The Corruption of Engagement

Originally written for socialfish.org March 13, 2012

Be wary when someone talks about social media “engagement.”

Social media is a young field being cultivated by businesses. There is a glut of experts, gurus, ninjas, and mavens (!?). Freelancers claim to be social media savvy. Ad agencies are growing their social media capabilities. New social media job roles go up every day.

Buzzword bingo

Self-proclaimed “social media experts” have buzzwords ready to “wow” potential clients or employers. You can pick up these buzzwords from a brief #socialmedia search on Twitter. Try it. Search for: listen, connect, dialogue, share, and the mot du jour — “engage.”

These are social media conversation fillers. These words are equal to the guttural conversational utterances of “like” and “literally.”

For the uninitiated, these words take on mystical qualities. Do buzzwords show that they have access to great philosophical depth and sociological understanding?

“Yes”, they think, “I have seen such words used in Harvard Business Review and inThe Economist — by George, this person is on to something!”

We are at an important transition point in social media. The lingo, our cache of communicative tools, is already starting to become stale.

Consider virality, infinite content machines, a social media frontier that is ever-growing. Opportunists learn these buzzwords and abuse them.

The problem is: you don’t just pick up a rifle, a wagon and a couple of oxen and call yourself a pioneer. You have to know or learn how to use these tools to have success.

Engagement?

“Engagement” is representative of the entire social media lexicon. Do not let someone get away with just saying “engage”. Ask them what they mean, and make sure the answer is relevant to your business needs.

“Engagement means talking to your customers! Having a dialogue and listening, you have to connect.” Look at all those buzzwords. What does “connect” mean — what is “listening” and how do we do that? What sort of dialogue should we be having? These words do not show knowledge of strategy, tactics or practical social media know-how.

A savvier candidate might say you have to be “transparent, open, and be human.” Better. Ask them to contextualize these concepts in the scope that relates to your company or purpose.

My advice to job-seekers and employers, these words are not self-explanatory. Work to avoid using buzzwords at all costs.