Engagement matters because the world is driven to distraction. With engagement, your stakeholders give you the benefit of the doubt when you screw up. They also have your brand as a part of their own identity. They can’t imagine a world without your organization or cause, and criticizing your organization means criticizing themselves.

Gallup conducted research with over 17,000 social media users to determine how people interact with social media and its effectiveness as a marketing tool. Gallup doesn’t conduct shoddy research, so I think it’s worth our time to see if there are applications for those of us in the grassroots persuasion business. After all, we are marketers of ideas and action. 

In this post, I’ll feature the first engagement myth busted by Gallup, and feature additional research findings in subsequent posts.

Myth #1 – Social media initiatives drive loyalty and acquisition.

Gallup Fact: Engagement with a brand drives social engagement.

Many of us believe that if we get enough online participation, it will lead to offline engagement. But according to Gallup, organization-sponsored social media initiatives “have very little impact on decision making.” Nor do they drive prospects to recommend your cause to those in their social network. According to Gallup, it’s actually the reverse: engagement with your brand drives social engagement. In other words, as my very smart colleague Dr. Kelton Rhoads said, “It’s the dependent variable. Social media is the result, not the cause. It is the result of political or social action and conversations. It’s a marker that something is happening.”

I was reminded of this rule when talking with my friends at Southwest Airlines. They are frequently asked to speak at marketing conferences about their social media prowess. They said that as much as they hoped other organizations could maximize their customer relationships through social networks, the inherent challenge for their audience members is that their corporations belatedly came to the “customer is king” philosophy; Southwest has held that belief system and ingrained it in their culture since its genesis. A corporation that uses social media to drive customer loyalty like what exists at Southwest Airlines will fall short because they aren’t Southwest Airlines. Online engagement is the result, not the cause.

What does work? Engagement is the result of psychological needs and rational needs. For your organization to benefit from social media, it must create stakeholder engagement by meeting those needs.

How You Can Drive Engagement

Now, so that we don’t see too many rainbows and unicorns, here is my real-world application on how you as a grassroots leader can, through your behavior and creating a culture of engagement, fulfill those needs. I have listed these from the lowest level of engagement to the highest. At the lower end we have the rational logical elements of engagement and then we get to the good stuff – the emotional side, where your behavior can make the difference.

1. An overall satisfaction with the organization – not particularly outstanding performance, but you are honest, forthright and don’t try to manipulate your audience.

2. Delivers on promises – you do what you say you’ll do. You don’t over promise. I see this most pervasive when we exaggerate the power of “advocacy.” Sometimes we make our advocates believe that their form email or letter will change a lawmaker’s mind, or that one good story is all it takes to persuade someone. If that were true, every group would win its legislative issues.

3. Treats me fairly – When you screw up, you admit it and make it right. Have you ever had a grassroots volunteer treated poorly by a legislator or his or her staff? How do you address that situation? Who do you defend? Do you make excuses for the legislator or kindly remind the lawmaker that such behavior isn’t appropriate?

4. Treats me with respect; I feel proud to be a customer – Do your grassroots volunteers get to use their talents? Do you know what they are? Do you ask for their opinions, either formally or informally? Do you incorporate their suggestions?

5. Can’t imagine a world without your organization – At this level, your stakeholders will mentally resolve discrepancies about your organization or brand in your favor. You get the benefit of the doubt. This is exemplified by volunteers who view you as a friend, coach or mentor vs. a transactional figure.

The bottom line? Encourage your team to be evangelists with their networks, and focus on the most engaged volunteers. As the Gallup report stated, “They are most likely to advocate on your behalf and least likely to criticize you.”

Do you know who your most engaged volunteers are? How will you engage them on your behalf in 2012?

