What is Digital Engagement?

One of the most effective ways to define something is to both define what it is and what it is not.  This is a common exercise to set expectations, understand the scope, and simply manage the direction you’re heading.  Digital Engagement is no different… it’s good to know what it is and what it isn’t.  So let’s take some time to map out our two lists. 

DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT IS

• Drive to Relationship - it should always be moving people from technology to personal relationships (much more on this in other posts).  

• Uniquely Personal - it should be unique to each person and tailored to who they are as a person.

• Grassroots - is should have the ability and grow from the bottom up (or democratized) so the community can own, shape, and grow organically.

• Guided Process - the overall experience should be guided and constructed by you to guide people well.

• Measurable Activity - it should give you the ability to measure how people are engaging, where things are falling off the map, and unique insights into your audience.

• Known & Intentional Next Steps - it should constantly be showing people their best next step and the easy ability to reach that.  

• Multi-Directional - it should include what you push out to your audience, means to respond back to you, and means to engage one another in the community. 

DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT IS NOT

• Simply Social Media - it’s not simply leveraging social media platform to be present and reach people.  

• Simply Pushing Content - it’s not just pushing out content (social media plus other means) to your audience.

• One Directional - it’s not just communication on directionally to your audience without abilities to receive feedback and connect with others.  

• Two Way Communications - it’s not just speaking to you audience and them speaking back with you… it must include them speaking with each other.  

• Purely Online - it’s not all online and in a digital format.

You’re probably seeing a trend here in what Digital Engagement is and is not.  In some ways, Digital Engagement is a tough strategy because ultimately we believe that the goal shouldn’t be digital at all.  We believe that life is all about relationships and the digital resources in life should be bettered our relationships.  

I heard a story once of a man who had over 700 friends on Facebook.  One day he decided to invite all of them to a party and to connect in person.  He set up an event and invited everyone… all 700.  A few registered to meet up at the park that day, but not as many as he had hoped.  When the day came, he sat on a bench waiting for people… not a soul showed up.  How do we begin to live in a world where we have “700 friends” yet not a single one of them shows up in person.  That’s why a clear definition of Digital Engagement is so important and how you as a leader should be helping people build a nurture true relationships.  

Cause Machine Solutions

The entire Cause Machine platform is designed around the principles expressed in this article.  The Cause Machine’s goal is to equip community leaders with great tools to connect with their audience and connect their audience with each other.  The greater goal for us at Cause Machine is to see your members making amazing personal connections because of the tools of the platform and your great engagement.  Schedule a demo today!

First, let’s quickly define these two words…

Nurture: taking care of someone

Leads: New people exploring what you have to offer

My goal here is to unpack how you can better engage your leads and walk with them to see greater engagement in your community.  This all starts with an attitude, a perspective, and an approach.  And it all comes back to being a guide.  The most significant way you can nurture people in your community is to serve them well as their guide. When you think of parental nurturing you think of someone taking care of a child for many years, showing them the way, and helping them mature into adulthood.  That’s exactly what you’re doing here - guiding people, walking with them, and helping them mature to where they can be guiding others.  

But let’s talk specifically about lead nurturing.  First, you need to have mechanisms to attract and capture leads.  Leads can come in many different forms - let’s unpack a few.  There are SO MANY ideas for lead generation so be creative and come up with your own unique idea.  

• eBook - a free short book that captures the attention of someone exploring what you have to offer (just make certain it actually provides value)

• Courses - similar to an ebook… make that content available in a free short e-course for someone to subscribe to. 

• Worksheets - create simple worksheets that help make workflow and life easier on your potential audience.

• Host a Webinar - host events that provide meaningful content and coaching for free as a means to generate interest.  

• Free Trials - offer a free trial to something to give someone a chance to come in and “kick the tires”.

• Discounts - offer discounts to one of your events or one of your resources to generate engagement.  

• Refer a Friend - ask people in your community to refer someone else who might fit well in your collective vision.

