Alternate Title: Whoa! Take a step back – I don’t know you well enough to get engaged!
Engaged. It’s a word we hear over and over again when social business is part of the discussion. It’s a word that is often overused, but for the purposes of this blog we maintain that it is often used a bit too early. Yes, the overall goal is to engage your audience, but before you can do so you have to do a bit of getting to know you work.
Having an engaging personality is key to a successful social presence, but you don’t get engaged after a first date, now do you? There may be a few love at first sight stories floating around, but for most of us it takes a little longer. So, how does it work for most?
There’s a big difference between being engaging and getting/being engaged. Don’t jump the gun on the latter. It will mean so much more if you follow the proper steps and build the relationship slowly, carefully and with an eye toward a mutually beneficial end.
Thanks for the article Mallie. There are definitely new connections that I make that I seem to click with right away and others that don’t “click” at all. All relationships whether online or off take time and persistence. Thanks for the reminder that we need to take steps and build up slowly.
Love it! I was just saying how brands have to stop collecting Fans on Facebook and start creating loyal brand advocates … which means conversation and relationship building. It IS a lot like dating, isn’t it?! We truly believe that at B2 and I hope other marketers start to adopt this attitude, too.
This is great! I love the concept and the examples will definitely make people understand the importance of slowly getting your fans involved and engaged. Social is not the space where if someone says “hi,” you assume they are your BFF for life. We all know what assume means… Thank you for the post!
It definitely takes patience and time to develop relationships and turn that into continuing conversations. And, that’s probably one of the most difficult to understand, especially after a Fan Page day when connections are made so quickly. It’s what happens after the party that is so important to a long term relationship.
Terrific topic!
When I use the word, “engage”, online it’s in the context of “engage yourself” … in social media, in conversations, in opportunities to collaborate with joint venture partners, etc. In other words, engage your engine and get that motor running!
Thank you, Mallie, for reminding everyone there are essential steps in building relationships.
Great post and you know I am totally on board with you on this point, Mallie! Brooke said just what I was going to post. It’not about fan count, it’s about fan connection!
Love the dating analogy Mallie! It really illustrates your point.
Just taught a workshop on this. Most people ‘got it’ yet one lady continues to spam walls and send out the same message over and over. I stressed the importance of meeting, connecting, the ‘first date’ (what to say), the trust building etc. My take on it: some people will never get it online, as they are abrasive off line, too!
Neat article, Mallie.
Fabulous way to describe online relationships! People are people. Makes no difference if we are online or off. Nice post!
This is a great post Mallie! These are exactly the steps everyone needs to go through to create and maintain meaningful cyber relationships on Facebook!
For some reason, I failed to reply to any comments on this post. Not sure if I just missed a lot of notifications or what. As you all know, I am the type who comments on almost every comment, so not sure what happened here. Thanks to all who read, shared and commented. I’m in the middle of an overhaul of the Media Barista site and blog, so will be sharing some new links soon!