Flickr Photo: Simon CrowleyWelcome back from vacation! How did I know you were on vacation?  Well, you're weren't blogging, tweeting, or uploading pictures to Flickr.  That can only mean you were wearing white for the last time this year -- and maybe doing some grilling, right?

We Are Media is back from vacation too, and we're talking about listening this week. Beth Kanter, who is curating We Are Media with us, would like us to share our listening stories. 

If you've been involved with NTEN for very long, you know we try our best to be good listeners in many "traditional" ways: we take a lot of surveys, actually encourage people to phone us, and don't mind when you call us on our mistakes or have a helpful suggestion.  Well, most of the time.  

Listening used to be very hard work for NTEN, and frankly, it could be kind of a pain for you.  We were constantly asking you to tell us what was going on, what we should care about, what you thought of our work.  How many times can you ask someone questions before they get sick of you? (I know my personal limit is 23.  My three year routinely tests this.)

We still pester, maybe still too much.  But we're weaning ourselves away from question asking by using social media to find the answers ourselves. 

I spend a good part of each day checking in on the conversations you're already having. I created a tab in Netvibes that lets me track a few key things:

• NTEN Tweets: I watch all the tweets that Tweetscan picks up with "NTEN" in them.  This lets me see which programs people get excited about, as well as when folks register a complaint via Twitter.  This gives me a better idea of what people really like, and where we may be dropping the ball.
• Technorati search for NTEN/Google Blog search for NTEN: Here, I can see all blog posts that mention NTEN.  Again, I can see what messages, ideas, and programs resonate with folks, and also what you aren't responding well to.  This also gives me the chance to thank bloggers, respond to posts that are inaccurate, or defend a position, if need be.
• delicious.com items tagged NTEN:  I am now aware that people do NOT want to forget about the 09NTC.  That's heartening!
• Flickr photos tagged NTEN: This is mostly for fun.  I love seeing the NTC and 501 Tech Club photos you post.
• Google alerts: I subscribe to alerts about NTEN specifically, but also on a variety of general nptech topics.
• I also read our blog comments pretty religiously and try to respond to as many as possible.  Seeing what people have to add to the conversation gives us new ideas all the time.

Of course, in addition to wanting to know what people say about NTEN in particular, I want to know what's going on in the larger nonprofit technology world.  I need to keep track of content for a wide variety of audiences, from communications to IT staff, so we can bring you the webinars, research, blog posts, and NTC content you want.  To keep on top of all this, I:

• Use NetVibes as my RSS reader:  I created a tab for each of NTEN's main audiences and skim through feeds related to each audience every morning.  Now I know what you're talking about. (Right now: Google Chrome!)
• Watch Twitter: Keeping an eye on the Twitter stream each day, even for a short while, tells me a lot about the challenges you face (building buy in) and what obsessions you can't feed fast enough. (Chrome!)
• FriendFeed: This is a new one for me.  Increasingly, I'm using FriendFeed to watch all the different kinds of social media inputs our community creates.  Again, I'm seeing what you're nervous about (Comcast bandwidth limits?) and what you're delighted with. (Chrome!)
• Our own lists: I try to scan through the posts on our most active lists a few times a week to take in the conversations there, as well.

Since NTEN is in the business of community, we have no choice but to be better listeners.  It's a lot of work, but it's worth the hour or so a day I put into listening.  The outcome for us has been the launch of one nifty new program -- Office Hours -- and a blog and webinar strategy that is incerasingly relevant and important to you, or so the steadily climbing numbers tell us.

Of course, all this social media listening does not mean I'm hearing everything.  Not all of our members are blogging, tweeting, posting to our lists.  Social media is not the ONLY way our stakeholders -- or yours --  are communicating.  So we still have to ask.  We have to run surveys and start real conversations with people.  But we know a lot more now than we ever did before.