Social 101: How do you engage your audience?
This post is on the heels of seeing some spammy posts about getting more Twitter followers. It doesn't end there. An audience is like another person, to be treated with respect and engaged regularly.
So...whether it's your customer base, Twitter/Facebook followers, LinkedIn contacts, or even here on WF, how do you engage your audience and keep it thriving?
In another life I ran a popular Chicago Cubs fan community with a few friends. Believe me, Cubs fans need an outlet. Here are a few things we did that "clicked" with our audience:
1) Photo caption contests -- if you don't have any idea what this is, do a quick Google search. Our audience loved these, it was simple content and by posting the contest as a Wordpress post, it drove up our comment count significantly. It was also fairly easy to find sponsors for the contest, which would be a small iTunes gift card or similar. Even without a "prize" a caption contest is still a lot of fun.
2) Highlight reader e-mails -- whether your audience is 10 people or 10,000, selecting an e-mail from an audience member and highlighting it to your entire audience builds trust and makes the person that sent it to you feel great. You can also create an "organic" F.A.Q. page where you actually give credit to the person that originally asked each question.
3) Spend equal time e-mailing/communicating individually as you do sending out an e-mail campaign to your entire audience. This is a rule of thumb I try to use as far as time management, but it's healthy to not just focus on the big picture needs of your audience. Even if you only can dedicate 30 seconds to answering an e-mail, answer every e-mail. I learned this from requesting an interview with Mark Cuban, who a few years ago was in the mix to potentially buy the Cubs. Mark took the time to actually respond and decline my request instead of never responding. I really appreciated that.
Anyway, what are you doing to actively engage your audience?
So...whether it's your customer base, Twitter/Facebook followers, LinkedIn contacts, or even here on WF, how do you engage your audience and keep it thriving?
In another life I ran a popular Chicago Cubs fan community with a few friends. Believe me, Cubs fans need an outlet. Here are a few things we did that "clicked" with our audience:
1) Photo caption contests -- if you don't have any idea what this is, do a quick Google search. Our audience loved these, it was simple content and by posting the contest as a Wordpress post, it drove up our comment count significantly. It was also fairly easy to find sponsors for the contest, which would be a small iTunes gift card or similar. Even without a "prize" a caption contest is still a lot of fun.
2) Highlight reader e-mails -- whether your audience is 10 people or 10,000, selecting an e-mail from an audience member and highlighting it to your entire audience builds trust and makes the person that sent it to you feel great. You can also create an "organic" F.A.Q. page where you actually give credit to the person that originally asked each question.
3) Spend equal time e-mailing/communicating individually as you do sending out an e-mail campaign to your entire audience. This is a rule of thumb I try to use as far as time management, but it's healthy to not just focus on the big picture needs of your audience. Even if you only can dedicate 30 seconds to answering an e-mail, answer every e-mail. I learned this from requesting an interview with Mark Cuban, who a few years ago was in the mix to potentially buy the Cubs. Mark took the time to actually respond and decline my request instead of never responding. I really appreciated that.
Anyway, what are you doing to actively engage your audience?