Cross-posted from the Adfero Group blog

With the quick popularity of Google+ (G+), many social media gurus are proclaiming the slow but sure downfall of Facebook. To that, I say one thing: not going to happen. Here’s why:

1. Too little, too late

In a very rare and embarrassing moment (and for what feels like the first time), Google made a really big deal about a really bad product. Google Buzz was a complete failure on multiple fronts. From privacy lawsuits to simply bad aesthetics, Google’s seemingly invincible persona suffered a breach in its armor with a subpar product that was clearly a reactive idea in contrast to their usual forward-thinking, proactive approach – and people noticed. The best team in the league showed a weakness, other teams capitalized on it, and now they’re playing catch up, with Facebook remaining the “face” (pun intended) and authority on social networking.

2. Live by minimal, die by minimal

One of the biggest praises for G+ so far has been its clean, minimal design. On the flip side of that, Google plans to continue to add features, bells, whistles, and widgets. Yet for some reason, the public seems to think that they can request more functionality without any impact to the layout. Facebook has suffered from the same symptoms with the addition of chat windows, friend lists, and important vs. unimportant news feed posts. The difference is users, myself included, have already established Facebook as a part of our everyday lives. So even when new features were added that we don’t like, we were stuck. With Google+, users have absolutely no reason to defect from Facebook when the difference between the two isn’t all that drastic.

3. It’s not how the real world works

Google+ is about circles. You put your going-out buddies in a circle so you can share embarassing drinking snapshots. You put your coworkers in a separate circle so they can’t see anything but industry-related sharing. All your circles are comprised of people you know, and the people you don’t know get their own circle… with whom you never share… ever. There’s only one problem with this social architecture: the world is one BIG circle.

One of my biggest praises of Facebook is the way it sparks conversations. Let’s say a girl you went to college with posts a status saying “I need a new allergy medicine…” and you comment with a suggestion. Shortly after, another girl whom you’ve never met or heard of before, leaves a comment informing you that she used to used that medicine but there was a news story about it not being safe. Now there’s an informational dialogue going on between you and someone you’ve never met. Next week, you both end up commenting on that mutual friend’s status again. And again.  At this point, you might as well friend her, right? A few months later, your new Facebook friend is visiting your mutual friend for the weekend and suggests you all go out for drinks. A new thread has been added to your social network similarly to the way it would have if the same conversation came up in a bar.

The way Google+ presents itself will make it very hard to expand social networks. Sooner or later, that will get old and they will have to think of something else. However, that “something else” will take away from the heavily praised white space, generating more criticism. That, along with us assuming, of course, that Facebook hasn’t already implemented it renders G+, again, as a follower – not a leader.

It’s hard not to laugh at the Occupy Wall Street campaign, the bizarre group of protesters who recently shut down the Brooklyn Bridge and, dressed as corporate zombies, staggered past the New York Stock Exchange, chanting, “How to fix the deficit: End the war, tax the rich!”

But there was something familiar in the media interviews. “We want a voice, and our voice has slowly been degraded over time,” a St. Louis man told USA Today. An unemployed woman from Connecticut said in The Wall Street Journal that too many people have been dismissive of the protests. “The only way to do it is to show them, to make them open their eyes.”

Substitute the word “government” for “corporation” in the signs and slogans, give them a wardrobe change and a few gray hairs, and they’d look a lot like the early tea party demonstrators.

There are major differences, of course, beginning with the fact that conservative politicians ran to the front of the tea party line to promote their causes. Many liberal politicians have been skittish about being associated with the folks sleeping in a Manhattan park since Sept. 17. While the tea party founders actually organized protests, the group behind the Wall Street demonstrations decided to bring people together first and then figure out its demands later.

But the anger and desire to take back power from the powerful is the same. And, as the demonstrations spread to Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and other cities, major unions like the AFL-CIO and advocacy groups like MoveOn.org are now on board. The mainstream media — no doubt ready to make the same tea party comparison — will surely follow, especially as we enter an election year. The politicians won’t be far behind.

Meanwhile, across the globe, larger-scale protests of another type have been taking place, Forbes notes in a must-read cover story called “Social Power and the Coming Corporate Revolution.” Ordinary people, using Facebook and Twitter, have helped to topple dictators in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya — and have created instability in Syria. These actions are truly remarkable for the speed with which they brought about change. They also speak of the basic human urge to be heard and respected.

