Being relatively new to social media, “engagement” was the first word I quickly became acquainted with and could not escape.  I am an IT career person; but found myself so excited over the set of social tools being embraced as a branding methodology in the marketing world; I decided to do a deep dive to understand the new set of tools used in social networking and ride the wave.  Although friends say I am an extreme extravert and information junkie; I never thought I would be so “addicted” to the art of public relations and the adrenaline rush.  I have implemented collaboration tools in organizations; however, this seems different.   I have become totally caught up!   So now I ask myself. “What Does Engagement Mean”?

You must have relevant content to elicit engagement.  The challenge is determining what your customer finds relevant and does it provide some thing they want.  Keep it simple; your approach must be an open/ended conversation.  Simply begin to have a bi-directional conversation!  Leverage your brand to “engage” as many people with a subject matter that intrigues all of those involved.  Empowerment, communication, and building relationships are the key elements to engaging.  Each one of these elements requires a different strategy – not a different goal.  The goal is the on-going experience.  How is technology evolving to assist in connecting with the customer and enhance the experience of doing business?  Social media tools are by definition “engagement” tools.  I have found these strategies offer a great beginning to the engagement process.

  • utilizing existing social networks to create a “like-minded” community
  • content, content, content – photos, video, inter-action
  • encourage participation… dialogue … ask “what would you like to …”
  • integrate an element that provides a win/win

Utilizing exiting social network tools has little to no cost and creates an end-to-end road map that you can analysis and gather metrics for ROI.  We all know the importance of making that “sell” to senior management and keeping your stakeholders happy.  Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr are all well used social media tools.  But the tools are not necessarily critical in the engagement.   It is all about understanding how to get a response; hence “engagement”.  Knowing where your customer is and what interest them defines the community.  There is a measureable amount of human capital involved; but the stronger the initial engagement with the customer the more likely you will transform the communication to one of proactive rather than reactive.

Content will pull your customer to you.  High quality, free, and an inter-active experience will generate return.  This is where you have to get creative and come up with some thing that is relevant. It could be something as simple as a trivia game, but allowing customers to interact with the content will create a fun, unique, valuable experience that will have them coming back for more. Don’t forget the material must be –timely.  The process of communication is a constant; it never stops –slows, but never stops!

Encouraging participation and proving a method for your customer to “engage”.  Incorporate the process for a bi-directional conversation in the Enterprise Strategic Plan.  The conversation is being conducted on line everyday regarding your brand.  Are you going to be at the table or not?  Make your customer feel they can contributed; thus, providing a sense of importance –empowerment!

All of these strategies are relationship building.  So the question remains what makes the engagement experience a win/win?  Every one involved should both contribute and gain from the interaction.  This will guarantee an ongoing methodology that creates a community working to promote and expand the company’s vision.  After all, an ever expanding market share is what business is all about!