Price for everything, and the value for nothing

“More Than 40% of Americans Use Facebook Every Day”, “1 Out of 4 People Friend-Request Before the First Date”, and “How Can Twitter Make It Easier to Report Hate Speech?” is only a few out of dozens articles about how social media are changing the way we live our life today. All people are trying to cope up with the changes, entrepreneurs race to invent the new ‘it’ thing, and all companies has gone ape shiz trying to be the leader of the pack.  

If you take a moment to stop and think; those endless efforts, articles, tips and tricks, research insights is trying to tell you one thing: “How can we leverage our strengths, and maintain our relevancy?” isn’t it? Though it is not incorrect, but it will not sustain and it will only worn you out eventually. The way I see it, it should go beyond leveraging strengths and maintain relevancy, and start figuring out how could we build a better engagement instead.

en·gage·ment

noun \in-ˈgāj-mənt, en-\

a : the act of engaging : the state of being engaged

b : emotional involvement or commitment <seesaws between obsessive engagement and ambiguous detachment — Gary Taylor>

Notice the emotional involvement and commitment word there? Yes, engagement should not be only about what the company tells to the people, instead the company should shows it commitments and galvanize public’s emotional involvement.

Before anything else, a company should be able to listen what the people are trying to say, and be able to understand what are the longings and expectations are. Once they understood the ‘who, what, why, when, and where”, then they are understood how to connect and be relevant in creating the conversation with people. By the time a flowing conversation with the public is established, emotional involvement starting to develop, and all magic could happen (metaphorically speaking of course).  This is where you as a company could deepen the emotional involvement through encouraging participation, and together create and co-create stories that you would like to share it with others.

Take example of the brilliant Heineken’s The Candidate campaign that won 2013 Cannes Lions, Gold Lion PR award. Heineken’s understood, as world’s leading beer manufacturing company, its every guys (some girls) dream to be able to join their company. From thousands of applicants, same interview questions, and its prepared answers; how can they choose the best of them all then?  

This campaign identified understood how to be connects and be relevant to people in starting the conversation, simply creating a job interview with a twist. Then Heineken take it further from connecting with people, and deepening people’s emotional involvement through the vote for the best candidate.

You see, simplest way to do things right is by 1) Listening, 2) Understanding, 3) Participating, 4) Create and Co-creating. And always be appreciative and sincere in every step of the way, let people embrace and feel valued.

Feel free to leave comments below, and let me know what you guys think,

Tha! xx FNW