Customer Engagement is the Key to Growing Your Brand

Getting "likes" and comments is easily measured, but not very useful for long term brand growth. Engaging users is much more important.

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by Ethan Hausmann

Every company wants people to love their products and connect with their brand. The problem is measuring it. How do you determine how much (if any) people are interacting with your social media presence? Often simple things such as "likes," comments, or mentions are seen as a good indicator of popularity, but these aren't the best form of measurement.

Easy isn't always best
The above mentioned items are popular social media indicators because they are easy to track. Marketers love to boast about how many likes or comments a particular post generated. Unfortunately these are too easy to get. They take virtually no effort on the part of the user.

If it takes no thought or real effort on the part of the audience, then they won't remember your brand when the important purchase decision comes up.

Get people to engage
Instead of pursuing comments and likes, strive for deeper action from your audience. Have them take a survey or submit a picture with them actually using your product. Or ask people to create their own commercials for your product (similar to Doritos with Super Bowl ads).

Real life games are also great. Hide some swag somewhere in a city and give clues to people who visit your various social channels. Once the items are found, you have just created informal brand ambassadors who will boast of their achievement.

However you do it, the point is to ask for additional action from your audience. Make them work for your brand and then it will have more meaning to them.