Social Media has changed the traditional notion of how brands connect, engage and evolve relationships with prospects and customers… but are brands connecting with their community in the right way?

“Six out of ten Britons & Americans do not want to engage with brands through social media, leading to companies creating mountains of digital waste.” Source: TNS Digital Life study (surveyed 72,000 consumers across 60 countries), November 2011

Furthermore the active audience primarily engaged when a promotion or special offer is involved, thus questioning the true integrity of the relationship.

Putting Tactics Before Strategy

Poor engagement leads to the creation of “Mountains of Digital Waste”, caused by the accumulation of thousands of brands rushing online to speak with customers “quickly” and “cheaply”, without considering who they want to talk to, and why. Their efforts are not carefully planned and considered.

Essentially, they put tactics before strategy and do not consider bigger picture.

Social Media is all about conversations and developing relationships, so it’s important to not only consider ways to generate engagement, but essential to have a strategy for responding back to your community in order to facilitate a two way dialogue to be formed.

Importance of Successful Engagement

Social Media offers brands a double edge sword; publishing complaints are a marketers worst nightmare, yet they present an opportunity to show off great customer care.

Rolling out a structured Engagement Strategy can provide a positive experience and develop valuable relationships with key stakeholders, thereby turn brand detractors into promoters and satisfied customers may become your most influential brand ambassadors! Furthermore higher engagement leads to higher reach on Facebook (for more, see Web Liquid’s Facebook Reach Analysis published in late 2011).

Case Study: Cass Business School

In March 2011, Cass Business School approached Web Liquid to help define their Social Media Strategy.

Objective: to drive growth in high calibre student applications across all products / courses by creating positive sentiment and brand perception, driven by engaging with potential, current students and other stakeholders and leveraging their positive experiences.

Initial Results: The first initiative focused on the August Student Intake period and concentrated on leveraging Facebook.  This Facebook re-launch saw 434% more interactions than August 2010.

So, what are the secrets to building impactful and meaningful Social Media Engagement?  I call them the Five P’s of Engagement:

1. Proposition
2. People
3. (Be) Provocative & Personal
4. Policies
5. Process

To find out more about the Five P’s, please see the presentation below, “The Secrets to Successful Social Media Engagement.”

About Irene Zalami

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