Yeah don’t worry….we’re all thinking the same thing. Who the hell am I supposed to Engage? Why is this word tossed around like a bad salad?
Forgive me, i’ve been up for 2 days and am a little delusional this Sunday morning, but the word Engage is over used and underrated.
Why?
Well lets start by doing a simple Google search for the word Engage. Now i’m not quite sure what your search results came up with, but half of my first page was from blogs talking about social media and a few folks talking about their engagements on the 2nd page results.
I also went over to the Google images – what came up?
Reason for those search results? Nobody knows what the hell “Engage” really means or the context to put it all in.
I read 2 great blog posts this morning. The first one – Social Media Bashing is Boring As Hell and Why Social Media Guru’s Should be Trampled By Elephants. Both providing some great points that every company should read.
The one thing in the last year that I have learned, and would advise any companies to do the same is the following:
- Research Who You’re Hiring
The person you’re hiring may claim to know social media because they’ve figured out that 140 characters can get them a large amount of followers. But if you research said person, you may notice that they don’t have anything else relevant in social media. Using 1 social media tool does NOT make you a ‘guru’
If they have a blog, does it show up in Google search results? What are the topics that they write on? Do they talk about themselves, or their clients? Perhaps they talk about the trending topics that are in social media? You want them to be focused on the trending topics that are relevant to the times, and to their clients, and less about themselves
What are the topics they like to discuss, who they discuss them with. Who their target audience is, has a great impact on those who they attract and where their demographic is as well.
- Are they publically known or internet famous?
Now this is a tricky question. Being in social media can make you a public figure, but only in the tech/internet space. Anyone in the “real” world may look at you and think you are stupid when asking about said person. Finding out how well known they are will have a great impact on the work that they will do with you in the future.
- Hiring someone well known
Has its downfalls. The more infamous they are in both tech and in the real world, the less likely they are to have the time to work with you and your company. Ask them how much time they have available. And if you can set up regular meetings with them so that you know you will be guaranteed the time with them, and not pawned off to another employee in the company.
When hiring said ‘guru’ – ask how many people are in their company. Do they hire contractors. If they do, what is the reason for doing that. How often will you be working with the outside sources as opposed to internally. How often will you get to interact with the guru vs the other team members.
The first thing that everyone talks about is Engage. What does this word even mean? Interaction! It can’t get any more simple than that.
This does not just mean on your Facebook, Twitter, and Blog. This also means internally.
What are you doing internally to encourage your team to interact with anyone outside of your office? You want your employees to believe in your product, so you want them to interact with others in hopes they will discuss your product. Treat them well, make them happy and encourage improvement to allow them to talk about how great you and your company is. This is a small itty bitty amount of word of mouth marketing that everyone does without realizing it. Its the first step to making something bigger and better.
When your employee’s are praising you on their social networks, you’re company will be off to a good start to Engage!
I figure these blog posts are long coming. Might as well start them now as we start approaching Christmas, close out 2010, and start a whole new adventure of 2011.
As of this week, I’m joining 
