact, comment. It doesn't always work, but it's an age old tactic that helps anyone new to the scene.

http://twitter.com/franswaa

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

Brian — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:29:31 -0000

I saw the photo on this post fly by in my RSS feed reader and thought, "Wow! I haven't seen JP in a while!" It seems daily I chide myself for not keeping in touch, even digitally, with some of the awesome people I meet.

When it comes to people I see face-to-face regularly, not a problem. If I don't, through the cracks they seem to go.

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

noxi — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 06:04:02 -0000

Twitter is my first foray into social media + am finding this a problem as I don't want 2 play the numbers game...follow but not follow. Reading the stream all day is impractical + unworkable as the stream only highlights those that have a high output so have decided to use "friendorfollow to ID ppl that I haven't made contact with, say hi or Rt to show that I'm interested in what they r saying. Have been touched by responses as ppl do feel they r being ignored. I don't auto DM myself but do respond 2 all DMs + @replies as personally as possible. Keeping contact is difficult and have found that at any given period I tend 2 focus on different groups of ppl but try with #ff 2 ensure ppl don't think I'm losing touch. Have not filtered yet but am planning 2 create RSS feeds/group those I am or have been closest to. Finding it all exhausting even though my network isn't particularly big!

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

Peter Mis — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:43:39 -0000

Chris,

Those who can integrate a digital touch will win in this age of new media. Plain and simple.

Thanks for the post!

Peter

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

Scott Gould — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:05:59 -0000

Dan it's true that there are so many different things that you can "be here for".

Whilst I want to help a wide audience, I am more concerned with building those deeper relationships. I have about 30 people who I have built genuine relationships with online, and I treasure them all.

Many aren't like me in this respect, and prefer a wider 'audience' rather than deeper connections. That's fine - because of course they are here for other reasons to mine

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

Dan_Rosenfeld — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:00:18 -0000

Nice Scott. I'm glad to hear that your relationships are able to translate in that way and that you know exactly what you are here for. I think it's all about defining your personal preference in that sense; I'm here for information, I'm here for friendship, or I'm here for both. Hopefully as time progresses, I'll see that it's not only transactional and that I will also be here for both. Thanks Scott.

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

Scott Gould — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:39:20 -0000

Dan everyone agrees that a digital friendship does not replace a real world one - but digital tools create such proximity that I *do* have people who I've met and interacted with online that have been there for me when "the cards are down"

Of course these people are far and few between - but I'm not here talking to hundreds of people anyway - I'm here to have depth, not width

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

Dan_Rosenfeld — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:34:58 -0000

I've just started experiencing digital touch (I'm relatively new to the social media game) and my opinion may change as my online social interactions progress and grow deeper. I feel it's sad to sacrifice a "real world" friend for an SM thread, or even 100 SM threads. I understand for you and many of your readers, you meet your online friends face-to-face, changing the nature of the relationship. Online threads and real world friends become one in the same.

Are SM threads really friends if you don't meet? They certainly can be for some. But will they be there when the cards are down in your personal life? Probably not. Digital touch can never replace genuine touch and we all know that.

Anyways, more power to you for maintaining so many different types of relationships! I think it's all personal preference. I know I'm okay with fleeting online friendships, because for me, information is valued over emotion. We seek people who can be helpful to us and try to reciprocate.

I may sound harsh, and my view will probably change over time. Sure got me thinking about this "social" environment though. Thanks.

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

danitaleotta — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:51:33 -0000

Well stated Steffan!

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

NatMich — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:40:51 -0000

Great post! I think this issue of keeping touch is also starting to become a real issue. Social network tools are awesome, but with the rapid expansion of a lot of these networks it almost feels like PEOPLE as well as information are becoming part of the noise. Right now, the ways I see to deal with it are filtering (both by network and with tools). So, for instance, the people you are more personally connected with would be your friends on Facebook, business associates on LinkedIn and then your "audience" (to your "artist" or "business" or "blog") on Twitter. Then there are some awesome tools for these networks, like Tweetdeck, that let you create groups and so filter your people into columns that are easier to prioritize and process.
All that said, filtering sort information but doesn't entirely address the issue of the fact that you still have to deal with such a massive quantity of people. I have some other ideas of where things could be moving that, I’ll admit, are tied with the philosophy behind the company I work for, but are also ideas I strongly believe in myself and have personally found useful:

1. People will need to interact more on a group-level (so that more people are taken into account at one time). A movement towards this type of interaction might mean that it is people within the group that interact with each other more as opposed to just you with members of your group, but it still makes you a part of the existing conversation which you can then jump in and out of at will and that will allow you to keep in touch with all members of the conversation.

2. There needs to be more ways to find people connected to your interests- groups is one way, but an even more exciting way would be to be able to find and connect with people through your interests as you come across them. Most of us spend a lot of time browsing or visiting regular sites/pages and so it would be useful and help us keep in touch if others interested in the site were integrated into this browsing experience.

