One of the go-to marketing metrics is social media engagement. It just makes sense. If people are engaging with our content through likes, shares, and comments, that seems like a reasonable precursor to valuable business benefits. And it’s so easy to measure, which is always welcomed!

But as I was doing research for my latest book, I could not validate that hypothesis. There is literally no reliable research that ties social media engagement to tangible financial benefits. We may “feel” it makes a difference — more engagement is better — but is it?

What is a rational, data-based view of the true value of engagement to our businesses?  In this comprehensive post, I expand on eight conclusions about the economic value of social media engagement:

1. Customer engagement is not normally connected to brand loyalty.
2. Most social media engagement does not lead to short-term financial benefits.
3. Social sharing is an important metric because it represents organic advocacy.
4. Social media engagement that leads to customer community can create tangible business benefits. 
5. Social media engagement may open opportunities to actionable new business relationships.
6. Engagement can improve content reach efficiency and promotional costs.
7. Social media engagement has value when it encourages the right organizational discipline.
8. Many new customers are “lurkers” who never engage. 

The economics of social media engagement

Before I get into these eight conclusions, let’s step back and define social media engagement and its role on the web.

Social media engagement means a human interaction or conversation spurred by content: a like, comment, conversation stream, or social share would be examples.

Posting a blog post, infographic, or video is not engagement. That is broadcasting. Automated responses or cut-and-paste LinkedIn invitations are not engagement either. Typical social media engagement would be:

• Responding to public and private comments
• Answering direct questions on places like Twitter and LinkedIn
• Actively liking, commenting, sharing content

It’s certainly possible to be massively successful without social media engagement. The most valuable brand in the world, Apple, has no social engagement. Seth Godin, the most famous guru in the marketing space, never participates in the web.

Social media engagement can be an economic burden. It requires a tremendous amount of time and effort to engage on the web, soaking up resources that could otherwise be directly producing revenue. In 2014, I received so many comments on one blog post (Content Shock), that keeping up with the social media frenzy drove my business into the ground for three weeks.

You can engage yourself broke.

So this is an important question to consider as part of every digital marketing strategy: Does social media engagement create measurable business benefits?

Let’s answer that today.

A single study on engagement

The only thing close to an academic study I could find was published in the Harvard Business Review several years ago (this is featured in Chapter 6 of Marketing Rebellion). The research showed that there was no correlation between social media engagement and brand loyalty.

So that puts a dent in the works, doesn’t it?

I often say that a “like” has the same value as somebody waving at you. It’s a nice gesture, but it doesn’t mean they’re going to buy something or even come back again some day.

Conclusion Number One: Research shows customer engagement does not normally establish brand loyalty.

Show me the money

There was another interesting insight from a different HBR post, however. This would not necessarily count as an academic study, but it does reveal a sensible observation.

A founder of the Community Roundtable suggests there are four types of social media engagement:

• Validate — Includes liking, commenting, bookmarking, or responding to posts. This is often the first visible behavior beyond consuming that people exhibit … sort of the equivalent of dipping their toes in the water to assess whether the social environment is comfortable.
• Sharing —  Sharing documents, graphics, updates, and ideas. People start with sharing content that has been written by someone else. As they feel validated and connected to a group, they are more likely to share their own observations and ideas.
• Asking and Answering Questions — Individuals tend to start with logistical questions (“where can I find x?”) and if they find the culture to be supportive and trustworthy they will ask deeper questions (“what is the best way to manage a customer situation?”).
• Exploring —  This includes open-ended questions or questions about ambiguous topics where there is no right or known answer. This requires individuals to feel like the community culture is both supportive and challenging, making it a safe space to explore, admit vulnerability, and share incomplete ideas. This stage is where rich collaboration and innovation takes place.

Here’s where it gets interesting. The researchers found that the question-and-answer category can indeed be tied to some financial benefit. When people start solving each other’s problems, it saves the company money.

But getting to that point of trust takes a lot of work and time. Most individuals need to feel comfortable and connected before they are willing to ask a question that might make them feel vulnerable.

For this reason, the ROI of engagement is typically negative until the culture supports and rewards regular asking and answering within a trusting community. This suggests that this very specific type of engagement holds value.

Conclusion Number Two: Most social media engagement does not lead to short-term financial benefits. However a trusting brand community that is asking and answering questions can provide a positive and measurable ROI.

