One of the reasons we discuss listening and engagement as two sides of a similar social media coin is because they’re so interrelated. And while listening is something you can do passively and behind the scenes, beginning your engagement strategy is something to consider carefully because once you’re out there, reverse gear is hard to find.

I was speaking with someone this last week at IMS Dallas about her company’s social media work. They’ve been listening and monitoring their brand and to their great credit, they’re really on top of the conversations happening around them. They’ve determined that they have distinctive groups of people in their community that they’ll want to talk to, and they know that they’ve got both fans and detractors that they’ll need to address.

One thing they’ve been trying to figure out, however, is how they can engage with select groups of their customers individually and separately. And my answer? You really can’t.

The trick is that customers don’t put themselves in buckets. They look at their relationship with your company holistically, and don’t delineate between what department they should be dealing with or where you park them in your CRM system. To your community, the relationship they’re building with you is universal.

What that means in terms of engagement is that you’re going to have a hard time trying to engage with one “sector” of your community, but not another. Once you’ve opened the door to communicating and engaging with your community, they’re going to want to talk to you, no matter where in your customer segmentation they fall. If you’re talking specifically to your corporate or enterprise clients, your individual clients and customers are going to see that. And they’re going to want to talk to you, too.

If you start a blog, folks are going to leave comments, and the unspoken expectation from them is that you’re going to respond. If you’re reaching out to your customers on Twitter, they’re not going to consider how they’re classified in your customer index, they’re just going to want to talk to you (and have you talk back).

I know that’s hard. Social media *can* be hard. But here’s where the listening bit really helps.

If you spend the time and effort to listen and monitor, you’ll be able to identify trends in the conversation and understand – *before* you engage – what your customers might be expecting from you once you get there. The intelligence you mine through listening becomes the foundation for your engagement strategy, and making the case for getting your entire organization involved – from customer service to marketing to technical support and sales.

So yes, the challenge is that once you engage with your community, going back is hard (if not impossible). Starting that dialogue is an open invitation to your community, and they’ll take you up on it, and expect that you’ll continue – even if that means that you have to learn along the way.

But don’t let that deter you. Use your listening practices strategically. Take the time – weeks, or even months – to inform yourself about all the what-ifs of engagement for your company and how your community is likely to react when you start conversing with them.

That way, instead of being surprised by the influx of people who want to talk to you, you’ll be able to confidently and consistently connect with your customers, wherever they are, and evolve your engagement strategy along the way.

So what about you? Are you listening but not yet talking? What challenges are you facing getting started, and have you been surprised by the response from your community (for better or worse)? Can’t wait to hear from you in the comments.