Monday, September 22, 2008

Think ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY!

When defining your approach/strategy to leverage Social Media to achieve your business objectives… think about your business objectives first (obviously), then decide what social behaviors you need to drive to support/advance those objectives and then think: what is the engagement strategy you need to put in place to generate those behaviors?  

As you do that is key to understand that you need to:

  • Think relationship, bidirectional, give & take (not unidirectional/short term).
  • Think genuine, relevant, evolution (not fake, not impersonated)
  • Be ready to bring value, in order to get value (roll with the punches, react, follow their lead)

I think one of the most difficult “paradigm” shifts we all need to make in order to really reap the value of these new opportunities is from “campaign” mode to “relationship with overlaid campaigns on top mode”. Think about the relationship with your oldest and dearest friend; how has that evolved through time? how many different “context” shifts has that gone through? how has it changed as that happens?

Here  a few snippets from “The Six “C’s” of social influence marketing” by Terri Walter, VP, Emerging Media, New York, at the Avenue A Razorfish Digital Outlook Report:

 “..the real opportunity for marketers is to leverage the unprecedented community-building aspects of the medium to build their brands.”

“Taking a genuine approach to social influence marketing that is truly rooted in a cause, a topic, a utility, or a behavior that is both relevant to the community and the brand will ensure a healthy campaign.”

“..consumers expect brands in social networking environments to bring some kind of benefit to the community they foster. Any brand can enter the social media space on a campaign level or experimental basis, but those who can actually make a commitment to building a presence, a community of friends, and a steady amount of new content to keep their communities engaged will benefit most.”

 

What do you think?

Filiberto Selvas

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"I think one of the most difficult “paradigm” shifts we all need to make in order to really reap the value of these new opportunities is from “campaign” mode to “relationship with overlaid campaigns on top mode”."

I think that is an excellent way to think about it Filiberto. I also really like your analogy of the seasons of a personal friendship.

Ultimately, we are building relationships. We are fulfilling a need of our customers/market, and in doing so, we have some level of impact on their lives. Those relationship progresses over time (just like any other), and we should be looking to maintain and nurture them. That's where your "relationship with overlaid campaigns on top mode" comes in. I see the "campaigns" as simply the different seasons of the relationship.

Great stuff Filiberto.

Filiberto Selvas said...

Thanks Jesse,

I agree with your comments. Like in many other relationships needs are fulfilled both ways; the exchange is not necessarily reciprocal (not everybody in the relationship gets out of it exactly the same) but they all get their needs (or a portion)satisfied.

I can see that you have dep thoughts in ths space as well; and you have been in contact with some of my old co-workers & mentors (like Jeff Sandquist: http://www.metricz.com/2008/08/need-a-community-manager-hire-a-good-bartender/)

Filiberto