The digital era is not only here to stay, but it seems to accelerate in terms of how much of our lives depend on it. Whether social platforms, apps, marketplaces, or reviews we leave behind, all these have value. In some cases, this value can even be converted into money. In most cases, the engagement itself is a value and in this digital age where instead of exchanging commodities, we exchange information, digital engagement marketing has true value.
From Attention to Mental Stimulation.
If the digital engagement market has value, and as such raises the value of our digital eco-system, our brand awareness, and market positioning, how do we create valuable engagement that would draw engagers to join the crowd? What do engagers seek by joining the crowd?
At the beginning of social media, the goal was to seek attention through the number of followers and likes. Today, however, that's not enough, and engagement is the element that creates value in our social media ecosystem. Now that we have the attention of potential customers by generating followers and likes, what is the transformation we need in order to create valuable engagement?
When we scroll on social media, we usually pause for an interesting image, title, topic, etc., but then what? Think of it, we engage when our mind or emotion is stimulated. When our mind and/or emotions are stimulated, a reaction is often called for and that's when we hit the keys or emoji. When our minds or/and emotions are stimulated, we may find ourselves conversing on issues and topics we would never usually pay attention to. Why is that? What motivates people to join the crowd?
Joining the Crowd
There are several motivations for people to join the crowd and engage and they are listed here. These, however, are not all the motives, but they will provide us with some food for thought in terms of how can we be more accurate and strategic in our social media presence to elicit valuable engagement. So what motivates people to join the crowd?
A Strong Narrative
A strong narrative can either be:
A request for an opinion on an issue that everyone is talking about or is interested in.
An extreme approach or point of view on a certain issue. It can also introduce a third party's approach or opinion that will always instigate a response. The point here is not necessarily to create a provocation but to elicit engagement on the topic.
A clashing title
Tips on specific topics and challenging issues whether professional, relationships with customers, time-saving, efficiency, etc.
Gamification – Not a narrative per se, but it definitely draws the crowd
Feedback as Rewards
People have a need for instant feedback on their opinions. In the engagement economy, feedback is a reward. Positive feedback is certainly a reward as well as an emoji, a question or clarification, GIF all these instigate emotions and keep the game going.
Ending a reply with a question will promote engagement as it requires the other party to continue the conversation.
Generosity is also a form of reward. Be generous with your crowd, both they and you will be rewarded.
Emotional Stimulus
What emotions do you want to elicit? Perhaps start here and phrase the post accordingly.
What are the main emotions that are stimulated throughout the comments? Can you leverage that? Are the comments stimulating positive emotions? How can you leverage that to a call for action perhaps?
Do the comments stimulate negative emotions? Look through them – what is the nature and tone of the engagement? Does it need to be toned down? Does it need to be rerouted?
Being Part of a Community
If people are heard and replied to by others, they are part of a community. Even if that's a temporary community, the sense of being part of the people is an emotional need that people seek.
With this in mind, are you posting on your own digital ecosystem or on a third-party community or group? If you're posting on a third-party group, what are the values of this group? Is your content relatable to the group? If not will it elicit responses or will they ignore it?
If engagement is a value that we trade, then social media is a trading platform just like any other stock exchange, the difference is we are exchanging comments, replies, and emojis rather than commodities. Our Posts or digital channels serve as our stocks on this platform. The more engagement, the greater the value of our "digital stock" which ultimately leads to more "buyers". Stock rise and falls and so will our digital channels, the rules are very similar to the stock exchange. You can read more about this in my follow-up article: The Social Media Stock Exchange Market. For more information contact us at: Marketing-Break.Com
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