Rules of Engagement

We’ve all heard the age-old marketing questions time and time again. But what about the new ones? You know….. Facebook or MySpace? How valuable are 10 friends in the social media realm? 100? Perhaps 1,000?

(Caution: you may be overwhelmed already. It’s ok.)

Truth be told, it’s not a cookie-cutter, one solution fits all answer. In fact, to determine which networks are the best fit for your organization, first evaluate your goals. Are you trying to reach young teens? Then Myspace is your best bet. Looking to touch business professionals and community leaders? Facebook and Twitter are key.

And when it comes to number of friends and followers, is more actually……better? Not necessarily. This year, a new metric is on the map: engagement. Engagement measures the involvement of members in any particular social network. Are 100 active members more valuable than 10,000 inactive members? When measuring engagement, the answer is YES.

Social networks are interactive by nature; it makes sense that they should be measured by the involvement of their members. If you aren’t having a two-way conversation with your target audiences, you’re simply missing the mark.

Not participating in this social realm as of yet? Get off the sideline and start engaging!