It’s not you, it’s them: What online engagement looks like
“How does my content engage, inspire, or change the people it reaches through social media?”
This is the question that should guide the development of all digital marketing strategies in networked environments. Social media offers us an opportunity to foster conversations about our products and ideas as well as the larger themes within them that are participatory and responsive. For businesses with an online presence, the goal of social media strategy is simple: to present and make present your content in the world.
Social media strategy is all about taking the biggest and most meaningful, driving ideas of your brand and distilling them into smaller parcels of information (content) that, when they reach the right people, will result in a sale, a share, or a contribution to the conversation. All three of these resultant actions on the part of your audience in some way contribute to the overall goals of any business, whether it be new leads or brand recognition or customer satisfaction. But here’s the problem: Too many businesses still don’t know how to talk about themselves online.
Imagine walking into a crowded room at a party and, instead of going up to a particular group of people or individual and striking up or joining a conversation, you stand alone and repeatedly make loud, self-serving announcements addressed to everybody present: “I have this thing! You should all pay attention to this thing! Look how much people like this thing!” The partygoers may take an initial interest, perhaps even offer a congratulations or two, but after a few minutes of your boisterous advertising, you’ll likely be asked to kindly leave. You’ve sort of killed the vibe.
This is what’s known as broadcast messaging: using a medium as a one-to-many means of promoting and distributing a product or idea. The internet is the most crowded room on the planet, and yet this type of messaging is the primary method of communication used by companies to “engage” their audiences. The problem with this methodology is that it invites little to no participation among viewers, aside from “buy this now,” thus forgetting one of the cardinal rules of social interaction: If you want someone to like you and engage with you, remove yourself from the equation and take an interest in them instead.
Whether it’s an individual person, a local business, or a multinational organization, there is always a human being (bots notwithstanding) at the other end of whatever platform you are using. So, when you’re attempting to engage an audience, you should always keep in mind that people don’t care to be beaten over the head with the same information time and time again, especially if the content never goes beyond a broadcast mentality. For every campaign, you should strive to create spreadable content that cultivates a feeling of participation among your followers.
How do you know if your content is participatory?
It asks questions and welcomes feedback
It offers the opportunity to be remixed, reshaped, and/or reframed
It is in tune with current media trends—that is, it attends to a conversation that is already happening
It is created with platform specificity in mind
In addition to being participatory across all audiences, social media campaigns must also include content that is differentiated between audiences. Media theorist Henry Jenkins sums up the idea of content entering different niche communities nicely in his book Spreadable Media: “When material is produced according to a one-size-fits-all model, it imperfectly fits the needs of any given audience.” It is for this reason that all social media marketers—when involved with strategy-building and content creation processes—should brainstorm messaging points that are representative of your content’s big ideas as they relate to your different market segments. In this way, the stage is set for the sharing of content that is not only participatory, but also appeals specifically to every individual you are itching to talk to.
With social skills like that, you may just become the life of the party.