Clarke De Pastino of Ipsos SMX in Los Angeles began his talk at the May 22 Community Management Conference by trying to define engagement. 

What is engagement?

What we know is that consumers today expect to be engaged by brands. That wasn’t the case say ten years ago.De Pastino said that 91 per cent of generation C (“C” stands for content for the YouTube generation born between March 12, 1988 and April 24, 1993) is engaging with brands online.

“Engagement” is also number eight on Mashable’s 30 overused buzzwords in digital marketing.

Engagement is actually really hard to define even though everyone is talking about it,” said De Pastino. Still, engagement is about the symbol of one’s commitment. It is the bedrock or foundation of how we communicate online.

De Pastino offered his 10 rules of online engagement:

1. Demonstrate and deliver value. That’s when we ask ourselves, “am I actually going to take time to do it? De Pastino said one example where the organization actually does this well is in the Condé Nast Style Society.

2. Build relationships. Organizations have to value individuals interested in their content and allow enough time to build a relationship with them.

In Welcome to the Human Era, John Marshall and Graham Ritchie describe it as a time when “customer insight yields more intimate relationships, which in turn accelerates insight. Across industries, we see this leading to higher profitability, deeper share-of-wallet relationships, and stronger market values.”

He said one important test is to ask questions you’re willing to answer. If you’re not willing to answer them, chances are others aren’t going to be either.

3. Be transparent. For this point, De Pastino used the example of Generation Benz asking the question “What’s your favourite vodka?” They were the title sponsor along with Skyy Vodka of the Sex in the City movie. And providing that context was key to their engagement.

4. Involve the brand. To do this De Pastino says to challenge executives to also participate. Get them to ask questions, provide answers and be willing to reply in the way that Richard Branson does through #askRichard.

5. Show impact. Reporting back the value of participation is also key to continue the momentum with engagement. One such example is My Starbucks Idea, which in 2012 turned 277 ideas into life.

6. Recognize and reward. De Pastino says it’s key to create a vested interest in the community to build engagement. One way is to make your community members famous in your community by recognizing their milestones or achievements.

7. Write engaging content. While this rule may seem obvious, De Pastino recognizes creating engaging content is actually a difficult job. He pointed to Oreo’s Twitter feed, Coca Cola’s Facebook, Dunkin Donuts’ Vine and Old Spice’s Instagram as examples.

8. Communicate regularly. De Pastino says it’s best to make it easy – make it stupid simple. 

9. Refresh the member base. No one should ever let their number of followers lull them into believing they’re doing ok. We should always in constant recruitment mode – every single day.

10. Moderate closely. De Pastino says there is nothing worse than not responding to a negative post. He says organizations have to reply and protect members from other members – that’s part of the responsibility of community management. He added UPS’s customer service Twitter account and the Nike Running Facebook page as organizations that do it well.

See the 10 golden rules of engagement slide deck below:

Need help with your organization’s engagement? We can help you make a ruckus. 

Also check out Make Your Own Engagement for more highlights from CM1.

Posted by
Diane Bégin
on 10/06/2014