Finding the Right Balance Between Reactive and Proactive Engagement

Oh yes, we have written about crafting engaging content for your social media community before. We love customer and community engagement. It’s an art. A craft. When done well, it can bring people together, inspire, and create a positive (dare we say great) experience.

Engagement is not just replying to an issue. It is the ability to create fresh content, provide acknowledgement, and encourage connection through reactive and proactive engagement. 

Reactive engagement keeps your handle or social media page a safe and helpful destination for your brand. It includes social monitoring, social care, and encouraging community connection. Proactive engagement needs a strategy and social listening to best interact with customers and topics directly related to your brand, the care of your community, and your business ideals.

The best clients we’ve worked with are those who have invested time and energy into both tactics. We’ve loved helping them build unique strategies and voices (that scale, mind you) for their brand’s social media experiences. Because the not-so-secret secret to engagement is this: It’s not just a response, it’s making the most out of a connection with a customer and leaving them better than before the encounter.

So, should you be interested in some of the elements needed to create a great engagement strategy for reactive and proactive engagement, please consider the following (and tailor to your specific experience):

Set the proper tone. Nail the brand’s tone and voice throughout everyday engagement based on brand guidelines and initiatives. Define what (or who) the brand is, what the brand cares about, the personality of the brand, how the brand makes people feel. Use tone to provide different context in conversations; people’s core beliefs don’t change, but they express different parts of their personality based on who they’re talking to and who they’re talking about. Use the brand voice to represent your brand and what it stands for: its passion, heritage, and hopes for the future wrapped up into a single entity.

Establish guidelines. Create a community guide to be utilized by your team (community managers, social media managers, and engagement moderators). Create a writer’s guide with a glossary of terms for the team to use during engagement. This may include short one line responses to use in given scenarios, or approved expressions that will come in handy. Provide caution around overuse and offer use cases as needed. Additionally, provide acronyms and initialisms approved by the client. Internet language will enhance the user experience depending on your segment audience. For example, a younger community will appreciate the more natural feel of these expressions. Finally, determine the appropriate use of hashtags and emojis, and set punctuation and capitalization standards.

Let your brand shine through. Keep engagements on brand, fresh, and culturally and socially relevant. Establish brand phrases to curate elevated engagement opportunities, approved language that can be included in engagement content and copy to enhance brand relevance for the project. Assert personalization, personality, and care in every touchpoint.

Play up your achievements. Add public-facing awards or commendations your brand is proud to share, and define the scenario in which these achievements would be relevant to mention. Take proactive measures to drive social engagement; this requires thoughtful planning and practice.

Content is king. Understand the type of content your audience likes, and know when to post and how to respond. Craft content that’s specific to the social platform, and create themes and/or weekly initiatives. Share user-generated content; this creates incentive for users to share and gives you a library of no-cost content to repurpose. Rather than just posting product pictures and sales pitches, provide content that aligns with what your audience cares about or help them with their problems. Do it well by embracing different content formats, such as Facebook Stories, IGTV, as well as videos, photos, and captions.

Let your followers help lead the way. Participate in discussions and respond to questions. This will inform future strategy and direction. Identify and nurture brand ambassadors. Use interactive features and content that give your followers what they want while providing you with a great way to learn from and speak to your audience.

Track your success. Monitor your key performance indicators (KPIs), including user growth (total number of users, new users by month, lost users) and user engagement (likes and comments, percentage of users who engage with the brand). Compare metrics against the previous time period for the best insights (year-over-year user growth and new users in the last month vs. the previous month).

Keep track of what’s working for others. Check out some of the brands crushing the social communities online. Jeni’s Ice Cream grew their followers by 15% this year across all three channels through consistent quality posting. Airbnb is another example of great storytelling. The brand uses Facebook Stories to showcase interesting hosts, experiences, and locations.

These guidelines can serve as the building blocks for a well-curated, engaged community on your social channels. Invest your time and resources in both proactive and reactive strategies and create compelling content and efficient workflows. This will help equip your community stakeholders with the tools they need to be successful at establishing meaningful relationships between your brand and the people who care most about it.

If you’re interested in learning more about how ModSquad manages and strategizes for social media, contact us today!