The social share: Entering a conversation

Social sharing is a unique form of engagement and among the most important metrics in the digital space (second only to conversions to sales.)

Increasingly, consumers do not trust businesses, brands, or advertising. But we trust each other.

Social sharing is critically important to any digital marketing effort because it represents organic advocacy. When people share your post, it is a very big deal! It is a sign that they trust you. It is a symbol that a person believed in your content so much they made it part of their own story.

Social sharing means your content is entering the public conversation. And in this world where the hyper-empowered consumer is in control, there is no more important achievement for a marketer.

The economic value of content that is not seen and shared is zero. So every digital marketing department must build an internal competency on content ignition.

While social sharing is undeniably important, it requires a measurement leap of faith. What happens to brand loyalty or your sales when a story starts to spread? It’s difficult (or impossible) to absolutely attribute the spread of a story to the click of a sale. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it.

Conclusion Number Three: Social sharing is among the most important digital marketing metrics. It represents valuable organic consumer advocacy yet may be difficult to tie to specific financial results.

Engagement leads to community

I recently proposed a new strategic framework for social media marketing. While social media engagement typically produces only weak relational links, done well, it can drive people to subscribe to our content. As a subscriber to a blog, podcast, YouTube channel, etc. the consumer has now opted-in to our marketing. In a virtual way, they are saying, “I like what you’re doing here. Send me more.”

Unfortunately, that’s where most companies stop. As I explained in Belonging to the Brand, the most powerful emotional brand connections are occurring in brand communities, which have historically been relegated to a role of customer self-service. Considering community as a brand-building strategy is the most over-looked opportunity in the history of overlooked opportunities.

So while social media engagement on its own has weak financial benefits, if it can drive customers into a community, you’re on to something big.

One example is the video platform Wistia. The Boston company provides a Slack channel membership to its customers that allows them to contribute, comment, solve problems, and even help develop new products and services. The Wistia community is magical and an example of an effective driver of loyalty in a world where most people shop around from service to service.

A brand community is sort of an alternative marketing universe. Engagement in the social media space is primarily a vanity metric, but within a brand community, it is definitely a sign of progress, vitality, relevance, and a leading indicator of future advocacy and sales!

Conclusion Number Four: Social media engagement that leads to an engaged customer community is an invaluable asset in a world of declining customer loyalty.

The actionable audience: Adding the human element

There is no value to social media engagement if it is simply accumulating on your company dashboard. However, you can create business benefits if you go the extra step to turn a passive social media audience into an actionable one. Here is a chart I use in many of my classes:

This chart represents the marketing hopes and dreams of every business. Over time, you want to create some type of customer interaction or provocation that leads to more and more business benefits.

Problem is, the benefits don’t start happening until you reach at least the middle of the line. Simply posting on social media is great for increasing awareness, but it normally requires a little something extra to move people from being a weak relational link at the bottom of the chart to the loyal super-fan at the top.

And that’s where social media engagement can help.

Here’s an example. A few years ago, a woman posted a picture on Twitter. She had lined up all of my books on her couch and exclaimed “I am Mark Schaefer’s biggest fan!”

I had never heard from this person before, but I was so touched by the photo that I called her up out of the blue. This was the beginning of a long bond and friendship that has definitely led to quantifiable financial benefits.

The lesson is, in most companies, this comment would have been buried in a chart. But I went beyond the dashboard and added a human element to the relationship. I turned a weak relational link into a strong, actionable bond through a simple phone call. My fan would have stayed at the bottom of the chart without my engagement.

You might be wondering … how is that scalable for a big brand?

I think it is. Every year, Taylor Swift surprises her fans with Christmas gifts. Not every fan, but enough to create a viral story and strong fan love for the way she connects in a sincere, human, and meaningful way. Taylor has more social media followers than any Fortune 500 company. If she can do it, you can do it.

Conclusion Number Five: Social media activity alone doesn’t lead to financial benefits unless you turn weak relational links into an actionable audience through long-term engagement.

Engagement can help improve organic reach and lower ad costs

Social media engagement might be important if you are investing ad dollars as part of your marketing strategy.

As far as the Facebook algorithm is concerned, engagement is a catalyst for increased reach. Getting good organic reach helps your content get elevated in the queue of the newsfeed to reach more people, including those who already like your Page.

Leveraging the organic momentum on posts and content can help keep your ad costs more predictable and stable – resulting in a more efficient spend of your marketing dollars.