So how does the Arab Spring relate to the Occupy Wall Street crowd?

“This social might is now moving toward your company,” David Kirkpatrick writes in the Forbes article. “We have entered the age of empowered individuals, who use potent new technologies and harness social media to organize themselves.” Neither governments nor companies are prepared to deal with social power.

“The elites — or managers in companies — no longer control the conversation. This is how insurrections start,” Mark Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, a cloud computing company, told Forbes. “This isn’t just about Arab Spring. This is about Corporate Spring.”

While email was the catalyst for early online activism, Facebook, with its 750 million active users in every country in the world, has become an even more potent tool for spreading opinions. Once like-minded people start saying the same thing — whether it’s about favorite movies or corporate greed — these “memes” quickly become part of our common belief system.

Some companies have learned this lesson the hard way. When rugby fans in New Zealand learned they were paying more for Adidas team jerseys than fans in the U.S. and elsewhere, they launched a massive online protest that resulted in customers returning Adidas clothing to stores. When a social media campaign in the Netherlands protested executive bonuses at Amsterdam-based ING, large numbers of people threatened to close their accounts with the bank. According to Forbes, ING’s CEO finally decided to waive his $1.8 million bonus and ordered company directors to follow suit.

In a bad economy, it shouldn’t be surprising that large, profitable companies have become targets for protesters enraged by corporate scandals and high unemployment. These types of demonstrations have gone on for years; the difference now is that inexpensive tools are available to enlist the help of a sympathetic public.

In this new world, writes Kirkpatrick, executives and their companies will need to demonstrate authenticity, fairness, transparency and good faith:

Clearly, the best way to manage these changes is to realize you can’t manage them. “And pragmatically,” says Kirkpatrick, “social power can help keep your company vital. Newly armed customer and employee activists can become the source of creativity, innovation and new ideas to take your company forward.” More and more companies, particularly those with high-profile brands, are becoming true believers.

He notes that Gatorade operates a full-time social media command center where it monitors and participates in conversations on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and elsewhere. Ford uses social media to help it design cars and communicate effectively with young consumers.

But learning to be humble and open can be difficult for executives who are used to touting their successes and downplaying their failures. This requires a new way of thinking. “Trust is built by sharing vulnerability,” John Hagel, co-chairman of The Deloitte Center for the Edge, said in the Forbes article. “The more you expose and share your problems, the more successful you become. It’s not about the top executive dictating what needs to be done and when, it’s about providing individuals with the power to connect.”

With 800 million active users, Facebook has earned the title of most popular social network around the globe. At the f8 conference a few weeks ago, CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg announced some big changes, the latest in the site’s constant evolution. It’s hard for a lot of users to adjust to the new features and, for organizations using Facebook in advocacy efforts, it may seem like things are changing just as they were getting the hang of things. Despite the growing pains, Facebook is a valuable tool that can raise awareness and inspire action.  

Here are a few rules to live by:

1.       A Few Can Activate Many

Engagement, not number of fans, is key. On average, every time someone shares a link to your organization’s website on Facebook, two to five people will visit it. In any online campaign, it’s imperative to utilize social context. People care about what their friends are doing and are heavily influenced by actions. If you can show Facebook users that their friends “liked” or engaged with your page, chances are high that you can get them involved, too.  
So, now the question is, how? 

 
• Use Facebook Questions. Asking your fans a question leads to viral exposure. If you ask a question, it will appear on your fans’ newsfeed. If they answer or follow that question, their friends can also see the activity. This is also a good way to get direct feedback from your fans. 
• Use Facebook to live stream your events or town halls. Free tools like UStream allow you to broadcast your event to all of your fans. Also, if you use event materials to let people know they can tune in on your Facebook page, you are likely to get more fans.
•  Make everything you can an event.  All of your organization’s events should be shared on Facebook. You should also use this tool for virtual events or calls to action (i.e. “Call your congressman by noon today!”).  Again, this allows your fans’ friends to see their action, making them more likely to join in.

