Six Principles of Social Business Engagement

We are in an era where all business is social. Even regulated businesses are being pulled into the social sphere by their customers. Up until now, social business engagement has seemed complex, but it doesn't have to be.

The following principles of social business engagement are great rules to leverage as you develop your plan.

1.    Focus on goal for the engagement: Define your goal upfront, these goals will drive your overall engagement strategy. The focus is the value you provide, not cost or efficiency.

 2.    Focus on your subject matter expertise and value to the reader, not on selling: Your engagement strategy is not sales strategy, but how you form relationship.Example, helping people and giving away free tips and news about marketing online. It engages a subject of value and this will  attract lots of interest and can grow your customers base.

 3.    Be consistent in commenting and engaging: Engaging holds someone interest, you need to be consistent to your comment and dialogues, this is where you become important as the leader, thus maintaining the level of activity. When you are active you will gain the trust of the members, also,ensuring the appropriate content activation plan. Put your best out and motivate your members to be active.

 4.    Have a content strategy: Social business require a content strategy to truly engage. If your content or information is not fresh, not relevant or not valuable then people will go elsewhere. Think of content as aggregation of voices. Information coming from different functions will make the message stronger. A great social business content strategy requires continuous, steady and time to build and manage the network, with eventual value created as the network grows.

 5.    Focus on relationships not numbers: Engagement is about relationship. The relationship must be established, maintained and nurtured. The focus shouldn't be on making the numbers. Focusing on numbers of visitors does not gain momentum; rather form long lasting relationship with the visitors.

6.    Integrate social techniques: The linkage between the social tools that you choose matters. So if your Twitter, blog and Facebook page are not in sync in terms of message, you will have an issue in portraying your brand in a way that is effective. Yes this is management 101, but many people forget these rules in the visual world. I leverage social platform such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in a consistent to build one another.

Social business engagement helps you fine people with similar interest and bond with those who are loyal followers.

To your Success
Lucy Bieri