Page 12 - Engage -- Summer 2018 -- no. 13

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Summer 2018
COVER STORY
LISTEN UP
Want to know what subjects your audience desires (and help build your personal brand in the process)? The editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine says the secret isn’t much of a secret at all:
Ask them.
content that is less timely, but we are trying to make a magazine that feels like you bought into a community so that you feel like you were educated and your time and money spent was validated.
Q: Do you spend time working with a marketing department in your role? What is that relationship?
JF: I do. I’m often brought in to kick around ideas and develop concepts. We talk about ways to fine-tune the links between our different products. Recently, a book landed on my desk that was a collection of successful morning routines. Everyone has seen that type of story online, but somebody was smart enough to make a book of it. I thought it was smart, so I called our books marketing director, sent her the book, and told her we should think about what our online audience tells us that will translate into a killer book.
Q: How can we know what subjects our audience desires?
JF: The secret isn’t much of a secret at all: ask them. All that talk with influencers and subject
experts has its perks when it comes time to create more content or find new topics, but it turns out the first skill a reporter learns is still what I rely on most: listening.
Q: Where do you find the best “listening” opportunities?
JF: For me, it’s about being out and talking
to the audience. That means both in person
and digitally. I speak at a lot of events, and my favorite part is when I step offstage and a line forms and people ask questions. Beyond the individual connection, the personal interaction offers an opportunity to learn what people are concerned about. I’m able to learn how they think I can be helpful to them. When someone asks a question, they are telling you, ‘I think you have this place in my life, and I expect this from you.’ That is really useful. In today’s world of mostly digital and impersonal interactions, a bit more human touch goes a very long way toward creating bigger fans. And sure, building a large, scalable business customer by customer may seem like an unreasonable task, but it will do wonders for your personal brand.
The one thing people want more than anything is to feel heard, and it doesn’t take much to make them feel heard.
Q: How accessible should an editor be?
JF: Face-to-face connections and one-on-one communications are invaluable. What people say in a digital public forum such as social media doesn’t matter much. What matters is what they say in private. I will respond to every direct message on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Being totally available and having a high amount of one-on-one engagement with people tells me so much about a broad swath of my audience that it keeps me informed of what they want.
If somebody sends me a message on Instagram and I respond, they say, ‘Wow, I didn’t think you’d respond.’ First of all, that’s funny, because why would you write if you didn’t think I would respond? But secondly, just responding to them once surprises them and delights them,