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

Steffan Antonas — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:59:00 -0000

Riffing and responding to Sparky's insights -

Problems With Opening Yourself Up To An Audience --
The main problem with social media (nay any digital medium) is that it significantly decreases people's natural inclination towards empathy for others. Sparky's question and momentary impatience is a perfect example of this in action. When we are audience members that want to interact, we sometimes forget that the people on the other end might not be sitting there waiting to respond etc.. More often than not, we make the mistake of assuming that social media should be real time and that our actions should elicit one-to-one responses, when that's not the reality at all. As we move close to real-time, we need to shed the expectation that participating means "always on and always processing". It's not realistic, it's not human, and it's not sustainable - Chris is saying it loud and clear (without explicitly admitting the effect) - people DO. NOT. SCALE. Even people like Chris -- who are pros -- are trying hard JUST to show that they are listening (or even just to give that impression that they are). We shouldn't expect them to have that kindof inhuman level of attention - It's not their fault. One-to-many relationships can never be totally personal. The best you can do is to project yourself authentically (like an entertainer would) and to interact as much as you can (without draining yourself of energy and emotion). Otherwise you run the risk of feeling thin and empty yourself - like butter spread over too much bread.

Chris, I think you're doing the best that can be done. Limiting yourself to a few important people a day and reaching out to them. Until we have a better system for presence management and signaling that is seamless and effortless, this is all you can do. We're only built to interact with small tribes of people. When we try and do otherwise, we spread ourselves too thin and sacrifice our existing (true) relationships.

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

Victoria Bianchini — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:28:05 -0000

You've done it again. Touched a real nerve with something I struggle with. I've "met" so many great people over the years in the various communities I've been involved with and sadly I haven't kept up with them. I fly by them, cheering their effort from the sidelines, dropping in on occasion, but mostly managing to fail at achieving the touch you speak of.

414 emails ... you are my hero. In fact, you might be Superman :)
http://www.reuters.com/arti...

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

Chris Brogan — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:35:07 -0000

But they're more than that. I have a very good friend in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I can't visit there often. But I can look over his shoulder on Facebook, Twitter, and his blog, and he knows I care.

Make sense?

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

Chris Brogan — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:33:53 -0000

No. Instead, it was about the hundreds of people I haven't talked with lately who think I've forgotten about them.

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

Tim Jahn — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 10:07:18 -0000

I think this is a great point Chris. It's real easy to get lost in the following of others, but it's the contact and "digital touch" that truly makes a difference. And that's not necessarily as easy to keep up with.

I think the people trying to keep good connections with others in digital spaces are the ones that will succeed in those spaces.

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

tannerc — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 09:44:07 -0000

Just curious Chris: was this topic brought on by the hundreds and hundreds of emails you had to reply to the other day?

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

Pia Lachheb — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 07:47:11 -0000

Hey Chris - your post made me think of a recent digital conversation I had on FB with my cousin in Montreal (I'm in London). It had been ages since we last spoke. I felt that we were losing touch and so I finally just took the time to send him a FB message. He replied that although we may not be write one another, he follows me on my digital channels and in that way, he feels like he knows how and what I'm doing. (He also wondered how many stalkers social media has spawned). This short exchange reminded me that he's there, present and listening. It was the talking part I missed.

It's true - popping by from time to time whether in the real or virtual is important to managing relationships - professional or personal. Any tools that help you do this seem to water-down the personalized effect.

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

Stajo — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:52:01 -0000

I don't know why people these days are so attached to all these online tools and gadgets, in my opinion real life interaction is much more important. But you can't ignore the fact that twitter, facebook and stuff can be nice career helpers. The most important thing is how you plan your time and what your priorities are.

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

Briefly Commenting — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 22:39:30 -0000

Chris, what I do to stay in touch depends on who the people are and who they are to me.

On Twitter, I regard it as an experiment in community and micro publishing and scatter reading. People who's threads I start following more closely, I interact with more.

On FaceBook, I use the news stream and my friends pages to jog me into interaction. Sometimes seeing someone's name and face or a new detail or photo or update will inspire a moment of spontaneous connection.

For people who are local or with whom I do business or work on creative projects, I try to mentally go down the list of people I haven't reached out to recently and reach out to them.

As an artistic type, I see that the online digital communities don't scale to one-on-one relationships like I've just mentioned, but instead scale to artist-to-audience relationships. I think that's where you are, in a sense. If 200 people comment in this thread and you also receive another 220 emails about this post, chances are that a slew of the respondants will be audience members with whom you have no little one-on-one connection.

That doesn't mean the connection isn't there or precious. But interacting with an entire audience vs. your collaborators and house mates is very different. I've seen some online artists respond and connect through their projects and their online presence. Posts such as, "a lot of you are asking," or "many people have wondered," etc.

That sort of contact can be meaningful, and can also scale better -- those three emails about a subject might actually represent 100 people in your audience and so addressing several of those topics from people with whom you don't interact with closely may reach more people and result in better connection.

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

Spike Jones — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:55:50 -0000

Agreed. But not as powerful as offline.

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

Scott Gould — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:47:59 -0000

Spike whilst digital cannot replace face-to-face, I have made some *incredible* connections online. I would actually say that:

digital follow = easy
digital touch = hard

Why? Because there's so much following, that to actually touch a life through the net is a powerful thing.

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

Scott Gould — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:44:24 -0000

Letitia I heard from someone else recently that hand written notes are a really great way to slow down and really love on someone.

Encouraging words :-)

Re: The Importance of Digital Touch

Scott Gould — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:41:00 -0000

Chris I saw you asked for feedback and thought I better leave it and let the other 7 thousand fill your inbox instead!