Ten Best Practices of Online Engagement

Congratulations!  You have entered the world of social media and are actively listening, monitoring, reading, and dipping your toes into engaging in conversations. You are monitoring social media mentions and measuring sentiment of yourself and your competitors. Moreover,  you are tracking larger industry trends, trying to understand what customers want, and listening for purchase intent. But as you know, listening is only the beginning stage of what you should be doing as part of your social media approach; engagement will make or break your efforts – after all, if no one talks to you online, the whole thing is a failed attempt. If you know what to listen for and how to separate signal from noise, it should propel you towards action and engagement the right way. If social media is a blend of art and science, engagement is definitely the art of it. If you approach it in a heavy-handed or inauthentic way, you may scare people off and mar your reputation. All too often we see companies and brands use these “new media” channels with “old media” mentality: in a race to amass the most Twitter followers regardless of their engagement with the brand, or broadcasting a message one-way instead of a two-way conversation. Here is a quick list of Do’s and Don’ts to help guide your engagement efforts. Below are items 1-5 of my top 10 practices.