Rules of Engagement

Normally I would counsel against using adversarial/militaristic terms*, but engagement has meaning beyond the mercenary.

We like rules and rubrics and frameworks. We need 'em.

I introduced one of my rules in a previous post and I realized I should throw them all out there. I have THREE (3) Rules of Engagement. I do most everything in threes - I don't like the black-white binary absolutism: 3 is the magic number of the Universe. If you care to debate me on it, bring it on. Anyway, I digress, and I do tend to do that on regular basis.

Point being, these three rules are the superstructure upon which I will hang my awesome-incredible-how-the-Hell-did-he-come-up-with-that Social Media Engagement for Causes framework. Twist THAT, M. Night.

Again, I digress.

RULE #1
BE HUMAN
Speak your mind. Be nice and polite, but say what you mean and be direct. It is social media, after all. By the way, be very careful with sarcasm, wit, and satire - from a text-based perspective, it may not go over as well as you'd like; worse still, you may be considered too clever by half :-P. It's better to appear wide-eyed rather than cynical.

RULE #2
ESTABLISH & MAINTAIN PRESENCE
Form a consistent persona, and promote it, even if there are multiple people working the line - you (and your partners/volunteers) ARE the CAUSE. You represent it, you own it. You are now in the business of collecting Likes, Follows, +1s, Shares, Retweets, ad infinitum.

RULE #3
PARTICIPATE
Pretty straightforward, yes? Reply and respond and, well, ENGAGE. It's an enormous conversation - a massive cocktail party where every one wants your undivided attention, and you want theirs. Be a social butterfly! Pollinate and flutter along. Understand the difference between quality and quantity: 20,000 followers who want you to read their blog, buy their crap, and view vanity projects versus 100 dedicated spirits retweeting your replies to their concerns and hopes - you do the math!

So. There. Rules.

FYI - MONITOR - the M in the framework - would attach to Rule #3. I think. Sure, we'll run with that.






*For instance strategy, campaign, target. Not much of a fan of audience, too, as it suggests a unilateral association between message transmission and reception. You don't want an audience. You want relationships.

Passion!

I do this thing, but really - What is it I am "doing"?

More to the point, what GOOD am I doing? I'm promoting the good works, good causes, and good messages of good people - true, enough - and I'd like to think in time I will contribute to the conversation with regards to social media engagement.

But, aside from those things, what is it I believe in? What are my causes? What is it I stand for?

You gotta have PASSION. Maybe it's a passion for your one and only true love; doing good; pets; reading & learning; teaching; skydiving; or, comic books. SomeTHING must grab you, hold you, speak to you. You can't live with out it because it hurts when it's absent. It compels you.

Granted, we should temper our passions. It makes them sweeter, and there are some passions that are unhealthy and even danger compulsions, e.g. neuroses and psychoses. Your passions simply cannot harm others. It's just plain wrong, and this is one of maybe a few things about which I am absolute (not relativistic): DO NO HARM.

(I once was passionate about politics - but that drove my blood pressure up high and ran off some friends. I tempered that passion, and I'm better for it.)

So our causes - those things we believe in so ardently, so fervently, so adamantly that we serve them without question - and, thus, our STANDS are the functions of passion. They can be exclusive of our careers and incomes. In fact you pursue them without regard of cost and time.

The question then, for me is "What am I passionate about?"


In no particular order to imply importance...

• Family
• Community
• Justice
• Fairness
• Liberty

Broad passions - yes. I am working to stand for them all.

Join me, won't you?

Facebook is LAME!

No, Facebook is a way of life, a social monolith and it is not going anywhere. Love it or hate it, most of us are there.

That said, it is also an excellent way of sharing a message - though it should not be the ONLY social element in your engagement framework.

Fan pages need Likes and interactions.

Please please please Like Texas Social Helps Out.


I should probably install their little widget doo-dad, too.

File this under "Seemed Like A Good Idea At the Time"


It should be noted that an organization posing as a personal profile is actionable by Facebook. All it takes is one or two disgruntled or mean-spirited complaints to get it shut down tout-suite. All gone, no appeal, no recovery of data.

Don't lose hundreds, perhaps even thousands of "friends" and potential connections - launch a fan page instead. It has useful metrics not available to the personal profile.