Creating Engaging Social Media Experiences

I recently wrote a short post on creating engaging experiences that I, for the most part, agree with. Not everything I write I totally agree with, but that is another matter altogether. What does matter is that after posting to my blog, I tweeted and facebooked the link so the world would know that I’d actually updated my blog. I couldn’t help but asking myself, “Do the same elements that make real life experiences engaging also make social media experiences engaging?” They’re somewhat related.

Engaging social media experiences form out of three important elements: entertainment, education, and conversation. The most compelling of these social media experiences are the ones that hit the sweet spot. The sweet spot blurs these experiences together into a tapestry that keeps people engaged and even amplifying your content. Three questions to consider:

1. Entertainment: How do you make social media fun and enjoyable? What will you do to put a smile on someone’s face and a laugh in their day? I am more apt to follow and pay attention to businesses and organizations that take life a little less seriously and who add humour or wow to my day. I avoid people and companies that are only in the social media game to sell or promote their idea or product. What elements of entertainment and enjoyment attract people into sharing the experience?

2. Education: This is your content, your message. What do you want people to learn through your tweets, fanpages, and blog? How will this experience cause people to explore your company, consider your product, or try new experiences? I’d suggest that no more than 10% of your social media content be directly related to your product.

3. Conversation: This is the crux of engagement. Social media is a tool that opens new lines of communication between people who would otherwise never connect. Actively engage with the tweets and facebook pages and other mediums of your intended audience and, my bet, is they’ll engage with you. Social media is built on the premise that people want to connect with other people. If you want engagement, engage with others.

Does any of this really matter? Not really. I suppose to PR people, egomaniacs, and timewasters, this could be a post worth sharing, so please do. But honestly, I don’t think that the general population lurking those addictive social media sites could really care less. However, for those who do care, a friend has informed me that Klout will be one of the big social media trends of 2011. If you sign up now, don’t worry, you’re not an early adopter. It’s been tried and found true.