The analogy I use is that it is easier to add fuel to a burning fire to make it bigger. The engagement is the fire, the fuel is your ad spend. If you are trying to fuel (add budget) to content that has no engagement (fire) then you’re not using your ad spend as efficiently as you could be.

Conclusion Number Six: Engagement might improve content reach efficiency and lower promotional costs.

Social media engagement is critical at the beginning

So far, we’ve concluded that social media engagement provides sketchy financial returns at best. But there is one period in a company’s lifespan where engagement is critical.

An annual study by Social Media Examiner showed that even in the early days of a company’s marketing effort, 85 percent of respondents reported an increase in awareness from a social media effort.

But just 30 percent reported a financial benefit in that first year. This means if you start with a goal to increase sales in Year One, you’re probably setting yourself up to fail.

A more appropriate metric in the first 1-2 years of a social media effort is engagement. I know that sounds fluffy, but hear me out.

Beginning an effective social media journey probably represents a significant cultural shift for a company. In my mind, just showing that you are DOING IT consistently and making progress is an achievement.

For a social media newbie, I like using engagement as an inital metric because it drives the right organizational changes. To have people engage with your content, you need to:

• Create content worthy of engagement
• Connect to people who are likely to engage
• Reward and encourage the people who engage

Those are the right behaviors for a company’s long-term social media success. It is also an easy way to see quick wins which encourages the new marketing program.

Conclusion Number Seven: Social media engagement is a useful metric in the first 1-2 years of a program because it encourages the right organizational marketing discipline.

The thunderous value of zero engagement

In this article, I’ve provided a rational view of what social media engagement can and cannot deliver.

I’d like to conclude this post by making the case that having an effective social media presence is critically important to your business, even if you have no engagement whatsoever.

When somebody hires me for a speech, workshop, or consulting assignment, I always ask them how they heard about me. Most of the time, they say “I’ve followed you for years.”

Silently.

Nearly every time, I have never heard of the person before … they’ve never engaged with me. There are powerful business opportunities in social media stalkers.

Nielsen published an often-cited 90-9-1 rule of engagement. It said that you can expect a community or network to have 90 percent of its members lurking/reading, 9 percent contributing, and 1 percent creating. Other research shows that an established and well-managed community can break down into 50 percent lurkers, 23 percent contributors, and 27 percent creators,.

Point is, even if you are doing an astounding job establishing community engagement, most of your best fans are still lurking in the background.

That’s why most of my business comes from lurkers. Just because they don’t engage with us doesn’t mean they’re not building trust in us. Speaking for myself, I might love a brand but never engage. Some people just want to be left alone!

Conclusion Number Eight: Social media engagement is a popular metric … but nearly all of your future customers are probably never engaging with you at all.

Social Media Engagement — Conclusion

Loyalty is in decline in almost every business category. McKinsey points to a lack of emotional connection as a primary reason for this trend.

Social media engagement is a way to establish the first emotional human connection between brands and their customers. It can provide undeniable benefits like awareness, organic advocacy, and a step toward community. However, connecting day-to-day engagement with these longer-term business benefits and financial goals is challenging … perhaps even non-existent.

Social media engagement is also the metric that is most easily gamed, as we see in the influencer space.

I saw a meme the other day of a person widely swinging whips around and the meme was “marketing managers trying to increase social media engagement.” You know a metric is in trouble when it starts to become a meme! it’s not going to help the credibility of the profession when we’re not aligned with business goals.

Moving from familiar, quantifiable measures on a social media dashboard to less quantifiable brand measures like stronger long-term customer relationships and loyalty requires leadership and a certain amount of faith. However, a human-centered approach to marketing also represents one of the few strategies we have left to differentiate ourselves in a noisy world.

I hope you’ve benefitted from this analysis, but I know there are a lot of ideas and wisdom that I missed. Would you consider engaging with this post and letting me know your thoughts?

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

The post What is the true business value of social media engagement? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

By Mark Schaefer

Thank you for your social media engagement through your generous tweets, blog comments, and likes. I have just one question: Why aren’t you hiring me?

Let me unpack this unusual question …

I’ve been creating content consistently for nearly 10 years and have built an amazing community that has generated 60,000 blog comments and hundreds of thousands of likes, tweets, and mentions. Many of these “regulars” have become extremely close friends.

