Comments on: What Does ‘Engagement’ Mean, Anyway?

By: Give ’em Something to Tweet About . . . Twitter, Facebook Users Making Major Impact on Buying Decisions

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:26:47 +0000

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By: Charity

Charity — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:18:00 +0000

Really appreciate you stopping by Kim! Our conversation yesterday inspired me! We are a living example of how meeting online professionally, then meeting in person and becoming friends.

By: Kim Cory

Kim Cory — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:08:33 +0000

WOW Charity! Look at what our conversation has created. It is amazing reading all of these comments from such informative individuals. Now this is “engagement”. Great post and conversation as Mark stated. Now let’s all work at developing this type of conversation online through our communities!

By: Mark Juleen

Mark Juleen — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:03:41 +0000

I agree, outsourcing the start-up process is something that people can buy. They do need to understand why to use the tools however. I just suspect that people will fall short as they will have the same mentality buying social media start-up pieces as they do with advertising, and then they will not even engage with the tools themselves because they don’t understand why they should. I’m all for making people’s lives/work easier, but building an engaging online environment is not easy any way you slice it. People will have to come to terms that their online presence has to be as equally important as their offline presence. I don’t believe people recognize the real value yet, and will fall short on engagement as they will try to buy inauthentic representation that won’t work.

In the end, I also agree with you that having a blog and online representation isn’t necessarily all about engagement. It is challenging to bring people to your space when their attention is already drawn to so many other places. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t build these online assets, but we must be realistic with what we are trying to accomplish and the costs involved. Cheers to a great conversation! Thanks Charity.

By: Chris Brogan...

Chris Brogan... — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:57:41 +0000

Engagement is doing your best to keep it a two-way street.

By: Charity

Charity — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:59:23 +0000

@James – You really ARE valuable! Even though I’ve known you for years, I’m just now ‘getting to know’ you because we both use social media tools professionally. It’s amazing how much we all have in common, isn’t it? I’m betting this happens on a regular basis with so many others.

We all want to be valuable and valued by family, friends, industry peers, and in general. Social media provides us this equal opportunity that we may not have had before to become valued by others. How we use this opportunity is what matters. Thank you friend, for stopping by and adding your comments!

By: James Ball

James Ball — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:50:45 +0000

Wow, so glad I stopped in today. What to add? For me a simple formula: To FOSTER and ENGAGE = the VALUE I add to this space. I like to be valuable! As already mentioned above, this requires the better part of the dedication and courage I can muster each day…and lots of time.

Engagement separates valuable social media impact from the fodder and noise. It’s not hard to discern the difference.

Great topic and comments Charity, everyone!

By: Charity

Charity — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:25:00 +0000

@Ann Yes, Lisa is one smart lady! Time isn’t free, and without time Social Media efforts will fall flat. The key is finding the time to get it all done! Thank you so much for stopping by and commenting.

@Mark But doesn’t everyone want something to make life/work easier?!? There is never a one-size-fits-all solution for using social media, even across similar business models.

I absolutely agree that there will be very few online communities with residents blogging. On that note, I believe in going where your audience is, not making them come to you. A blog can be difficult to launch, maintain, and grow; because actually GETTING your audience there is difficult. But, then again, there is more than one reason to have a blog and engagement may not be the priority.

I do think it is possible to purchase social media efforts (or I wouldn’t be a Sherpa advocate), but there is no substitute for having authentic participation from in-house. By outsourcing the bulky start-up process, maintenance and reporting pieces, perhaps this would allow more time for in-house participation and opportunities for engagement?

Mark, your comments are always welcome and appreciated!

By: Mark Juleen

Mark Juleen — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:59:30 +0000

I think the problem everyone is having with term “engagement” is that too many are looking for a cookie cutter solution they can buy. Most will attempt to buy it and fail because as Mike says it takes time. The reason it takes time is because everyone needs to find their own niche. There are some commonalities and the tools are the same, but very few will be successful in creating an online magazine with residents blogging. That being said, I think everyone really just needs to invest the time if they want to be successful. Charity, I like what you share from Lisa. Social media is not free it takes time. I’d also like to add that your social media efforts can be bought, but they are more effective if the content is personal from you and your brand or someone embedded in your brand like a customer.

By: Ann Padgett

Ann Padgett — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:29:19 +0000

This reminds me of something Lisa Trosien said during last week’s Grace Hill chat. She said that social media is not free, it takes time. To me this relates directly to engagement because in order to engage with people effectively you have to dedicate the time to doing so. I think that is were a lot of people fall short, including myself. They think if they put themselves (or their businesses) out there, people will come. To a certain extent that is true, however they won’t stay around for long. You have to offer value and be open to interaction with others.

This was a great way to start my day. Thanks!