Ian M Rountree

Copywriter, Project Manager, Digital Marketing

  • Copywriting
    • Content Marketing
    • SEO
  • About
  • Contact

What I said to Mitch Joel about Engagement

April 2, 2010 by Ian 3 Comments

This morning, I spent most of my reading time following things Amber Naslund (of Altitude Branding and Radian6) posted on Twitter. She’s clearly had a Friday morning off, and no one else was making the right kind of cohesive noise.

Busy morning of reading – some new juice from Justin Kownacki about simplicity vs complexity, and a long exegesis from Clay Shirky on the collapse of the complex business model.

I found, through her posting, a very good article from Mitch Joel about the power of engagement – it’s an important thing to consider, I believe in his message enough I wanted to mirror my comment here for your consideration.

Justin Goldsborough‘s comment about engagement is quite astute – but I’ll add a note about scale.

Jason Falls’ level of engagement is a lot like Chris Brogan’s – being accessible in unique ways is part of both of their hallmarks. We don’t all need to be this way; sometimes it’s about looking for that one diamond among many shiny jewels. Making a connection, engaging, communicating – it doesn’t come down to the same thing.

How availabe you make yourself can be telling. Mitch, we’ve emailed back and forth – which is fine. I’ve traded comments with Brogan, but never once had an email answered – which is also fine. Both of you have done a good job of managing the expectation in both arenas; I never feel slighted, and I doubt anyone else does, when you don’t comment back. Nor do I feel bad when the Amazing Traveling Chris fails to email – it’s how he works, and it’s in public.

The trick about engagement I think people could learn more about is the setting of expectations as limits for yourself, as well as for those who communicate with you. It eases a lot of the pressure people (commenters, emailers, 4square stalkers like Joseph Jaffe talks about) who would otherwise feel unrequited.

Engagement – especially meaningful engagement – benefits from limits on channels. But you still have to address the channels, so people know out front, what to expect when they attempt to find you there.

The lack of a consistent keyboard is killing me. I swear I’ll be back soon with more posts – until then, a few questions:

What do you think about engagement? Especially the management of so many shiny channels to play in?

How do you adopt new channels, and when does the mass of some channels force you to reconsider your limits there?

How much attention do you pay to the details of your engagement, what flows go where?

And, how does the current lack of cross-channel flow affect your communication methods? (More on this later)

Share this:

  • Email
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit

Filed Under: Blog

Categories

  • Announcements
    • Event Notices
  • Blog
  • Communication
  • Content Strategy
  • Marketing Strategy
  • Personal
  • Reviews
  • Social Media
  • Technology

Archive

  • January 2016
  • June 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • July 2008
  • February 2004
  • Copywriting
  • Blog
  • Reading Lists
  • Colophon

© Copyright 2023 Ian M Rountree · All Rights Reserved