Posts tagged as:

engagement

Twitter, Followers, and First Date Syndrome

by Daria Steigman on January 30, 2012

Awkward Meeting of Terra Cotta Warriers, Twitter, Independent ThinkingI cleaned my Twitter house recently, dropping off over 200 people whose streams never grabbed my attention and/or with whom I rarely or never engaged.

This was not a lazy mass unfollow; I looked at every single account. One by one. (No, it didn’t all happen in one sitting.) And guess what? I can identify most of the avatars in my stream, and I know why I’m following you (e.g., marketing smarts, entrepreneur, funny, news source, runner, baseball fan, athlete, friend, tweet chatter, etc.).

My mantra for social is engagement.

Someone tweeted me the other day:

Informal Poll: Why Are You Following Me?

It’s the wrong question to ask me.

You see, I know why I followed you. But sometimes, like a first date, it goes nowhere.

Who do you follow–and why? Is it “the right reason” for you?

Photo by Shashi Bellamkonda (Flickr).

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Are Your Customers Feeling the Love?

by Daria Steigman on December 15, 2011

Connecting Customers With Your BrandWe talk a lot about connecting with customers (and clients, prospects, and so forth)–but are they feeling the love? In other words, are they connecting with us?

These are not the same thing.

What a Two-Way Connection Looks Like

I’ve always highly valued my University of Chicago education. And I’m the second generation to earn a degree there (my mom was first), and then my brother followed me. But other than sending me an alumni magazine, the only time I ever heard from the university was when they wanted money.

(Except for the awesome local U of C Entrepreneurs Group, but I’ve always viewed that more as a business group than a university group.)

Now, thanks to, UChicagoAlumni, I feel connected to the institution.

It’s not about a Twitter feed. It’s Tracey Swanson (the voice of UChicagoAlumni), who gets that talking to people (conversation), listening to them (he honored my request to change how he identified my affiliation with the university when retweeting me), and valuing what they’re doing (he shares the occasional blog post from here with his audience) are critical in forging a two-way connection.

What are you doing to ensure your customers are engaged with you?

Photo by Worthy FM (Flickr).

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Gary Vaynerchuk, Peeps, and the Secret to Success

by Daria Steigman on October 3, 2011

peeps, Gary Vaynerchuk, engagement, About twice a year, I wish I were Sean Combs.

I’m always running when this happens.

At big-name-big-city races, Combs and other celebrities typically run with an entourage. The people who hold their GUs and Gatorade bottles and hang onto extra layers of clothes when they don’t need them. I’d so love someone to hand me CarbBOOM and pass my phone over when I get the urge to tweet “fueling up for that last push” at mile 12 of a half-marathon.

Most of the time, though, I’d rather have peeps than a posse.

The difference? The posse are role players. Peeps care about you.

Here’s how to have peeps.

Do you:

  • Talk to the toll taker on the highway?
  • Wave to the road crew dude holding the “go slow” sign?
  • Ask “how are you today” when you place an order at the takeout counter?
  • Say thank you when the usher scans your ticket?
  • Chat with the security guard who’s signing you in?

You make friends by being friendly. And having people who have your back is all about caring about them too.

I heard Gary Vaynerchuk talk recently about what he terms the “thank you economy,” and one of the points he made is that word of mouth is the equity that all businesses are built upon.

In other words, peeps are the secret to success.

Photo by QFamily (Flickr). 

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Does Engagement Matter?

by Daria Steigman on May 31, 2011

Social Media, Engagement, Enchantment, Independent Thinking, Steigman CommunicationsDeborah Brody wrote a terrific blog post last week about the role of engagement. She said in part:

In social media, people talk about engagement all the time. You have to “engage” with your followers. What does this really mean? Why are you engaging? The answer is simple–to build a lasting relationship (the “marriage”).

A couple days after Brody’s post, I had the pleasure of hearing Guy Kawasaki talk about how to be enchanting. His starting point: “I want to move from engagement to enchantment.”

I think they’re both onto something. What say you?

Next post, I’ll recap my top six takeaways from Guy Kawasaki’s talk.

Photo by Joost J Bakker (Flickr).

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Get Rid of that First Impression Once and For All

by Daria Steigman on January 18, 2011

Business, Engagement, Branding | Independent Thinking | Steigman Communications, llcYou can’t really shake a first impression. It’s done. When we screw it up, we have to live with that.

But I’ll share a secret: You can make a second impression.

I received a call recently from someone I’d talked to a few months ago about a possible project. She had read my blog post on The Importance of Saying “No” and saw herself in there. And so she called to say “I’m sorry.”

It takes guts to apologize. More important, it takes a lot of class.

In my earlier post, I wrote:

Most of us have mental lists of people who have gone out of their way to be helpful–or not. To answer or return phone calls–or not. To give an honest answer to an honest question–or not.

Guess which list she’s on now?

Photo by David Spender (Flickr).

Have you signed up to receive the Independent Thinking newsletter? Now’s the time! Once a month I’ll send you exclusive, subscriber-only content highlighting interesting articles I’ve found, as well as tips on marketing, social media, and how to grow your business. Sign up today!

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