The art of engagement in Social Media Marketing

Connectivity and mobility have made it possible for different segments of society to stay connected. This has perfected the innovation for online communities that are grouped according to their various interests. Online communities provide vast opportunities for marketers. The goals and aims of Social Network Platforms and Marketers will not always be in sync. Logic then detects that parameters to measure whatever each group seeks to achieve will differ. Another dimension of note, is the mushrooming of consultants (some may like to see them as opportunists) that have come into this space offering training, advice, support and tools to manage this technologically propelled jungle. These providers of support services, have their competency limitations. Some are merely computer geeks that communicate in technological jargon, others are professional marketers who lack technological depth. It is therefore not surprising that there is no generally consensus among these different groups in defining jargon used in such a multi-disciplinary environment. Engagement is one of those terms that have aroused a lot of debate; is it the core objective of a Social Media Strategy?  Some view it as a cardinal matrix whilst others think its overrated.

According to Facebook, engagement is when your status update receives likes, shares, clicks or comments. Linkdin trainers for community bankers TrakPointe, define engagement in Linkdin as the reaction for any update which can be in the form of comments, likes, clicks or shares. Seochat defines twitter engagement as being more than just reaching out to those you wish hear what you have to say, they assert that it should be a conversation. This dialogue will propel those you are communicating with to follow you, favorite your tweets, re-tweet and mention you. Simply Measured defines engagement in Instagram as, "The sum of likes and comments on one, individual Instagram post or all Instagram posts during an established time period." Across all networks, it seems engagement has a similar definition and measurement. However, some networks will tend to have more engagement than others. By design other networks tend to group people of similar interests, which inspire appreciation of average posts. Visuals have proven to attract more engagement than wordy posts.

For the purposes of brand awareness, whether its for a business or personality, engagement according to Social Networks is straight forward. Share posts that are informative, witty, exciting with lots of visuals especially faces; and boom....you will have lots of likes, clicks, shares and comments. You would have achieved a high engagement rate. However if our aim is to grow sales through Social Media Marketing, this type of engagement might just signal the beginning of a process. If we follow the AIDA Sales Funnel; engagement in the form of page views and likes would signal the top two rungs of the funnel which is the arousal of Awareness and Interests. Clicks and Comments assist us realize a desire from our prospects. Post shares are like a double barrel that gives us Social Proof and most important Word of Mouth Advertising. Through post shares our campaigns might even go viral. With smart listening and responding at each stage of the funnel, we should guide prospects to positive actions with the ultimate goal of sales conversion. The information that we share as status updates or paid campaigns, must be tactfully coined to exert appropriate influence which will guide our prospects through these different rungs. Whilst more page views, likes, shares, clicks and comments would be applauded, a business page seeking to increase sales, requires more tactical engagement.

There are a number of Tools and Applications that support and help us manage our Social Media Marketing efforts. These make it easy for marketers to engage in a complete conversation - a two way dialogue with their prospecting markets. This becomes the basis of our content design. Relevant content is aimed at triggering desired results. An up sale of Marketing through Social Media compared to other forms of media; where a marketer only heralds their campaigns without receiving feed back from the targeted audience, is the potential for dialogue. This might sound too cumbersome but with the aid of an expert, it is not an impossible task to achieve. Should you need any assistance with your Social Media Marketing Strategy, do not hesitate to contact us.