 2.       Don’t Be Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf

Facebook encourages open communication, something that may seem daunting to organizations because it can indicate a lack of control. If you want to successfully use Facebook as a tool, you have to put some time into engaging with your fans, monitoring your page, and moderating the comments. That being said, most press is good press.

 
• Post a clear comment policy on your page info, and stick to it.
• Don’t delete comments just because they’re negative.  Even negative comments make it more likely for people to see your page. Supporters will defend against these negative comments and drive traffic to the topic.
• Be active. When people know that someone is actively monitoring and responding to comments, they tend to be nicer.

 3.       Be Human

If you let your fans and activists get to know a little bit about the people behind your mission, you give them a way to connect.  When people are more connected to the page, they view it as a legitimate source of information, and will be more inspired and inclined to take action.

 
• It’s great to post a story or anecdote about your staff that’s not strictly related to your organization. Show the personalities behind the work you do.
• If you have a good relationship with your fans, you can raise money without even asking for it
• If you’re posting more than press releases, you can provoke interesting conversation on your site, giving it a lot more personality.

Facebook is evolving, and so should your organization. In your advocacy campaign, be innovative and embrace these tools as a way to reach a wider audience.

Facebook’s New PAC Shows DC’s Innovative and Risk-Taking Methods Are Spreading to Silicon Valley (TechPresident)
According to Micah Sifry, Facebook’s creation of a Political Action Committee indicates that large campaign contributions and ‘intensive lobbying’ are becoming the norm for tech giants.

You’re the Entire Social Media Marketing Team. Now What? (PR Daily)
PR Daily has created a 6-step list of “must-dos” to maximize your online branding efforts, particularly useful if you’re on a tight budget.

Troy Davis’ Death Row Case in Georgia Goes Global (USA Today)
In a joint effort to prevent the execution of Troy Davis, the NAACP, Amnesty International and the grasroots organization Change.org “are flooding Twitter with several tweets a minute, signing online petitions and, starting today, planning to rally around the country.”

The Super Committee is charged with recommending how to reduce the U.S. deficit by at least $1.5 trillion over the next ten years, and has until Thanksgiving to do so. Committee members say comments from the public are being taken seriously (here’s the web form to prove it), though some of them are also limiting participation: for instance, Senator Baucus (D-Mont.) is not taking messages from any one who doesn’t live in Montana — even though the mission is national in scope.

The limited time frame for decisions and the committee’s difficult task makes advocacy especially challenging. What’s an advocacy group to do?

Hopefully, most organizations have plans in place to handle a sudden grassroots need. But if your organization was not quite as prepared as others, don’t despair. Even in this Internet age, all politics is still local.

Meaning stick to the basics and do them well:

1. Key Contacts: Activate the members in your organization that are from these states. They should already be identified as key contacts for the members of Congress, and now is the time to leverage those relationships.
2. District Meetings: Never overlook district staff. These Super Committee members may not make it home very much over the next few weeks, but they will still be getting a daily report from home. Make sure your organization and your members (i.e. their constituents) feature prominently.
3. Social Media: They are listening to social media. Get as many of your advocates as possible to upload content to your YouTube channel, personalizing the issues. Your Facebook and Twitter strategy should be integrated into this campaign as well, for a social media “surround sound.”
4. Coalition Partners: Most advocacy groups are part of a coalition. Are you contacting partners and their followers? It’s imperfect, since your message may not be delivered exactly how you would prefer, but it’s more voices added to your chorus.

At the end of all of this, remember the poor congressional staff of these Super Committee members. You can’t buy them dinner these days, but an honest and sincere thank you for all their work will be (almost as) appreciated.

Gallup: Aim Social Media Marketing at Loyalists, Not Prospects (ClickZ)
According to Gallup analysts, “Since marketers are less likely to engage prospects directly through social media, they should encourage or guide their current customers to advocate on their behalf instead.”

Keep Facebook Content Fresh: 5 Easy Ideas (PR Daily)
Coming up with new posting content for Facebook can be exhausting. Here are some quick and easy tips to reinvigorate your organization’s page.