Understanding Digital Body Language

Digital Body Language is not a new term but it is new to me. I recently heard Valeria Maltoni use it and after digging a bit more, found that it was originally a term created by Steve Woods, founder of Eloqua that referred to the anticipation of customer needs in the demand generation and lead development context which is not exactly what came to mind for me when I heard it.  However, I love the term and the idea behind it - that there are ways to infer a person's intent through how they behave online.

When I initially mentioned the term on Twitter I got a lot of 'huh?' type of responses back but after years of watching people interact online it is clear to me that you can infer quite a bit about people's unwritten intent.  How?

• When a person's cadence changes from their normal cadence when they interact with you - whether slower or faster
• When a person ignores a directed update on their Wall or in their Twitter stream
• When a person does not follow another back or friend them
• How and when someone inserts themselves into a public conversation
• How a person proactively requests connections and on which platforms.
• What and who a person RTs or shares
• How reactive and emotional individuals are (are they quick to judge or slower to respond to good/bad news?)

Relationships are in large part about the exchange of energy between two people. Relationships grow when that energy and enthusiasm is reciprocated. If it is not, one person is forcing the relationship forward despite the other person's lack of enthusiasm. Companies do that all the time. Lots of people do that all the time too. If you listen and watch carefully to both what is and what is not said, you can optimize your efforts on the people who are genuinely interested and engaged. It is both more cost effective and more fulfilling in the long run.

What signals do you watch for to determine others' intent online?

Comments

[Stevewoods]

Rachel,
great examples of Digital Body Language, specific to Twitter. Very much agreed, each of those little nuances of interaction can give you a better sense of a person and their interests.
Steve

[Rhappe]

Hi Steve -

Thanks for stopping and commenting. Love the term and will have to dig in to some of your writing on the topic a bit more.

Rachel

[Kevinmic]

Rachel-

Such a great topic! I've heard it also called virtual body language and electronic body language.

It's harder to set rules for, but their choice of language can be significant. It range from choosing a more impersonal (3rd party) way of saying something to looking for at the symbolic meanings in their word choices.

Thanks!
-k
Kevin Micalizzi

[MeganMurray]

Love this topic Rachel.

I think I suffer from "there is no spoon syndrome". For me these text spaces are just as filled with nuance and inference as any cocktail party, personal conversation or billboard... or megaphone. You're so right about the patterns, and the pattern changes. Humans have tells. If you listen,and you aren't busy adding your own backstory, you can pick up a lot of information about sincerity, depth of knowledge, whether someone is focused on conflict avoidance, risk averse, etc. It's even better than people watching at the airport.

What excites me most is that given enough time and interaction, you will
have every opportunity to get to know who you are listening to. The shield of text is a thin one when it's presented in a stream and reality has a tendency to rise to the top. I remember the old (I hope) perspective that there were mostly weirdos online. Thankfully, I've only met a few, but I knew 'em when I saw 'em.

Unless of course I am one... aw man, hadn't thought of that. ;)

Thanks for the post Rachel!