As buzz words in the web industry come and go, currently everyone is focused on “engaging” their audience and customers. Andrew Bates reviews Brian Solis’s book Engage as well as current trends in social media engagement.
Andrew Bates
Social Media Practice Lead
The idea of engaging the customer is not new. Advertisers and marketers have described this concept of attracting and holding the attention of the customer for decades. Today, brands, online marketers and social media thought leaders not only want their audience’s attention, we strive for interaction, participation, and a 2 way dialog. So is this social media engagement?
In Brian Solis’s book conveniently titled “Engage,” he offers insights and lessons learned that can be applied by any internal champion or brand evangelist. Although this book was published earlier this year, getting to it now reminds me of the fundamental truths that escape many organizations. Brian discusses activities focused and “designed to help bring everyone to the table.”
In Engage, Brian (@BrianSolis on twitter) focuses on:
- Fostering online networks and communities that honestly represent your brand and culture while cultivating “loyalty and trust” with your audience
- Genuinely participating in those “online ecosystems”
- Continually adapting by following new media trends and other ways to build connections
- Needing internal champions and well as establishing organizational structures and procedures to communicate effectively
Brian also wrote a Mashable’s blog post earlier this year where he clearly defines and quickly identifies the Rules for Social Media Engagement. In this post, he provides valuable and tangible guidelines that includes more then just the do’s but also a few of the don’ts while seeking opportunities to grow participation and communication with and from your audience.
The concept of engaging your audience and community to foster brand awareness, loyalty, and interaction is definitely not new. Engagement (along with many other buzz words) gets lost in the promotional web spam, but many of the facts remain the same. Good communication still requires listening, following through with fast and appropriate interaction, and above all being honest and genuine. In today’s world successful engagement is not about a catchy ad campaign. Brands and organizations must be authentic and they must act.
How do you define engagement in social media?

