To be connected you first have to learn to listen

While the fever of the Dreamforce event and the words ‘Connected Enterprise’ resonate across time and social space, spare a thought for the poor iOS 6 users who have no WiFi. Why ? Because the issue actually highlights a big problem for the socially connected business. Just how to listen for the real problems amongst the noise.

There are two problems with the iOS update for iPhone users. When the update became available there was a problem with the call it makes to an Apple webpage as it was down at the time, so appearing to knock out wifi settings and users were unable to connect. However, if you look at the support forums, this was not the actual original issue reported. Users are unable to toggle WiFi on in the first place, but the fact is that the minority with, frankly, the bigger issue to resolve have been completely buried and ignored by the deluge of the majority with a smaller issue to fix.

Herein lies the problem for the connected enterprise and those leveraging the social channels; just how do you listen, prioritise, and make sure the actual problem is fully understood.

Of course, as soon as the Apple webpage problem was fixed, immediately all the major tech sites updated with news of this and the more pressing problem for users with no WiFi ability at all has been buried even further. Why ? Because they didn’t listen to the full story, just the chapter that made the most noise.

To be connected it’s not enough just to reach out and connect, you have to listen as well. And as for the iPhone users with no WiFi ? You have to learn to use your voice in the right way.

Like I wrote in the previous article here on Successful Workplace, a true connection is two-way, you have to listen as well as talk.

Footnote: To resolve the disabled Wifi (ie the one where you can’t even toggle it on and off) then you need to downgrade to iOS 5.1.1, at present there is no fix.