But I’ve been doing this long enough now to see a pattern in terms of relationships and commerce. My business has increased steadily for a decade, entirely built on content marketing. But 95 percent of the time when somebody hires me for a speech, workshop, or consulting engagement, I’ve never heard of the person before. Doesn’t that seem weird?

All that time, all that content, all that engagement, and I’ve never heard of the people who become my biggest customers.

To be clear, nearly everyone who hires me is a fan of some form of my content — this blog, The Marketing Companion podcast, my marketing books. But almost no one has ever engaged with me on social media. The strangers are the ones who are sending me the paychecks.

If engagement doesn’t necessarily lead to customers, why is there so much preoccupation with this metric? Here are a few observations:

The silent majority

I haven’t seen any real research on this, but a rule of thumb among bloggers is that less than 2 percent of your audience actually comments on your content. So, in a way it makes sense that people who don’t comment are the ones who hire me, simply because most people who consume content don’t engage.

The fact that my top engagers don’t hire me is no reflection on them. It’s simply math — the vast majority of people who read my stuff will never comment. And that’s OK. Engagement is not necessarily a measurement of impact.

The connection is real

I believe one of the greatest opportunities with social media marketing is to build an emotional connection with people that leads to business benefits over time.

But that doesn’t mean the relationship is two-way.

I’ve had lots of experiences where strangers come up to me at a conference and approach me as if I am a close friend. Over the years, they have come to know me through my content — my values, my views, my challenges, and my victories. They probably know me better than some of their own family members, but that doesn’t mean I know them. And it doesn’t really matter. The bond is no less important and I respect that.

People may not be engaging, but that doesn’t mean they’re not connected.

Social media engagement may be the wrong metric

I was recently working with a marketing manager who was exasperated because all her boss cared about was social media engagement as their measurable. She was driving herself bananas trying to get people to like and comment on their posts even though it had no measurable impact on sales.

To be clear, there certainly is some value to “engagement:”

• It can be a leading indicator of business benefits to come
• It provides social proof that there is activity on the content
• It can provide feedback and validation of your effort

But pushing engagement without tying it to business benefits can be costly and unwise. Let me provide an extreme example. The most popular blog post I ever created was called Content Shock. The thing has received thousands of shares and comments. For a three-week period after that post came out, “engagement” was nearly a full-time job! There was so much engagement it was making me go broke! There is a financial cost to engagement, so we need to be aware of the financial impact.

Alternatives to social media engagement

In addition to the pressure of Content Shock, there are other forces working against customer engagement. In the past three years, the number of people reading my blog has gone up, the page views have gone up, but engagement through comments has plummeted. One of the reasons is that more and more people are viewing my content on mobile devices. Have you tried to leave a comment on a mobile device versus a desktop? It’s hard work. This tech trend is depressing engagement levels.So instead of social media engagement, here are three metrics that I believe provide a better view that you are heading in the right direction:

1. Social sharing — There is no economic value in content, only in content that is seen and shared. You should be building a competency in content ignition, as well as content creation.
2. Return visitors — You’re creating real fans and emotional connection, even if they don’t comment
3. Average time on site — You’re holding their attention. They are learning about you.

Focusing on those three measures will drive the right marketing behaviors in your organization — much better than engagement. And of course the ultimate measure is conversions and sales.

What are your thoughts? How about some engagement! : )

Mark Schaefer is the chief blogger for this site, executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, and the author of several best-selling digital marketing books. He is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world.  Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

Illustration marked safe for re-use by Unsplash.com

The post Social media engagement is a lousy metric appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

2015 is going down in the books as a transformational year for the discipline of marketing. There is just so much going on … and it’s going on so FAST!

As Tom Webster and I compared notes from our recent journeys we began to see some themes and marketing lessons that we thought would be entertaining and useful to discuss on our podcast. So … we did!

On the latest episode of The Marketing Companion we get into some wild discussions on some thought-provoking developments such as:

1. Branding is more important that ever. In fact we’re at a tipping point where every person must be a brand to be relevant in this digital age.
2. Relationship mode versus sales mode in content marketing
3. Facebook is slipping through our fingers as a business tool, as the most important social channel evolves into something new.
4. Content monetization at the point of contact
5. The renaissance of social media engagement and interactive media
6. Growing sophistication of social media marketers
7. Courage as a core marketing competency

This is a podcast you cannot miss. Here we go:

If you can’t access the podcast above, click on this link to listen to Episode 58

• Click here to download the latest episode or subscribe in iTunes
• Complete Marketing Companion Episode Guide
• Click here for the show’s RSS feed – for Android listeners.
• Find the podcast on Stitcher

Resources mentioned in this podcast

Kristian Strøbech

Kelly Michael 

Ulrik Heilmann CEO of Bolius

gShift’s new URL innovation that will allow marketers to track the value of content and influencers.

