Rules of Social Engagement: A Process Flow

Social networks are evolving. As businesses discover what consumers want and expect in terms of interaction and direct communication from a brand, they try new avenues to engage those consumers. And as they experiment with these different avenues, consumer expectations and desires change to meet (or reject) these new methods of engagement. Today’s acceptable practices may be tomorrow’s SPAM, and the uncertainty can be daunting to brands who are just starting to move beyond “listening” and are looking to engage.

What are the first steps that brands need to take to engage the social public? What’s the difference between responsive and proactive engagement? How do brands determine when to engage and in what manner?

Edelman Digital — Engagement Process

Rules of Engagement - Click to Englarge

What I like about this approach is that it’s a logical flow that enables individuals to make thoughtful and conscious decisions on how to proceed. The process combines an easy-to-follow yes/no decision tree with an overall best-practices flow of social engagement (Listen – Assess – Engage – Repeat). It also includes a decision process to determine when private engagement is more appropriate than a public response. Companies looking to implement or refine their social media guidelines and procedures can utilize this as a both a guide to draft their policies as well as a way to easily communicate their final policies and procedures. This kind of flow chart is much more accessible and usable than written policy guidelines and can be an “at-a-glance” reference for all employees involved in managing or supporting social outreach.

Customizing to Your Own Company

You can utilize the Edelman process for your own company as-is or create a version that is customized to your specific resources and processes. How?

1. Review your current policies for engagement. Does the flow chart map to your methods? Does it point to areas where you haven’t set down procedures?
2. White-board your process. Get your stake-holders and community managers involved in defining and reviewing your policies and process. Chances are that your front-line community managers have identified some areas where the policies that you have in place need review and updating.
3. Draw and distribute. Create your flow graphic to summarize your engagement process and publish it as a desktop reference for your community managers, customer support personnel, brand managers or anyone that is public-facing or utilizes social media within their company.

Proactive Engagement

Edelman’s process is a great way for brands to monitor and manage their presence and to respond to comments on the social web. However, brands are also puzzled by the more murky proactive process of engaging “new” consumers that may not be aware of a brand or haven’t made the leap to following or liking a brand on social networks.

I’ll be writing about that process in future blog posts, but I’d love to hear from you and find out how you manage social outreach and engagement for your business or brand and whether you have created (or now are creating!) a similar flow for your company. Please leave a comment here!

Margaret Donnelly (@mwdonnelly) is Director of Marketing for @meltwaterbuzz at @meltwatergroup. Meltwater Buzz is a web-based platform that enables businesses and brands to monitor social networks for relevant conversations and engage social individuals in direct communications.