Are *You* Truly Engaged?

It was a comment from Zoë and a title of a blog post from Chris Brogan that made me ask the question. Twitter can be tiring and pointless noise, and social media can be a bunch of chores, if the intent does not match the intention. If your involvement is not engagement, then what happens to the outcomes?

As Zoë put it so well, when we approach these tools with intention and honesty, they fuel fulfilling outcomes. But when we approach them out of boredom or restlessness, we remain unfulfilled. And so we do and so do companies that are thinking about joining the social media bandwagon. Yes, there is a bandwagon effect in social media.

To find true engagement, we need to first deliver engagement ourselves. It turns out that social media is but a reflection of life, just like public relations, marketing, and everything else with them - we get out of it what we put in. Fulfilling the list of chores is not going to make you better, it's not going to make you kick ass, it's not even going to take you to the top, or help you change the world - by itself.

To get to your engagement there are many things you don't need. You don't need to follow someone else's rules. You don't need to be a guru or an expert to be worth spending time with. You don't need lofty definitions or titles, either. Among all the things you don't need is also the list of chores. As Chris Guillebeau writes, you most certainly don't need other people's permission.

What you do need is clarity in what you want and awareness of who you are. Then believe passionately in both as you step off the map, recognizing that they - you - will change over time with experience. We're human beings, we're fragile, sometimes insecure, and yet incredibly resilient and enduring as we defy the most incredible circumstances often with the strength of an idea whose time has come.

For markets to be true conversations, we need to have people who are truly engaged in the experience. Yesterday we talked about mapping the customer journey. Do we have an idea of what our own journey is? This is a question not just for individuals, organizations, too can lose their way.

Applying good advice blindly to your own situation will not do you any good if you don't have an appreciation for your own context and a desire to engage with it yourself. This is the main reason why you often hear that you have to be immersed in social media and experience it in first hand to know what it's about. You do. But don't approach it as one more checklist of things to do.

"Social" is the ultimate disintermediation mechanism, sometimes so real and amazingly unfiltered, at other times seemingly too much and confusing. Where things may not seem to be what they really are. Are you who you really are immersed in it? Did you publish a list to be generous or to be seen as expert? Are you collecting people like you did with baseball cards - to observe them from a distance - or because you really want to meet them, be with them?

This is all yours to decide. And it's a decision that will determine the kind of engagement you will have as you move into the execution phase. In social media, you are the product. Is the product good enough to mass market, or does it market itself? This is applicable to professional endeavors, too, in case you were wondering. What is the experience of you?

True engagement begins at home - inside - and travels to the corners of the world.

[images from Wiredset and Australia Post campaign]

Comments

[Joe Mescher]

..."Twitter Followers are Useless, Twitter Listeners are Priceless"

People who think Social Media, and Twitter in particular, will answer their questions or make them famous (or just lead to happiness) without putting in sweat equity don't get it.

And that's ok.

It takes time to get over the initial euphoria of being so interconnected and 'Follower Click Happy'.

This article is spot on though, fulfillment comes from within.

Social Media is just a tool for starting conversations and putting ideas into action. That said, you can do amazing things with the power of the Interwebs.

Start a charity.

Enlist friends to run a marathon.

It's up to you. What's your SocMed Plan of Attack?

Joe Mescher
www.SocialMediaCommando.com

[Andrew - happier.com]

Valeria (and Joe, whose comment is right before mine) - you're right on. Engagement is critical. Especially when it comes to finding meaningful, authentic happiness in our work, and not just mindless task-doing.

As you probably know, there's an entire scientific study of happiness and engagement. There's even a scientifically-valid measurement of engagement, called "flow." While it sounds simple, knowing when you're "in flow" is helpful because it means you're on the right track. People in flow do better at work and in sports, and are more satisfied with how they spend their time.

How do you know you are in flow?

-- You are working on something challenging, and not impossible or mindless.

-- You have put aside anxious thoughts or other critical things - you're giving yourself the space to focus.

-- Give it time. You can't just become totally engaged or start doing something and immediately be "in flow." It takes time. This is one reason that we often do our best work in long-ish chunks. But give yourself time to rest, as well.

-- The number one way that you know you are "in flow" or truly engaged in something is because you lose track of time while doing it.

So, next time you're tweeting or posting or using social media, see if you find yourself "in flow." That's when we do our best work and when twittering isn't just frittering and becomes a genuine conversation.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Joe - I'm liking the action ideas you shared here a lot, thank you.

@Andrew - it sounds like we might know some of the same people connected with the Authentic Happiness Project at UPenn. I Read "Flow" and remember many of the teachings. Indeed when I write and work, I often experience it. And I probably learned a thing of two about conversation :)

[Brian Corcoran]

Two touch points that resonate (see below) - it would be wonderful if more understood them as part of the social media network...and perhaps the face-to-face network too!

"Flow" - you're in it when you lose track of time while doing something. What a great summary! Too often, after we realize how 'long' we have been at a particular task or project, we chastise ourselves for the time suck. Shame!

"Clarity in what you want and awareness of who you are." This is an age old dilemma which is now exacerbated by connectivity. Is there too much choice? too many options? too many ways to escape into another world? too many distractions which stop us from getting in flow and finding ourselves?

[Lisa Gates]

Valeria, first time here and loving this post. I've noticed something about SM, and humans being human, it's a lot like life. If the intent is to connect, be curious and learn, engagement then also makes room for the offhanded and improvisational, or the inspired mistake.

It's often the seed of how plays and books get written, events hatched, businesses built, causes formed, celebrations started.

[Zoe]

Valeria,

I really appreciate how you expanded snippets of an idea into a loose guide -- and boost of confidence -- in moving forward in this space. I love your summary: "What you do need is clarity in what you want and awareness of who you are." I think that explains why I'm perpetually re-drawing my map (often literally, I love mind maps!) and re-assessing where I stand and where I'm going. It keeps me completely invested in what I'm doing.

Like Lisa Gates commented above, I think you're right on to say we should simply engage here as we strive to do in "real" life ... and thereby acknowledge the "realness" of our online interactions :).

[Leah Bassett]

This is a great post -- very insightful. What I find interesting as well is how engagement is related to how consumers recommend products and services to others. If the form and manner of engagement is meaningful and authentic, then there comes a desire to share. Word of mouth marketing has grown so much with the advent of social networking sits and micro-blogs like Facebook and Twitter that sharing is easier than ever before. Although these tools can be fun and useful for driving buzz, the issues of creating sustainable conversation of value should be the foundation of all business online.

Everyday, I see brands excited about growing their online presence, but it's all about using the tools and not the strategy and level of engagement behind what makes them successful. Being transparent and authentic are key elements to creating a valuable experience for the consumer.

[Scott]

Love your post! Just one minor qualification around your comment "social media is but a reflection of life, just like public relations, marketing, and everything else with them - we get out of it what we put in"...In my experience of life... if you put in with the EXPECTATION of something out of it...it doesn't work...it is only when you put in with NO EXPECTATION that it works...a much more difficult aspect of engagement in any form.