To even begin understanding how to engage online, we need to understand what engagement truly is, right? How is engagement defined in the context of the social web? What does it mean? How does it differ for individuals and brands? What does it mean to our brand?

These questions are essential to ask when you’re getting ready to take on social media, but it’s rare that organizations take the time to do just that – they latch on to a general definition of engagement and just hop to it, failing to take the time to understand exactly what the term means to them.

And all too often you’ll hear a general chatter that says something like, “Hey, at least they’re doing something.” I’m contesting that statement: If you’re going to invest time and resources into social media programs, do the necessary front-end work to get it right. In that same vein, if you’re going to engage, take the time to define engagement in a way that suits your company’s goals, brand(s), and culture.

Engagement Means Talking? Not Always.

At first glance, a company might think engaging on the social web means just being there. “If you build it, they will come.” That’s just not so. If you run a quick Google search for “social media engagement,” for a definition of the term, you’ll find a good number of great resources that map out some of the details of engagement, or even help you map out those details yourself.

While engagement is most often defined as talking with — not AT — your customers, there’s much more to the equation than just talking. For example, engagement can also entail:

1. Listening and absorbing what people are saying about your brand, products, services, and your general market. That absorption bit right there? That’s big. Here at Radian6, part of the Community Team’s purpose is to pay attention to the ebb and flow of conversation happening in our community, which includes customers, prospects, fans, and the general social-media-for-business-use community. And not only do we pay attention to that ebb and flow but it directly impacts our larger company programs and initiatives.
2. Creating and sharing useful content with your audience. I know, that “content” word is kind of buzzy right now, but buzzwords come about for a reason. Offer up a bit of knowledge to your community that helps them solve their problems, achieve their goals, or feeds their curiosity. In this instance, engagement is essentially an act of giving and demonstrating that you care not only about what folks are saying, but also about how they’re faring.
3. Making the customer experience easier/more pleasant/quicker/all of the above. Does this include talking with them? Usually. But not always. Improved engagement in this case can also mean bumping up the usability of your website. Does your site allow folks to find what they need easily? Does it pique their interest? Does the flow of information on your site allow visitors to navigate through it quickly? This is just one example, but do you see where I’m heading here?
4. Creating opportunities for your audience members to connect with each other. This falls in line with showing you care about how your people are faring — developing an environment for folks to chat openly about their problems or successes offers up a chance for those people to help each other (and possibly reduce customer service costs for you), and it also shows that your company recognizes the value of personal connections and validates the concerns of your community, as well.
5. Broadcasting. The stickiest of wickets. BUT, if an organization is open and honest about using a particular social channel to broadcast, say, in-store sales, product price reductions, tidbits of insight about products and services, or other pieces of information that it has found resonates with its community, then by all means, it’s welcome to broadcast. Should an organization broadcast on every social media channel it owns? No. But is there some room for this sort of behavior? Yes, there is. It’s clarifying the intent that’s most important here.

Now here’s the bite-sized bit of brain food you should really take away from this post: Engagement is more than the sum of its obvious parts, should be as personal to your company as it is to you as an individual, and flies outside the bounds of direct customer chat. Engagement is truly what you make of it.

What does engagement mean to you? Do you identify with the concept that engagement is more than just talking with people? Why or why not? Please share your thoughts in the comments!