The
term engagement is being used to frame how brands can use the social
web to engage their audience. On the other side of the term
“engagement” is methods used by people to engage people in relevant and
relative conversations. So on one side of the term engagement we have
marketers and on the other side we have people.
What Kind of Engagement?
The term engagement, used as a noun, means:
- an appointment or arrangement
- A pledge; an obligation or agreement
- an encounter, conflict or battle
Given these definition one must wonder which type of engagement do
people and organizations seek. As marketers continue to use the term
“engagement” and use the social web to do so the question on most
peoples mind is “an engagement for what?”. An appropriate question we
ought to ask.
Is it Engagement Marketing?
Everyone seems to be using social media as a marketing tool rather
than a relational tool. There is a big difference between the two.
“This is the way things are going, says Netscape founder Marc
Andreessen. “Banner ads aren’t going to cut it,” he says. “And media
companies have not been creative or aggressive about making products
designed for engagement marketing. Now that’s changing, giving brand advertisers a new way and reason to buy.”
While the social web certainly enhances the practices of marketing
most individuals using the web aren’t looking for marketing messages
rather the intent of using the web is to find or create value. Now
that doesn’t mean the offerings being pushed out in “social messages”
don’t offer value rather it means that relational messages get better
responses than marketing messages.
What Is The Intent of Engaging?
Marketing methods of the past reflected the process of deliberately
enticing a person to engage in some sort of exchange, buy this. The
social web has become the place by which people and organizations try
and seduce us into an exchange. The word seduction stems from Latin and means literally “to lead astray.”
Most people would tell you that the purpose of engaging with others
is to converse, learn and get to know one another. That being said just
maybe the real value that can be created by using social media is to
“converse, learn and be relational”. The problem is that most business
mindsets do not think in terms of relational rather they think in terms
of results.
On-line and off-line success comes from serving the interest of
others. Results come from service. There is plenty of opportunity to
serve if you are listening and learning correctly. To serve however you
must have a presence which reflects your intent in the marketplace
waiting to be served.
How Do You Measure Intent?
Engaging in the marketplace of conversations has become main stream,
expected and simply the new market of how markets should operate. Since
the process is still new many are trying to apply old methods and old
thinking with the ability to engage with many for difference purposes.
Markets are now trying to measure the benefit of engagement and
screaming for an ROI on the investment of time and expense.
The irony of current behaviors is that the intent is transparent.
Marketers want to produce results from us and don’t realize how
transparent their intent is to the new marketplace. Intent is the real
measurement of effective engagement and the measure of intent is
reflected by how well you serve the market of interest.
How would you measure intent?