Over the last few days I have been putting together a presentation about how to drive engagement through social media.
As I looked for examples, a couple of things struck me.
First, engagement is just a trendy word for conversation, and conversation is a big word for talking. In other words, social media is about talking with people.
Second, I discovered that almost nobody was actually using social media as a means to talk with people.
By far the most common use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social sites was simply to talk at people. Here is what I’m doing. Here is what I’m thinking. Here is what I have written. Here is some news about our latest product or service.
In other words, most companies are still using social media as a broadcast medium.
However, I did find companies that were taking the trouble to talk with their prospects and customers through social media.