How to Conduct Listening Tours in Online Communities- Insights From Community (re)Focus, 2022

Who’s the star of your online community?

You scored a 100/100 if you answered ‘my community members’. And we completely agree with you!

If your community lacks members, engagement will also be limited. The result? A dull and boring online community that doesn’t align with your business goals. But with the right strategies and plans, you can build a community that’s thriving and brings you ROI.

Enter-Listening Tours.

Conducting listening tours in your online community can prove to be a potent strategy to garner the attention of potential customers and grow your customer base. It’s an excellent medium to make your new community members feel welcomed and retain them.

In the third edition of our signature event – Community (re)Focus, 2022, our community expert, in an insightful session, spoke about the art of conducting listening tours in online communities the right way.

Our distinguished speaker for the session was:

• Jenny Weigle–Chief Community Officer & Strategic Consultant at Jenny.Community, LLC

Let’s dive into some key insights from the knowledge exchange that happened during the session and understand the different elements of conducting listening tours in communities.

What is a Listening Tour and How Does It Help?

Jenny, in her presentation, explained that a listening tour enables you to make a concentrated effort to connect with community members through comprehensive interviews or roundtables.

This provides the community members with a space to voice their opinions and feedback. Listening tours can also be used to give the users a snippet or preview of what’s brewing within the community.

Not just this, listening tours empower you to:

• Create strategic plans based on the feedback of the customers.
• Inform your community members about your new products and services, and get recommendations from them to improve them.
• Give members a tour of the new enhancements that you’ve implemented in your community.
• Provide a sense of belongingness to the community members.
• Win members’ trust and loyalty.

When to Conduct the Tour and the Chief Participants

The ‘when’, according to the community expert, really depends on the ‘why’ of it. Your members should be active participants in your community, she added. You can use a calendar or scheduling tool, so they can choose the date/time slot at their convenience. You can also choose to conduct your listening tour in person or virtually.

Jenny further went on to say that the magic number here is around 10 active community members. This could comprise members who:

• Have been engaged in the community for a long time
• Have been relatively quieter (community lurkers)
• Are new to the community
• Are internal stakeholders

Collecting Feedback From Listening Tours and Improving Community Experience

Jenny continued to explain when analyzing feedback that you receive from your community members, you should consider mapping your most positive comments and pressing concerns.

Next, you must also take note of the unique points that members post in the community. This is an opportunity for you to improve your products and services. You should also make a list of the open questions that come out of members’ interviews/experiences and try to answer them.

Summing up the session, Jenny touched base on how brands can leverage listening tours in online communities to maintain a humanized connection with the members. She also explained that listening tours are a great way to gain deep insights into the members’ needs and preferences, and deliver true value to them according to that.

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