The Two (and a half!) Types of Social Media Engagement
Did you know that there are actually two and a HALF types of social engagement? Allow me to explain...
Type 1: Proactive Engagement
Proactive social engagement is where the magic of social truly lies. PSE is any outreach by a brand/individual to others via social that is NOT triggered by inbound outreach from a customer/fan/client, etc.
This could look like:
Comments on 3rd party posts that are relevant to your industry
Commenting on 3rd party content that is not immediately related to you/your industry, but is relevant to your audience in another way
Example: @United Twitter
Does this clip from the White Sox have anything to do with aviation? No.
But as a Chicago-area-based company, United has an intrinsic interest in the team’s success… as do many of its employees.
Type 2: Reactive Engagement
While reactive social engagement is considered "table stakes" in 2022, having a solid response strategy for both customer care issues as well as day-to-day consumer engagement (both positive and negative) can take brands' social game to the next level.
Today, the average consumer expects to be able to communicate with brands/individuals – whether they need help, have feedback to share, or just want to share their thoughts/experiences.
Example: @Starbucks
Starbucks was directly tagged in this post, making it a reactive engagement (reply) to some lovely praise from a happy customer.
Type 2.5: Social Listening Responses
Social listening helps brands and individuals identify all types of engagement opportunities - including those that aren't quite reactive, but also aren't quite proactive.
Often, social users will mention brands/topics related to brands without specifically tagging the brand in their posts. Without a social listening tool (like Sprinklr, Brandwatch, Meltwater, etc.) in place, these posts – and the customer insights they provide – can be next to impossible for large brands to track.
Example: Shopify
Shopify was not directly tagged in this post – just mentioned in a plain text Tweet. They likely leverage a social listening platform to monitor for these types of mentions so they don’t miss out on an opportunity to engage with could/would-be customers who simply neglected to tag them.
