Social Media Marketing

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

August 17, 2011 by Kari Rippetoe

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

August 12, 2011 by Kari Rippetoe

How the London riots showed us two sides of social networking from Ars Technica: The London riots are the latest in a series of uprisings in recent years where social media sites like Twitter have been the main hubs of activity – from organization and mobilization to as-it-happens news. Those of us who use these tools as part of our jobs are so used to our own one-sided viewpoints of social media and how Twitter and Facebook can be used; but the riots reveal the much darker side. To the point that the British PM David Cameron is considering blocking Twitter and Facebook in the UK.

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:

Facebook stole every contact and phone number in your phone – here’s how to undo the damage from BGR
A Box You Want to Uncheck on LinkedIn from Connection Agent

Have a great weekend!

What We’re Reading, July 29th: The Too Damn Hot Edition

July 29, 2011 by Kari Rippetoe

It’s hot…damn hot. And while you may not be able to avoid going outside, at least we can provide you with some insightful posts to keep you inside and in the A/C a little longer. Hey, if you keep reading you might even get some free JELL-O Pudding out of it!

Research: 2/3 of CMOs Prefer Working With Smaller Firms from PRNewser: If you’re shopping for a marketing firm, take note of this research – it illustrates the value that smaller shops can bring in the form of client service and intimate partnerships.
The 9 Creative Uses for Google+ Hangouts You Didn’t Think Of from Business Insider: We haven’t tried Hangouts yet, but thanks to this article we can definitely see the potential!
Google+ Tips: Where to Begin and How to Share Content Quickly While Mobile from HuffPost Tech: For those just getting started with Google+, our friend Chris Rauschnot shares his tips for success – both at your desk and on the go.
How to Incorporate Influencers Into Content Marketing from Content Marketing Institute: Outreach is just one part of influencer marketing. This post from Amanda Maksymiw of Openview Venture Partners provides some tips for integrating influencer and content marketing to build your content program.
What Klout is Really Good For… from Never Stop Marketing: Speaking of influencers, the takeaway here is that community trumps influence.
HOW TO: Utilize Social Data More Effectively from Mashable: If you’re only using the data mined from social media to measure the success of your efforts, you’re not leveraging it in the best way. This post from Nate Elliot of Forrester Research talks about why.

And now, some fun stuff (as if social media wasn’t enough fun):

JELL-O Offers Free Pudding to World’s Saddest Tweeters from SocialTimes: With all the economic woe in the world right now, it’s easy to get a little depressed. But JELL-O wants to help turn those frowns upside-down by giving free pudding to people tweeting with frowny emoticons ( 🙁 ). Now if only the U.S. government could pay its debt in pudding…
Alex Trebek Chases Suspected Burglar, Inspiring Awful ‘Jeopardy!’ Jokes from NYTimes.com: IBM’s Watson may have beat the Jeopardy Grand Champion, but let’s see it do this.

And remember how hot we said it was? Here in DC, it was actually hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk: