Stubbing Your Toe With Inadequate Social Media Engagement
Sticking A Toe In Social Media Waters Series - Part 3
For the past couple of weeks I've been expanding our social media experiment by trying engagement principles using the 2 accounts I'd previously set up on Twitter and Facebook,
Twitter:
First thing I did was go out and located some toe-related Twitterers. It was quite illuminating. There's a lot of interest in toes - and stuff I hadn't anticipated frankly. Let's just say my eyes were opened to yet another alternative lifestyle and I wont be able to look at my toes again in the same way ;-).
At the end of 2 weeks I was following 30 people and now have 3 people following me - the same 3 that I had going into this engagement phase. Simply put, following someone does not constitute engagement. And the people I did engage with were not interested enough in our communications to follow me.
Facebook Fanpage:
Over on the Facebook, I invited 110 of my friends.
I think the best comment so far sums up why only 16 people have become fans....
(BTW - Thanks, Bill, for that post - I appreciate you making my point better than I could!)
So, what do you make of these results?
Engagement without purpose is a recipe for frustration. In all I engaged over 140 people but ended up with 16 new connections - surely not enough to pronounce this experiment a success. To really engage someone means having a genuine conversation not unlike face to face conversions. Just being there is not enough - you need to add value to the conversation or you will end up being that person at a party that sits in the corner alone. Yeah, they were there but I doubt they will be back next time.
Take Away:
When you engage with people online, make sure you have something to share and have a complete profile indicating you are real with a genuine reason for being there. Otherwise you run the risk of people not wanting to connect with you because they think you are a spammer looking to exploit them.
Next up:
Determining if the asset is there. Stay tuned.
-Paul Konrardy
Other posts in the Sticking A Toe In Social Media Waters Series:
Sticking A Toe In Social Media Waters Is Not Enough - Part 1
Build it And They WON'T Come - Not Without A Reason - Part 2
Get A Foot In The Door - Not Just A Toe - Part 4
