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The word engagement is over-used when it comes to social media. By now I am sure you have all heard the familiar phrase, “Social media is about engaging with clients not selling to them”. If I see these words in a blog post or article, I usually stop reading the post because I have heard this phrase a billion times.
Engagement is important, but it isn’t everything. Do people really go on social media just to engage with others. Well, maybe if you are connecting with friends on Facebook or if you are a part of a twitter chat. Yes, engagement can be a good thing.
I am looking more closely at the word, “Experience”. Keeping people’s attention is more about creating an experience which invites people in and keeps people’s interest. I have really studied my numbers with respect to the “Bounce” rate on Google Analytics. When I first started out blogging, my bounce rate was 80% and above, this means 80% of the people were looking at my blog post and getting out in less than 5-10 seconds. This is not good. Over the past three years, I have brought this rate down between 10-30%. This information tells me that people are staying longer on the site and want more.
This is the part I am working on a the present time, “Want More” I am defining goals to move people take one of the following actions:
- Pick up the phone and call
- Share my content with others
- Sign-up for regular email updates
- Purchase an item or service
- Leave a comment or opinion.
- Open an Account
These goals are different depending on which blog site, the readers are on. For this marketing site which you are currently reading, I focus more on items 2,3 and 5 because I write to inform others and gain insights into how others are using social media. For my company site, I focus on all 6 items because I am trying to bring people in and show people that our company is in tuned with the events, activities and topics affecting all of us from a science, chemistry and food testing perspective.
The experience takes a team. This isn’t something you can effectively do on your own. I do believe it is important for top business management to start the conversation and make sure the support management staff is in a position to support the message being communicated. When you tie service into social media, you create much more than engagement. You create an experience which people are excited to be in especially because everyone can see the results of such efforts.
What is your objective with respect to social media? Are you making the transition from engagement to experience? If you have made that move, congratulations.
Image courtesy of Young Receptionist / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
