Welcome to this week’s edition of the Big IDEA!

This week we are continuing our discussion about Engaging our Community!

You’ll remember from last week that we talked about the importance of this engagement. Outside of building your list, your community, building a relationship with your list is the most important thing.

More and more, people want you to engage them under their own terms. They don’t want to take a trip to the local store, they certainly don’t want to drive to another town, but they do want to be Engaged. In this digital age that we live in, vast communities are built online. Think about how your shopping habits have changed or evolved over the past five years.

Do you make more and more purchases online? Most people do. Statistically, online sales have grown by billions of dollars in the past five years. They are poised to grow even more. The rise of the giant “you can get everything here” stores like Amazon.com echo the great success of the mega – retailers like Walmart. What’s more convenient than having a highly familiar and similar store in each and every local community? Having that type of store available from your home computer.

Not only are the trends for purchasing and other necessities of life evolving more into the online world, our personal relationships are also becoming more virtual. Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and dozens of other social media sites get more and more of our attention as we reach out and connect to family, close friends, coworkers from years earlier and even new friends from around the world. Forums narrow the focus down to one particular interest (like the cruise forums we discussed), allowing like-minded people to get together, chat and learn.

We discussed earlier in Defining our Community (the D in the Big IDEA) where to find the people we need to engage with. So, let’s dive right in and talk about how to engage people in one of those areas –Social Media.

Social Media is huge! We mentioned Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, but there are also LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, SoundCloud, Meetup, VampireFreaks – what? VampireFreaks? Yes, there are dozens and dozens of lesser-known social media sites that cater to… specific interests!

Here’s a small list of the sites… Social Media Sites List

Take a browse through the list of sites and their descriptions. Note that LinkedIn is a site for Business and Professional users. Cafemom is for mothers. Facebook is a more general type of community.

Is there one of these that seems to fit with your niche, your passion? Maybe Fotolog would be a good choice if you’re trying to reach photographers in Europe or South America. If you don’t see a specialty community, that’s okay – don’t panic! The general ones work just fine for most people, because inside that large, general group of people are smaller, more focused groups – and there’s likely a group of people looking for what you have to offer.

Let’s start with the big kid on the block: Facebook.

Facebook, as you likely know, began as a college application in order for people to connect at the Harvard campus. It’s success was amazing, even in its simplest form, so it’s creators quickly expanded it to dozens of universities with the same success. It eventually reached the mainstream and from those humble beginnings now engages a community of over 1 billion people. How the company grew, and a bit of the dark side of its rapid growth can be seen in the popular movie, “The Social Network”.

Facebook offers a unique opportunity for Internet Marketers. It allows us to present both a personal side and a business side to our community. In my opinion this is critical to show your audience that you are a real person. Remember, people like to do business with people they have a relationship with. So, if you can build a business relationship while interjecting a bit of your own personality, it’s a win – win situation. Your customer wins because they believe they can see the “real” you. You win because as your customer gets to know you the relationship strengthens, and their likelihood of purchasing your product goes up exponentially.

We’re getting a bit long on this newsletter - Next week we’ll begin our discussion in detail about how to use Facebook to strengthen our ties to our community. We will cover both the use of our personal profile to engage others and Fan Page, or business page, to engage our specific community. Don’t worry if you’re new to Facebook – I’ll keep it simple and give you a bit of guidance along the way.

Don’t hesitate to send me an e-mail or leave a comment below if I can help you with anything! I appreciate both questions and comments, and I can adjust my direction to be most helpful to you in the future.

Until next week...

Greg