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The Four Ps of Digital Engagement

There are four basic stages to digital engagement:

  1. Production of materials
  2. Publishing of those materials we've produced
  3. Promotion of the published materials
  4. Participation of the audience

We are often very good at producing material, and publishing it. But what about the next two Ps - Promotion and Participation? These need a little more work.

Promotion

It's good to promote our materials. Usually we put them out there on the web, YouTube, and on other types of social media, and hope for the best. How can we promote them? One way is to advertise. This means paying money, but perhaps not as much as you think! Facebook adverts are very effective, can be targeted to a predefined audience, and might even lead to some users re-posting your posts, or commenting on them! Google ads are also very effective, though more costly.


Image by Photo Mix from Pixabay

It's a good idea not to over-promote, as this can be counter-effective. You want to create posts that are genuinely social on social media (surprise surprise), and also interesting to your audience. If you keep plugging away at the same product it just creates boredom and lack of interest.

Participation

This is about the audience engaging with the posts. The ideal you're aiming for is to create community i.e. a group of people who follow your posts, interact with them regularly, and do your job for you by re-posting them. Once your community is out there, and engaged, participating regularly in what you post, you won't need to spend so much on advertising. 

It sounds obvious, but the best way to create community is to take an interest in them. What are they interested in? What do they like? What concerns do they have? If you are conscious of who your audience is as you make your posts they will appreciate it.

So...

We probably need to spend us much time planning the last two Ps as the first. Put them into a diary, and make sure you have the necessary resources (people, finances) to actually do this work. Your posts need to come out regularly and sustain interest. Let's keep keeping on!
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