The Spirit of Engagement

Social Media & Common Sense

Some things in life happen through the right attitude or frame of mind.  Remember when Jack Skelington used equations to analyze and figure out the Christmas spirit in Nightmare Before Christmas? Pretty silly isn’t it? Check out 9:30 in the video clip below

Likewise, analysis can only get you so far when it comes to social media. Many people really miss the point when it comes to engaging online audiences. It has become needlessly complicated.

Getting people to talk about your brand does not result from sheer technical prowess. And nor should it happen automatically just because you’ve built an awesome site.

Believe it or not, there are a lot of people out there who seem to believe this.  It’s not that they are foolish.  There is a lot of pressure when money and projects are at stake.

The Business of Online Marketing

Professionals in social media need metrics. Numbers provide a way to forecast outcomes.  They offer a sense of security, although there are many instances when relying too much on quantitative data can be detrimental to innovation.

Business is a serious indeed.  But it doesn’t need to be that serious, especially if it makes brands less appealing to audiences. Formalities shouldn’t result in rigid overly conventional practices. If they prevent “outside the box” thinking, it’s time to restructure outmoded & ridiculously linear ways of doing things.

Providing Experiences

Engaging your audience is about capturing their interest. And just as you can’t come up with a formula for capturing the Christmas spirit, you can’t come up with a formula for online engagement.

Yes you can look at behavioral data to see what types of content get the highest numbers. But anyone can do this. But if you don’t care about the quality of your selection, then no one else will either.

Behavioral data can be used as a general gage to see what your audience is interested in. Take this information and add your own personal touch. Then honestly ask yourself if this is interesting to you. And ask others for help as much as you can for their feedback.

If this sounds fluffy, think again. Social media is about sharing and being social.

With methodology aside, the spirit behind online engagement is about providing fresh and exciting experiences to audiences. All of us are inspired to share and talk about web content that is striking to us in some fashion.

So why not provide the same quality to your own content? Why not become focused on providing great experiences for people who come to your site? Either find a way to do it yourself, or get someone to do this for you.

Sound Advice

If you haven’t noticed, I love to quote Jack Trout. I think a few Troutisms  are relevant here.

* Common sense is your guide
* Research can obscure the obvious. A flood of data should never be allowed to wash away your common sense and your own feeling for the market
* When presented with a simple obvious strategy, many clients are not impressed. They are often looking for some clever, not so obvious idea.

Especially with the economy as it is, now is the time to really consider the importance of creating balanced right brain/left brain strategies.  There really isn’t a formula for tuning into your core audience.  But we all have it in us to connect with each other.  Tapping into this should not be underestimated.

What Does Psychology Have To Do With Social Media?

 

 

“Psychology is the study of the mind, thought, feeling and behavior”-Wikipedia

 

My major in college was Psychobiology. For the purposes of this blog, I am not going to talk about biology. But I’d like to discuss different topics in Psychology and how research in this area matters for social media.

 

Sure, there are many supposed experts in this social sphere. But does their collective knowledge represent all that ever needs to be known about harnessing the mysterious (I’m being facetious) powers of social media?

 

It surprises me that research findings in Psychology have yet to really interface with the realm of social media. This does take place to some extent. But applying academic research does not seem to be common practice.

 

Basic Questions in Psychology

 

The area of psychology is divided into branches. There basic inquiries are very much relevant to online marketing campaigns.

 

• Cognitive Psychology:  How people solve problems, think, remember, forget and utilize language.

• Perceptual Psychology- How people make sense out of the information they come across

• Social Psychology- “How people think, influence and relate to one another.” (socialpsychology.org)

• Psychology of Behavior-What causes people to behave in a certain way?

• Psychology of Learning- How people learn. What factors optimize learning experiences?

 

Why Research Findings Are Useful

 

Research experiments involve large numbers of subjects. Therefore the findings are not whimsical guesses. Statistics are used to determine whether or not the outcome of these experiments are due to chance or the variable in question. These two factors help ensure that conclusions are reliable. Reliable conclusions allow us to make predictions on a broad range of situations.

 

Being familiar with research literature is extremely useful if you want to make better decisions with social media strategies, instead of falling for various myths.