Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Ivana Mijatović
Scott Gould is an author, advisor and engagement advocate. As a consultant, he led a team of 15 marketing leaders in creating a Finnish social networking strategy for tourism. He also collaborated with many other organisations such as Exeter City Council, Microsoft, Somerset County Council, Nokia, Kuilliam, the Church of England, ARM and F&V Media. A former church minister, Gould is now advising Fortune Global 500 companies on their engagement strategies; he is also the chair of the UK’s Enterprise Engagement Alliance. During his long career he has given more than 500 talks, he spent more 20 000 hours in community building and led 400 events. Scott is the member of Royal Academy of Arts.
Yesterday, Scott took part in one of the most popular regional conferences of the profession, PRilika 2017 where he talked about the importance of engagement in different walks of life, especially in the modern business world and ways of improving business practices through engagement .
Engagement is the buzzword of the day: Marketing experts are telling us that we have to make it happen, consumers want it, and web applications and engagement products have a multitude of uses. What do we actually mean by engagement?
Scott Gould: As you said, engagement is an overused word and, ironically, misused in many instances. The word itself has many meanings: it is a verb, a noun and an adjective. But there is another reason for that: the engagement with consumers in a communication sense is different from the engagement in terms of a business offer. When you engage with a target group through an advert it should be fun; the business offer is more of a realistic interest.
What is common for both aspects is that you maximize the opportunity. Therefore, the engagement in the business and communication has the same goal: achieving an intimate relationship between a company and the user.
What enables a company to achieve a long term relationship with its consumers and target groups? What are the most common mistakes?
Scott Gould: The answer to the question how to achieve a long term relationship and true loyalty is of course the engagement: to achieve the best out of that relationship. Would we leave a company if it offers us the maximum, either as a consumer or as an employee? Of course not!
Although the most common mistake is thinking that target groups only want entertainment rather than a product that will improve their life. The same goes for the employees. Many start-up companies put table football for their workers as if that is a real engagement. The real engagement is a thoughtful daily task that employees, employers and consumers are really interested in.
What motivates people to achieve engagement?
Scott Gould: People are like magnets, they are always looking to engage with someone or something. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to achieve it. There are 5 things that instigate it , I call them the 5 spurs of engagement :
S: We engage with what we share (Shared)
P: We engage with what prompts us into action (Prompts)
U: We engage with what we understand (Understand)
R: We engage with what we can respond to (Respond)
S: We engage with what we consider sensible (Sensible)
What are the differences between participation, engagement and interaction?
Scott Gould: At first glance it looks like semantics and a play on words, but understanding the difference gives us a considerable strategic and tactical advantage.
The interaction is the basic measure of any relationship. Let’s look at “like” on Facebook. Many see it as an engagement – in fact it is an interaction, the same as reading this article or using a mobile app. Let’s not make a mistake that we engaged with the users, it’s actually only an interaction.
A string of interactions leads to participation. The participation is the middle mechanism between an interaction and an engagement. For example, when somebody identifies with a brand it includes a purchase of a brand product: that is participation, which consists of many interactions.
Lastly, engagement is much stronger than participation. If you think about an old friend, even though you are not in regular contact you are still connected. We can safely say that the connection is stronger than the participation. A commercial version of this connection is my relationship with Apple. I don’t buy their products regularly, I am not a vocal fan of theirs but I am engaged with the brand, I would never buy a product produced by their competitor, they’ve got my long term loyalty.
Do you think that social networks are the best platform to engage with target groups? If yes, which is the best one?
Scott Gould: I think that social networks are part of the mix, but in any case they are not the best way to achieve engagement. The best way is when they’ve got your product in their hands, when you enable them to have one to one communication with you, when you are part of their life. Social networks support this but they are not a leading force. Unfortunately, many people believe that social networks are the only way to achieve engagement, but realistically they are not that important. Ask yourself do you engage with your favourite brand through social networks a lot. I bet you don’t.
Which company/brand has a good relationship with their target group internally and externally?
Scott Gould: The companies who have good relationship with their consumers have a good relationship with their employees. The best examples in real life are the companies who are taking care in equal measure of internal and external communication.
An excellent example is Southwest Airlines in the USA. One of their services is low budget transport, but not to the detriment of the travellers experience. The company encourages their employees to find their own solutions and make suggestions about their work. And they are paid better than their colleagues in the industry.
This also has an effect on their customers: they are, a fast, efficient and affordable airline company which leads to profits. And why not? Every employee is motivated, they have freedom to do what is necessary to smooth things along. They also listen to their customers through #SouthwestHearts, its role is to talk about people’s everyday travel plans. The best way to describe all this in one word is on their sticker NYSE… LUV which clearly shows what the company focuses on.