Politely hijacking the conversation
How do you politely hijack a conversation when the talk starts to get heated and negative? Check out my guest post on the topic over at the IAOC blog, including an example of what happened when Cymfony’s Jim Nail questioned Joseph Jaffe about his widely-publicized conversational marketing study.
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And thanks to Wayne Hurlbut of Blog Business World for his review of Beyond Buzz. I’ll be interviewed by Wayne tonight at 8 EST/5 PST on his Blog Business Success Internet radio show.
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November 8th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
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Hi Lois.
I enjoyed your book very much. It is a great handbook for marketers who are interested in involving their customers in real conversations. I am looking forward to our internet radio interview as well. It promises to be fun and informative for everyone.
November 11th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
re: Politely hijacking the conversation
Once your internal alarm goes off, signalling that the person holding the floor is of a brain-dead opinion, or is just getting unnecessarily heavy with the subject, you can try once or twice to change the tone or direction of the conversation.
Catching that rare moment when the filibusterer stops for a breath, you can try just injecting some kind of counter theme and hope it changes their momentum.
But you only get one or two friendly shots, because if they haven’t responded by then it’s not happening. Best then to relocate as soon as a graceful exit is possible, to avoid wasting any more of your time.
"Some people have nothing to say, but it takes a long time to find that out." (- Dunno Whosaidthat)
November 12th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Hey Bill,
Thanks for the advice. Espeically like the quote.
Lois
November 15th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Lois - I read your post over at IAOC and appreciate your reasonable approach. We had our share of hijack attempts during the first few months of our name change conversations blog, which was part of our university’s effort to keep people informed of our proposed (and now approved) name change. Those early days posting, moderating and responding to comments gave me a quick education on how to deal with such attempts. You hit on all the key points. From my PR background, my main focus was to stay on message as best as possible. Sometimes that meant deciding not to respond, or deciding when to call it quits on fruitless, non-productive debates.