Get engaged!

Not the married type of engaged, but the engaged type that makes you interact with your social network followers.

That was last weeks poll question “How does your college/university primarily start interaction on their primary social networking page?” A majority said they talk or ask questions to their followers. The second largest group said they do absolutely nothing to interact with their followers while the smallest group of respondents did giveaways in exchange for their input.

Surprisingly, the people that took the poll did not chose any of the following options that were available as a response.

• Ask followers trivia questions
• Ask followers to provide pictures of them doing certain actions, wearing certain things, etc
• Ask followers to provide videos of them performing certain tasks or assignments
• Ask followers to do a treasure hunt of sorts around campus/community hangouts
• Put a “planted” student, staff, or faculty as a follower on the social network to constantly provide input to coax input from others

The chart below provides the full story.

With any social network, the idea is to create a community with involvement. I have seen many a network with absolutely no interaction and occasionally someone would write a comment “we need to put some content on here” or “this site is boring”. Little interaction on your social network site can possibly lead followers to perceive that your organization

• doesn’t know how to communicate with its stakeholders
• is boring
• can’t be that personable if they can’t even talk to me over the internet
• doesn’t know how to use technology or scared of technology
• doesn’t have anything new going on
• isn’t creative enough to do something fun

A negative perception due to a lack of interaction can do a lot of harm to your school’s brand, especially if your brand is known for using technology or being cutting edge or being hands-on.

Make sure to get people talking and have fun on your site by using some of the ideas mentioned in the poll above. It really is an exercise in how creative you can be. Games, trivia questions, flash mobs, contests, giveaways, video/picture participation, or treasure hunts with clues given via social network.

Some things to keep in mind that all us marketers probably already know:

• make it simple – No one will respond to something that makes their brains hurt
• keep in mind your audience – For example, creating a flash mob (see blog post on flash mobs) may be hard for those who don’t know how to use mobile technology.  Also, providing news clippings or providing little blurbs on your site may be all your social network audience really wants.
• be dynamic – Don’t do the same idea over and over and over and over again. If you do, people will be come bored.
• Don’t overstep boundaries – Don’t ask people to do things that are too personal. Many may find it uncomfortable and won’t participate
• For the masses – Don’t single out or alienate any group of people. For example, doing a particular event for engineering students only will alienate other students
• I won! – People like the occasional reward, especially cash strapped students. This can also be creative. Also make the reward worth the trouble of the task and give rewards as you feel comfortable doing and have the money for. For small tasks provide the small prizes. But for large tasks or contests think about using more exciting prizes.
• Lulls are okay – it is okay to have the occasional lull in the network. It sometimes can give the soft spoken members of your group a chance to speak up. It is also ok that members don’t login to your social network everyday. Pushing followers to participate constantly may be overkill.

Have fun and be creative to get your social network really cooking.

Be sure to take this weeks poll on the types of online advertising your organization uses. The poll is on the right side of this page.