Please support our extraordinary sponsors. Our content is free because of their generosity.

gShift’s Web Presence Analytics platform provides agencies and brands with search, social and mobile content marketing data in one place. Monitor and report on an entire web presence. Create smarter, faster content through gShift’s proprietary data. Report on the engagement and performance of your content marketing investment.

Our podcast is also brought to you by Voices Heard Media. Please check out this tremendous resource for scaling social media engagement. Take a look at building an engaged and relevant audience through innovative new games, contests, analytics, polling platforms, and other innovations.

The post Seven fascinating marketing lessons of 2015 appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Remember when social media was about engagement?

I could argue that the biggest trends we are witnessing are all about NOT engaging! For example,

• The hottest apps right now are Meerkat and Periscope, essentially turning you into your own live-streaming channel. In other words, you’re broadcasting.
• One of the fastest-growing platforms is podcasting. In essence, there is no engagement.
• Likewise, fast-rising channels like Pinterest and Instagram don’t have the engagement levels we used to see on Facebook and Twitter.
• Several popular blogs including Chris Brogan, Jay Baer and Copyblogger have eliminated their comment sections.

Without question, “engagement” is not as fashionable as it once was. Does it still have a place in the social media eco system?

This is the topic tackled with my erstwhile podcasting partner Tom Webster on the latest edition of The Marketing Companion. We would be most pleased if you listened to it. Here it is, in all its auditory glory:

If you can’t access the podcast above, click on this link to listen to Episode 46

• Click here to download the latest episode or subscribe in iTunes
• Complete Marketing Companion Episode Guide
• Click here for the show’s RSS feed – for Android listeners.
• Find the podcast on Stitcher

Please support our extraordinary sponsors. Our content is free because of their generosity.

gShift’s Web Presence Analytics platform provides agencies and brands with search, social and mobile content marketing data in one place. Monitor and report on an entire web presence. Create smarter, faster content through gShift’s proprietary data. Report on the engagement and performance of your content marketing investment.

Our podcast is also brought to you by Voices Heard Media. Please check out this tremendous resource for scaling social media engagement. Take a look at building an engaged and relevant audience through innovative new games, contests, analytics, polling platforms, and other innovations.

Illustration Courtesy Flickr CC and Cristiano Betta

The post Is social media engagement still a thing? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

By Mark Schaefer

Jack Steiner recently wrote an interesting post about the challenge of the “Twitter thank  you” and it reminded me of my own experience with this issue!

I am a polite person. I think being polite helps the world go around a little easier.

So when my blog posts started to be re-tweeted, I would always thank everyone who re-tweeted me. I thought this was a nice thing to do. Mom would be proud.

It was cool at first and I think it was a good way to reinforce the idea that I noticed and I appreciated the social share. Nothing says “I love you” more than a RT now and then!

Under the 140-character limit, I found that I could thank 5-6 people on average in a single tweet. But as my blog grew in popularity, so did the number of tweets I had to send out. It began to get so overwhelming I would send 10-12 consecutive tweets just thanking people.

And it continued to grow. I actually had my virtual assistant keep up with the ever-expanding list of daily thank-you tweets because this was starting to take up some serious TIME. But I was determined to be polite. I was determined to let every single person know they were appreciated.

And then, it just became annoying. People started to complain. I was sending out too many thank you tweets. Maybe dozens a day.

“You are too damn polite,” one follower wrote me. “Stop thanking people, will you!”

I knew he had a point. I had reached the thank you tipping point. So I stopped.

This saddened me. I hate it that the more popular you become on the social web, the less engaging you can be. Isn’t that ironic? The very characteristic people appreciate is doomed over time. Authentic social media engagement is not scalable.

I still sneak in a “thank you” every now and then. If I see a new person in my stream or an old friend who is a consistent supporter, I’ll tweet a little thanks.

But in the back of my mind I know the Thank You Police are watching … so I moderate how I dispense my praise. On the social web, we can only tolerate politeness in small doses! Right?

And by the way … THANK YOU!

The post Why I stopped thanking people on the social web appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

By Mark Schaefer

Back in the early days of the social web, the leading “gurus” were actively anti-business.

