I have been really enjoying NPR recently while I am sitting in the office and they have a show on Saturday mornings that is all about the origin of words and phrases. On the show they talked about the phrase: Wet-Behind-the-Ears.

We all have some idea of what the phrase means.. we have probably been called that on numerous occasions. The original orignin from the Phrase Finder:

Origin: The ‘wetness’ is supposed to be from just being born. Ie. you still have the fluid from your mothers womb behind your ears.

The idea of the phrase is that if you are “wet-behind-the-ears”.. you are a beginner.. or a novice..

Many business owners are wet-behind-the-ears when it comes to social media and using it for their marketing purposes.. it is a given across the board. The question is this.. how do you go into a company and convince a business owner to use a tool that YOU KNOW will be huge in the future of marketing?

Show them the art of listening. Give them case studies of companies like Zappos, Comcast, and Dell. Talk to them about the value of collaboration across multiple levels of customer interaction.

It is about listening and then applying what you HEAR to your business model.

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