Today we keep hearing the terms of engagement and participation, usually in the context of social media and other so-called interactive marketing. We could all be forgiven for thinking that engagement and participation have only recently been made available to us, enabled by new technology and networks. However we may all be missing the point…

If you think more deeply about it, you’ll find that whilst the technologies maybe new, they are really just the product of ongoing technical development and innovation. They are actually tapping into (and relying upon) our need for physicality.

Participation vs. Physicality

We can’t help ourselves, as humans we love getting physical. All too often, we hear this described as ‘participation’. A better way to look at things is to see ‘participation’ as a result of physicality. After all, there can be no participation without physical action, whether you are asking someone to logon to a site, click a ‘Like’ button, retweet or turn up to a pop-up shop or some other experiential event. Even, what were once largely, passive activities have had to become physically engaging. In the old days we would just watch television shows. Now, if we’re not reaching for our laptops or mobile devices and tweeting at the same time, or making telephone votes, we feel like we’re missing half the show.

And what of social media? It is not surprising, then that the most successful social media strategies include a higher use of multi-media content. Why? Because they appeal to our physicality, in these cases our physical senses, be it our ears or eyes. The location-based services such as Foursquare can only exist because of physical action taken by users. The more physical action we take, the more we are rewarded, and the more we seem to like taking action (human nature again!).

Look around today (and go back as far as you can remember) and you’ll see how our need for physicality hasn’t just been addressed by, but, in some cases, has driven the development of products and services. The iPod, iPhone, Wii, Kinect, etc have revolutionised how we navigate devices or interface with technology, fundamentally by identifying improved ways for us to use and satisfy our physicality.

Advertisers too are cottoning on. In the old days we  had scratch & sniff cards, today we have interactive advertising which actually relies on our physical action as part of the advertisement – see the recent ‘Angels will fall’ campaign from Lynx.

It is also curious to note that with all the changes that have happened in how we access or purchase music, be it via iTunes or cloud services such as Spotify, there are now more live music festivals in the UK than ever before. The physicality of travelling and attending (and interacting with others) has become part of our satisfaction. It’s also no accident that there are a rising number of well-attended food festivals – we have ceased to be satisfied by books and TV shows alone.

Many large brands and organisations are seeing the need for physicality more and more and are creating more ‘brand experiences’, as the marketeers call it. However, in our opinion, this approach is only scratching at the service. As events they work, but as a means of ‘building-in’ physicality as part of the brand or product/service, they fall victim to sustainability – few organisations can justify the funding for prolonged, prolific campaigns.

Our perspective

In the same way as some manufacturers have included (or been driven to include) physicality in their products, so too, we think that brands and organisations need to start ‘designing in’ physicality into their products and services. The way we see it, the more physical your brand or organisation can become, the more engagement and participation will follow, and with more meaningful results.

So what are we advocating? We are not suggesting that organisations should become event or interactive junkies trying to illicit a physical response at every opportunity. It’s more fundamental than that. What if your brand or your organisation could find (or build-in) a physical aspect to your products or services, that was an integral part of the product or service? How much would this change the perception of those products (and their value proposition)? Of course, new technology will always help us do this in ways not previously available, but it would be wrong to only focus on this.

Our advice: look for the physicality in everything you do (or the opportunity for it). If you can’t easily find it, look at your users, fans, customers and their physicality needs or desires and how you might address or exploit these. If you can do that, you’ll have all the engagement and participation you could ever want.

Whatever you’re spending your efforts on,  the currency is still physicality.

Joozed today launched its Managed Social Media service, MSM, allowing organisations to

Whilst many organisations have now accepted the part social media plays in their communications and customer engagement channels (and in some cases, customer service), few organisations have understood the requirements and resources necessary to utilise it effectively, let alone fully exploit it.

Research by Joozed has identified that the role of maintaining social media profiles and activity frequently falls to line managers and Marketing or Communications functions, as an ‘add-on’ to existing duties and obligations with, often, little appreciation of the significant increased time and effort required to undertake the role successfully, or the added risks and opportunities they present.

The Challenges & Opportunities

Managing social media is unlike the conventional communications channels that organisations are used to. Key differences include the real or near time nature of such services – organisations are used to initiating their own conversations with customers, communicating what they want, when and how they want to. However, to use social media as an extension of current communications channels  is to miss much of the point of such services. Customers, and stakeholders, now initiate their own public conversations about organisations, products, brands (and whatever else they may be interested in) at time that suits them, and in response to a variety of ‘triggers’.

Whilst broad and unstructured, these conversations (or rather, the visibility of them) now empower organisations to participate in ways previously unavailable via (or less easily than) conventional channels. Examples include the opportunity to highlight a difference or benefit, to identify key affinities or interests for product/offer alignment or to proactively address risks and negativity. Most important of all, is the ability to engage directly in those conversations and build rapport with customers and stakeholders in a far more personalised way, to influence what is being said when, where, by whom and to whom. Monitoring all of this, never mind engaging, of course takes time and effort. Customer expectations of relevance, frequency and timing of participation add to the challenge and bring added risk. Each engagement must be a considered one – witness the coverage given to hastily sent or badly worded tweets or posts, and the unintended consequences for individuals and organisations (and, in extremis, share prices).  Similarly, non-engagement, or omission of response, can bring its own risks.

How MSM can help The Joozed Managed Social Media (MSM) service takes an integrated approach, starting with agreement of the client’s brand personality ( the style, feel and tone desired for projection via such channels),  and an audit of existing (and desired) social media presence. This is followed by agreement on the outcomes sought from the social media strategy (it can be very different from one client to the next) and, how these are to be measured – the service includes regular reporting of activity and analysis of intelligence and data extracted from the engagement activity – useful input for product or marketing development or the support of other communications channels. Social media engagement is also heavily reliant on content. Our  integrated approach, begins with a review of existing available content, followed by the design of processes and criteria by which future content can be fully exploited, or adapted to support the social media strategy (or vice versa), including website integration and automation. The service also agrees an approach to risk management – based around scenarios to test situations and responses. These help establish the ground rules or parameters for engagement activity, and mitigation strategies,  should they be required.  Finally, the service cover is agreed – available on demand (for specific campaigns) through to 24×7, further addressing the issue many organisations have in maintaining engagement out of hours (albeit when opportunities are higher).

For more information, or to arrange a consultation on how Managed Social Media (MSM) could help you, please contact us.