They made fun of measurement, strategy, objectives and any hint of trying to monetize a social media effort.  I know that sounds weird today, but it’s true. The mantra was “Social media is not about your stupid company. It’s all about the conversation.”

We’ve come a long way and even the “purists” have relented. Today, social media is being mainlined into the traditional marketing, PR and advertising initiatives, for better or for worse.

But despite this progress, every now and then I catch a whiff of the old days hanging around. Such was the case on a recent blog post when commenters vigorously defended the “true goal” of social media as being “engagement.”

I am sufficiently disturbed by this conversation that I think it’s time for a reality check. Here we go.

Engagement is not a strategy

A strategy is a direction that ideally capitalizes on a unique value proposition that serves un-met or under-served customer wants and needs. In other words, are you creating something that would be difficult or impossible for your competitor to copy? Is it possible to truly be strategic by “engaging” with customers in a singularly unique way? Difficult, I think.

I do believe it is possible to create strategic advantage by delivering great content and executing a social media initiative well. But the entry barriers to creating a Facebook page and initiating engagement, for example, are so low, I think it is unlikely that this can truly be “strategic.” Engagement should more likely be viewed as a tactic that supports an over-arching marketing strategy, unless you truly have some super-human community management skills that consistently bring customers in the door.

Social media’s place in the marketing mix is to provide consistent, small provocations and conversations through content that lead to engagement and interactions. Skillfully done, that engagement ultimately results in consumer interest, and hopefully loyalty and meaningful activity (like a purchase).

Engagement must lead to stakeholder value

The most valuable brand in the history of the world, Apple, has no social media engagement. By comparison, Dell, the gold standard of social engagement, is floundering and has a stock price hovering near a five-year low.  So “engagement” in and of itself is not a predictor of success, is it?  That’s why “engagement” is not a valuable activity unless it is tied to some organizational goal such as:

• Customer acquisition
• Brand awareness/defense
• Investment
• New product development
• Registrations
• Service
• Employment/recruiting

I would not invest in a company that is driving engagement as a goal without tying it to some business objective that moves the needle. Engagement, yes.  But only in the context of business results!

You can talk yourself broke

One commenter on my blog argued that a company’s goal should be to drive engagement ever upward and pointed to her success in moving a brand from a 10% engagement level to 25%.

Again, without the tying this to a goal, that seems like a silly way to describe success. In fact, you could be hurting your customer.

Let’s not forget that all that engagement comes at a cost!  We have to be careful that we’re ready to staff-up to effectively meet those demands. And for some companies, that may not be a good business decision.

Let me give you a micro-example. Last week I wrote a blog post that had more than 100 comments.  As a small business owner, if I had this level of engagement every day, I would not have time to work on the consulting and teaching activities that feed my family.

Now if I really wanted to, I could pump up this level of engagement all the time … but it would be foolhardy for me to do so. I need to strike the proper balance of commercial activities across my customer base that optimize my business results. In fact, I purposely plan my blog postings to DEPRESS engagement on days when I don’t have the time to properly handle it.

In other words, if you’re not careful, you can talk yourself broke.

There is a level of diminishing returns to any economic activity and engagement is no different. Having a goal to “increase engagement” for every customer in the absence of strategy is irresponsible.

The conversational brand

Finally, a successful engagement level must also be considered in the context of the type of company and product.  An engagement level which would be disappointing for Disney might be thrilling for a niche B2B chemical manufacturer because it is not a very conversational brand. There are no absolutes in this business.

Likewise, not all conversation is created equal.  A company may drive an artificially high engagement level simply by posting inane polls and cat pictures that don’t contribute to business objectives in the least.

So if you’re striking out on a new social media strategy, I hope you’ll consider these take-aways:

1. “Engagement” needs to be evaulated and supported in the context of company objectives
2. Engagement level alone is not necessarily a meaningful indicator of marketing success or financial performance
3. Engagement comes at a cost and must be considered as balanced part of an optimized marketing mix

Those are a few observations on engagement but I would welcome your views, dissent, and additions in the comment section! It’s your turn (and yes, I want the engagement!).

Illustration: “Conversation” statue in Calgary

The post Social media engagement is not a strategy appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

We talk all the time about writing cornerstone content, building effective web design, and connecting with your community in the social media world. Yessss, it’s all essential, that’s why it’s getting poured again and again into our membranes.

