Why we should ditch the word ‘engagement’

It’s the social media battle cry: “More engagement!” It’s almost always the first response to “What should brands focus on when developing a social media strategy?”

Engagement is loosely defined as listening and responding to your audience—conversing on various social media platforms.

It’s terrifying to think that’s what a business’s No. 1 social media objective should be.

Let’s reframe our approach to social media.

There’s a time and a platform for engagement.

Why are we so stuck on finding a tried-and-true way to do social media? As with any other business practice, how your company manages social media should reflect your own or your company’s business goals, not the goals of another company. Yet we rail against brands that don’t “engage” in the online space or spend vast amounts of time having conversations.

Our CEO’s Twitter feed, @MarkRaganCEO, is a news feed. He chats with customers from time to time, but our audience knows the account is primarily a source of information. We post links that lead back to our sites.