Online Engagement isn’t about throwing around endless streams of mundane content. To get noticed, you have to start hurling glitter grenades.
You can’t just hopelessly tap your audience on the shoulder in a vain attempt to gain their attention, you have to hit them with a sledgehammer. In the highly competitive world of digital marketing, it’s as brutal as that.
When will online engagement become interesting?
We’re all busy but the playing field is grizzly. With so many words hitting digital devices like Roberto Duran*, it’s difficult to see the whole story for all those letters. Everything is as blurry as a puddle of mud until something jumps out at you and hits you between the eyes.
Digital marketing is changing all the time – https://www.vezadigital.com/post/how-digital-marketing-has-changed-in-the-last-10-years . It’s a world where everyone has changed – empty, fake and disingenuous traits flood our devices – and the reality and sincerity become questionable.
Preoccupied with finding offence in everything, the humour offends people and others are offended by the sheer accusations of offence.
We have reached a point where the do-gooders even distort the truth by removing the reality from the context. In the extreme, we consider the possibility of what if and not what actually is. We insinuate without asking.
Staying on-line without online offending.
Simply put, in the 21st century, you can’t do or say anything without offending someone. Life is a struggle for many of us, and anyone who thinks that they are more than one step away from dependency is deluded. There are a lot of depressed and angry people out there, and some of those people make themselves feel better simply by putting others down. And these people can easily become your audience.
Everyone turned to alcohol during lockdown and alcohol tells the brain that there is something interesting and worthwhile to say whilst entertaining it.
Combine an enthusiastically intoxicated brain with social media and you have a poisonous mix of verbal abuse and a string of unreasonable objections from an unhappy place.
But you cannot turn from social media because of the confrontation, you have to accept that shit and move on, understanding that there are more welcoming people out there who want to know about your products and services than those who wish to badmouth your ideas – https://www.sipri.org/commentary/topical-backgrounder/2021/social-media-tool-peace-or-conflict
Online engagement is no joke
It is believed that every joke has evil at its core and is at the expense of someone poor and unfortunate. Philosophers have been debating the subject of humour for centuries and trying to pigeonhole it with cancer and Hitler – https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/humor/
The general consensus amongst phycologists is that humour is used to overcome sociocultural inhibitions and reveal suppressed desire.
The energy that is suppressing inappropriate emotions, such as desire and hostility, is released as laughter when it’s no longer needed.
Aristotle once said that we laugh at inferior or ugly individuals to make us feel better about ourselves; feeling joy with an overwhelming sense of superiority. No wonder the sociopaths within the government are always smiling.
Schadenfreude is said to be the worst human trait because its antithesis – caring about others and genuinely wishing them well – is the worthiest trait that a human being can possess – https://biblioklept.org/2014/05/12/schadenfreude-pity-envy-schopenhauer/
In fact, what you will see more than often is content parading as a defence mechanism, creating the illusion of happiness and success as a cover for sadness and failure rather than using the imperfections of others as a springboard.
Should we be laughing at that?
Having said that, you’ve still got to maintain some reality about humour. In order to believe that a joke is funny in the first place, rather than appalling and offensive, the brain must be engaged enough to anticipate a solitary ending and then, ultimately, become surprised by an alternative ending.
We have all, at some point in our lives, laughed at something and thought, “Shit, I don’t think I should have laughed about that.” I often feel that way upon leaving a Frankie Boyle gig.
The great thing about humour is, whether you view it in high, positive regard or whether you wish to condemn all comedians to Hell, it’s true to say that the impact of humour is engaging.
You can’t be all things to all people and you certainly can’t expect to have the same sense of humour as everyone else but, if someone gets you, really understands you well enough to connect on a level and shares your perspective, you have gained a supporter who may, just maybe, become a customer and a friend too.
Creative digital engagement.
We like to see what captures attention. We are curious beings and we want to know what others value – https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/curious/201801/what-are-the-five-dimensions-curiosity . If you stand in the street and look up to the sky, others will join you in hope of seeing angels cascading from the heavens to save us all from this stagnated misery, or basically make an attempt to see what captivates you enough to distract your attention from the humdrum of the day.
With your content, you have to create something so engaging that it is an aesthetically pleasing, digital distraction. You have to create something that moves you enough to look up at it. And when you’re looking up at it then others might just follow.
Videos work so well because the bright colours and movement are a perfect human distraction. If a group of people are trying to hold a conversation with the television switched on in the background, even if the sound is turned down, the colours and the movements will, at some point, distract the attention of the audience.
People are lazy and they don’t really favour working for their content. They like it short, sharp and dynamic, and nothing comes shorter and sharper than a nice little video in high definition or an engaging, bullet-pointed list of facts.
We all love the extreme sports videos: dance music over the HD visuals in stunning locations with tanned performers in exotic locations.
Unfortunately, being landlocked in Nottingham, there isn’t much consuming going on in that industry, just plenty of mindless viewing.
Rules of online engagement.
To whet your inspiration for online engagement, here are 3 tips to start your creative engine:
- Know your audience.
To be able to engage with someone you must first know something about the person you intend to converse with. What do they like? What will turn their head? Who will benefit from your product/service?
This is not a cheap date; this is no one-night stand. You intend to build credibility and have a trusting relationship with your audience, so create a connection. Do your homework, know the target demographic and get into the mind of the people you wish to engage with.
Before you start, you may want to build a persona of what your audience looks like. Marketing companies create gateways with audience personas that uncover the true human element of the consumers they wish to target.
- Know your shit.
People like facts and stats and not just a random opinion. Share personal experiences and tell stories surrounding your success.
Also, if you have to quote someone else because you decide to use their knowledge, ensure that your mention the source of our findings. It’s okay to use the opinion of others to act as a voice of authority but just ensure that you supply the recognition.
Furthermore, I know we bang on about this a lot, but it’s important. Ensure that your online engagement is void of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.
We are talking ‘credibility’ here and schoolboy errors will affect your ranking, making you look amateurish to the reader and the search engine’s algorithm.
It doesn’t matter how good your product is or how knowledgeable you are about your subject matter, if you don’t know the difference between your shit and you’re shit, you will look shit.
- Know how to help.
When all is said and done, you are looking to persuade the market that you are providing something that is worthwhile and useful.
If your engagement is helpful, insightful and informative, you have the foundations of something that will captivate an audience.
Also, always break up the beneficial information with images or videos, just to help keep the eyes on point with your message. To keep your audience captivated, your engagement flow must be vivid and seamless.
Content, if done correctly, can be a persuasive power that cannot be fended off. It enters us like warm air into our lungs on hot summer days, it fills us up, totally imbues us and there is no remedy for it.
If you are looking to engage with your audience, contact us to discuss how we can provide persuasive power for your business or project – www.washdigital.co.uk
*For those of you under 40, Roberto Duran was a Panamanian boxer who competed for over 5 decades and won titles at 4 different weights. He was famous for having hands like stone.