From PR Daily: 4 listening styles communicators should know

 Hearing is the practical, and listening is the strategy. And as with most things strategic, there's more than one way to listen.

As a communicator, you should know which type of listening to use in every situation, as well as how to use those skills to your advantage. Here are four (of many) types of listening:

1. Appreciative listening

Appreciative listening is exactly what the name implies — listening to enjoy the story, music or information you hear.

The American Society for Training and Development recommends that, to truly embark in appreciative listening, you should avoid engaging in other communications and focus solely on the sounds or words.

So, when someone is speaking to you, put your phone down!

2. Critical listening

Critical listening involves hearing what someone says, identifying key points and/or arguments and solidifying your opinion. Think of a debate, or how you feel when you listen to a politician speak.

When you engage in critical listening, your goal is to analyze what the speaker is saying and determine his agenda.

3. Relationship listening

Relationship listening is one of the most important skills to have when dealing with people. Relationship listening is also known as therapeutic or empathetic listening.

You would use relationship listening to help a friend through a problem, solve a conflict between co-workers or prompt people to open up through support and honesty.

4. Discriminative listening

Discriminative listening is when you look past the words you hear to detect the underlying message. It might be one of the most important types of listening for online marketers.

This works best in person, as you can look to body language, tone changes and volume to determine what the speaker really thinks and feels.

However, these days we're not often face-to-face with clients or customers. We need to adapt to become better online discriminative listeners as we engage more and more via texts, Facebook comments and snappy tweets.

Understanding the difference between hearing and listening is a vital skill, whether you deal with people in the boardroom or through comments on your brand's blog.

Which types of listening do you practice most?

Lindsay Bell is the content director at Arment Dietrich. A version of this article originally appeared on the Feedblitz blog.