Engagement is the new black. The Internet, email and particularly social media have fundamentally changed the way we do business so that audiences are no longer talked at but with. Customer contact has been elevated to customer conversation while product marketing has become collaborative in a way that was unthinkable a decade ago. Taken in the round these developments are exciting and, if executed properly, beneficial to all. But, like black, is engagement for every brand? Is it only for certain occasions? And are there some for whom engagement just isn’t right and who are simply seeking it out of a fashion-following instinct?
This question struck me following a friend’s recent Facebook post that delightedly informed me that ‘Toilet Duck’ had an official page, one that boasted a whopping 195 (now 196) fans. Initially I shrugged this off as an aberration, suspecting either the hand of a territory-protecting brand manager or one hoping to raise a rye smile. A cursory investigation, however, made me think again as I discovered even more unlikely brands such as Railtrack, Carillion (one of the UK’s leading road maintenance firms) and even The National Funeral Directors Association have similar social media presences.
Now I’m not saying these redoubtable organizations don’t have something useful to say – they undoubtedly do. But having something to say and seeking engagement isn’t the same thing. These are brands whose products we’re happy or required to use but will we ever want to truly engage with them? What could one want to say to Carillion, for instance, aside from stop digging up my street, and, as importantly, what could they have to say to us other than we’re going to dig up your street? In either event it’s a discussion regarding a specific incident to be handled by customer service, not a catalyst for a public relationship.
Of course the lure of engagement is easy to see; the marketing press is awash with tales of brands receiving adoration or making financial hay as a result of engaging with stakeholders. Oreo’s ‘Jingles’ competition, Pepsi’s Super Bowl good cause donations and Interflora’s free flowers have engaged millions and delivered the sort of positive sentiment scores that traditional media struggle to achieve even with a far larger spend. And its not just glamorous B2C brands that have benefited, even highly technical B2B companies have enjoyed the fruits of engagement as evidenced by Cisco Systems Integrated Router launch of 2010 (I know, but it's actually better than it sounds!). This campaign was rooted in social media engagement and as well as smashing sales and awareness targets it saved Cisco an estimated $1 million into the bargain (told you!).
Such spectacular successes need to be caveated though; these brands are fortunate enough to have audiences who are naturally keen to engage and who have assigned appropriate resources to manage the interactions such campaigns can stimulate - something any engagement-seeking brand has to be able accommodate over the short and long term because true brand engagement, needs to be equitable and sustained. There’s nothing worse than brands soliciting a relationship only to run out of out things to say, become repetitive (or, worse, boring) or lack the resource to respond to what’s being said back to them.
Resource and content planning can significantly reduce these issues, but the best-laid plans of any brand engagement strategy can be left in tatters by an unforeseen audience reaction. This was spectacularly evidenced by McDonald’s recent ‘McHashtag’ debacle. The fast food giant paid to have their ‘#McDStories’ promoted on Twitter in the expectation that fans would share happy stories of McDonald’s experiences. Unfortunately - but probably not unpredictably - the hashtag was hijacked and was used to share stories that had been anything but happy and McDonald’s ended up with a McFlurry of negative engagement.
Ultimately there’s little doubt that stakeholder engagement can be fantastic for a brand. It can facilitate meaningful relationships, drive advocacy and deliver insights that are marketing gold. It isn’t for every brand though. Those with limited lines of conversation and/or resources to manage engagement; those with indifferent or inaccessible audiences or whose sole interest is a sale could find their marketing efforts better focused elsewhere. And at the end of the day brands shouldn’t be afraid not to follow the fashion to engage, particularly if their audience is reticent to do so. Personally I have no desire to have a relationship with Railtrack, Carillion or even Toilet Duck, happy, as I am to avail myself to their products and services. Instead I’d rather they spent their time (and in Carillion’s case the taxpayer’s money) quietly doing their jobs, leaving me in peace to work on my video for the new Oreo jingle.
