Unconventional Wisdom - The Tuvel Communications Blog

Engaging Your Customers in Unconventional Ways

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The Earthquake Will Be Socialized…

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I’ve never been in an earthquake before, and I had no clue what was going on when it hit yesterday. When I did, my first instinct was not to stand in the nearest doorway (what I should’ve done, in case it was worse than it turned out to be) – it was to start tweeting about it.

In fact, it was the first instinct of many, many others. Seconds after it happened, I saw tweets from people in DC, New York, Ohio – it was how I found out just how far-reaching the quake was. I went to CNN, and they were still reporting events in Libya as breaking news. I heard from a few of my followers that I was the first person in their stream to tweet about the earthquake.

I checked Facebook and saw all the tremor chatter there – this only minutes after it happened. We were all sharing information and our experiences in real time, long before mainstream media picked up on it.

This may be old news to you, but social media once again serves as the hub of activity and updates during an emergency. So think about how powerful it can be during a non-emergency – a conference or a fundraising campaign. Word-of-mouth matters, and social media is the tool that can help you spread the word.

 

How Engaged is Your Community? The 5 Levels of Social Media Engagement

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If you manage social media outposts for your business or organization, then no doubt you’ve heard the word “engagement” numerous times. It isn’t enough for people to simply follow or like you, the goal is for them to interact and participate in a way that keeps them engaged with your brand. But because we’re talking about “social” media, we have to consider and accept that different people are social in different ways. Not everyone will engage in the same way, but you can help them to increase their levels of participation so they are more engaged with your brand in a meaningful way.

How engaged is your social media community? There are 5 levels of increasing engagement we’ve identified through our social media research and campaign work, which will help you to segment your community members:

 
  • Level 1: Observing – watching the conversation from a far & simply “lurking” to decide if it’s interesting/valuable enough to join.
  • Level 2: Following – following the brand in some way, i.e. following on Twitter or Liking on Facebook.
  • Level 3: Engaging – interacting in a limited fashion, such as clicking through to read your content, viewing a video, or Liking a wall post.
  • Level 4: Endorsing – actively sharing your content with others, i.e. retweeting, sharing via Facebook, etc.
  • Level 5: Contributing – actively participating in the conversation and interacting with your brand, i.e. tweeting to your brand, posting on your Facebook wall, or commenting on a blog post.

Notice that the circles in the graphic get smaller as the level increases. This means that the number of people decreases as they become more and more engaged with your brand through social media. This is to be expected, and those Level 4 and 5 folks are the ones you should ultimately focus on building relationships with – they are your brand advocates. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t pay attention to the people in Levels 1-3, because there are steps you can take to move them up the ladder and convert them to Endorsers and Contributors.

What are those steps? Stay tuned…that’s another blog post!

 

 

What We’re Reading, August 12th

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Before I continue with this week’s reading list, I want to ask you to post your thoughts in the comments below on social media’s role in the London riots – do you think blocking Twitter and Facebook is the answer?

Now, back to our regularly-scheduled reading list:

  • Klout Shares 6 Secrets Of Twitter Hashtag Chats from AllTwitter: Thinking of hosting your own Twitter chat? Klout offers some useful tips to help you get started.
  • 64% of Small Businesses Think Social Media is Unnecessary [STUDY] from Mashable: This is an interesting report, but I’m baffled how it distinguishes word of mouth marketing (which 50% say they can’t do without) from social media (which apparently small businesses don’t have so much of a need for). Things that make you go…”Really?”
  • StumbleUpon Launches Program to Help Nonprofits from AdAge: Is it me, or have we not heard much about StumbleUpon lately? They seem to have gotten lost in the social networking jungle. But having used their Paid Discovery platform in the past, I definitely like what they’re doing for nonprofits with a new Stumbling for Good program.

We’ve also been reading about privacy issues in social networks (when aren’t there privacy issues?) – here are a couple of articles to help you:

Have a great weekend!