But what about the invisible world behind engagement creation? That special “X Factor” that every great (personal) brand emanates, that elusive awesomesauce that connects them stronger to their raving audience than gorilla glued Lego pieces ?

Danielle LaPorte has it.  Chris Brogan has it. Mari Smith also has it. Mark Schaefer? YOU decide

It’s often the invisible part of your online presence that turns visitors into raving fans.

And before I go all paranormal on you, the “invisible” I mean doesn’t include ectoplasma and proton blasters. It’s simply the “byproduct” (ugh, such an ugly world, forgive me) of your intent and THE WAY you create content and products.

It’s the elusive part that people cannot FULLY explain, but that tremendously affects the way they see your brand and interact with it.

For the sake of this post, let’s try to make the invisible visible … and demonstrate how YOU can leverage it to build a more compelling online presence.

Let’s start with…

The reason “why”

A friend of mine tries to buy as many Fairtrade branded products as her wallet allows. Their slogan “guaranteeing better deals for Third World producers” sets her heart on fire like a flame thrower.

Let’s put aside whether they actually do what they promise … it’s fascinating how it attracts a specific crowd that wants to believe in this promise.

And that converging intent binds people closer to the brand than any well-made product could ever hope to achieve on its own.

Heck, my Fairtrade fan-obsessed friend even lights up eating chocolate (and she doesn’t like chocolate) just because it’s under the Fairtrade label. THAT’s the power of the reason “why you do what you do” – a shared worldview that ignites intense passion.

So, the mission and belief you infuse into your brand will directly determine who your customers will be. If you want to attract a kind of customer who rides your wave length, you must put out a message that YOU are 100% passionate about.

Summonin’ some subtext

This looks like it belongs to a self-help book for screen and novel writers, but noooo, it’s relevant to ANY content producer. The invisible lines between your text are just as important as the visible. If you create content that can be enjoyed on many levels (think entertaining / inspiring / informational ), then you influence a reader’s heart in powerful ways:

Not explaining everything in excruciating details, pointing out hints and thoughts, writing ambiguous questions …

This can slam many more dimensions on your content creation and impact your reader even more heavily.

Sure, the average passerby, looking for fast food content to gulp down, will miss it. But the loyal reader, the one who’s deeply into what you offer, will appreciate you for doing this.

Because she will be one of the chosen few who “gets it” what you really want to say. And that will bond her even closer to your brand.

Putting the “you” in your work

Competing corporations battle it out in endless court room wars, because no matter how innovative or fast you can ship a new product, the “rival” is already on your heels, ready to copy your idea if it proves to be successful.

They sue each other because it’s fairly easy to replicate a lifeless product. But it’s super challenging, if not impossible, to copy the “You” in your work.

Material can copied, but how do you copy style and attitude?

When you buy incredible custom (art)work from individuals, or a loved one creates a delicious meal for you, there’s a heavy dose of the creator in there. “Made with love” is not just a truism, it’s something that directly enhances your experience of the work.

It’s hard to tell what exactly it is, because it’s impossible to measure. Put the “You” in your work and make your brand uncopyable.

The state of your creation process

Do you know Anthony Robbins? He’s a self-help guru with a track record that would put Donald Trump and Steve Jobs to shame (well, maybe). Yeah, he did those sleazy informercials in the 90s, but that was BEFORE the Internet, you guys.

What he proclaimed back then (now common sense), is that your emotional state drastically affects the work and choices you make. Wouldn’t that also hold true for your content and product creation? The emotional state you and your team are in will flavor the output of your work.

If you just do the work because you have to do it, people will notice. They’ll even sniff it out on the Internet. Your audience feels, at least on a subconscious level, that your work isn’t as compelling as it could be.

What to do?  Exercise, dance like a monkey on fire, sing your lungs out, do whatever it takes to get you in an elevated state before you create your content. The change of energy can directly jump onto your audience and alter the way they choose to interact with you.

Conclusion

All the things I just listed are hard to prove. It’s like the wind, you can’t see it but you can feel it. But if you’re genuine about your intent, you put yourself into your work and create something that’s enjoyable on multiple levels, you can create a connection with your audience that doesn’t seem to come from this world.

Make any sense to you? What’s the source of YOUR X Factor, your invisible power?

Mars Dorian describes himself as a creative marketeer with a moon-melting passion for human potential and technology. You can follow his adventures at www.marsdorian.com/

Original illustrations by the author.

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