• Live Chat - offer live chat or a live chatbot that would capture someone’s email address to engage in the chat.

• Schedule a Meeting - leverage tools like Calendly to have the means to schedule a meeting with you

• Solve Problems - this is more philosophical, but focus your lead generators on solving the problems of your potential audience.  

Now that you have a lead generator or two created, let’s talk about what to do with those leads and focus on the nurturing part.  Here are some general rules of engagement.

• Stay Value Focused - it might feel like it’s the time to pounce and “close the deal” but they are still checking you out.  Stay focused on the lead generator’s value, the problem it’s trying to solve for them, and additional thoughts on its content.  

• Automate - when possible… automate.  Leverage tools like MailChimp, HubSpot, or ActiveCampaign to spin up an email drip campaign to kick out a series of emails (4-6 is reasonable).  

• Text + Video - remember everyone is wired differently so consider leveraging both text and video when you create email drip campaigns.

• Make it Personal - while you are leveraging automations, also do what’s possible to make it personal. 

• Next Step - always have something that’s guiding the person to what their next step might be… a Lead Generator is just a step in the process so don’t miss the clarity on where you’re taking people next.   

Don’t overthink all of this.  It’s enough work simply to put together your plan.  Here’s a quick checklist when getting started.

• Brainstorm Ideas

• Create a Lead Generator

• Make the Lead Generator look nice and branded

• Setup the Lead Generator

• Create a Drip Campaign

• Turn it all ON

• Tweak as needed

Cause Machine Solutions

Nurturing members is part of our DNA at Cause Machine.  We believe each community has a responsibility to carefully guide their members to a better state and that often begins with how you nurture leads.  Cause Machine has various “trigger” tools to help nurture new leads in your community so you can have the technology working for you.  Explore more ways how Cause Machine can help you nurture your leads.  Schedule a demo today!

So first off… what’s a digital funnel?  Basically, it’s the same concept of a marketing funnel just focusing on the context of digital resources.  This is how you are leveraging digital resources to guide people into a specific experience or towards a certain goal.  

And yes… you need a digital funnel!  Digital funnels take time to map out and configure but these can work very hard for you as you engage more members and potential members.  Let’s spend some time talking about pieces of your digital funnel and then explore how to order these in a sequence that’s beneficial.  

Goal #1 - Give more people exposure to you and the great things you are doing.

Goal #2 - Guide people into a deeper relationship with your community.

DIGITAL FUNNEL POTENTIAL COMPONENTS

• Social Media - being present in the world of social media for people to learn about you and make some first steps of connections.  

• Paid Social Advertising - similar to general social media but this ads the dynamic of paying for ads so more people have visibility on your community.

• Website - your online storefront to help people get to know you and what you have to offer - a simple place to cast your vision.

• Lead Generators - key assets that people can explore, download, and get to know you better as they explore your unique value proposition.

• Calendaring Tools - means for people to schedule a time to meet with you and learn more about what you have to offer.  

• Webinars and Videos - events or evergreen content available for people to gain a better understanding of you and your community.  

• Drip Email Campaigns - automations that help guide new people into a better experience with you by slowly “dripping” them content and value.  

Remember the most basic map for how you are guiding people: Public > Free > Paid.  This is your most basic funnel or pathway and digital assets are designed to help facilitate that at every step.  Digital tools help move this process forward and automate certain stages.  Of course, our end goal is always to bring people into relationships and personal connections with each other but these digital tools help us archive a greater scale of meaningful connections.  

BUILDING YOUR DIGITAL FUNNEL

• Assessment - assess what you currently have and what you need

• Brainstorm - dream about what you could potentially do

• Research - explore the tools that can help you make this happen

• Recruit - find the right people to help make things happen

• Create - build your content and digital resources

• Configure - get things set up on the various tools

• Launch - press the “on” button and let things start working

• Review - track what’s happening, working, or not

• Adjust - refine your process as you learn about what’s working or not

You will be amazed at how well these simple ideas and steps will work for you.  The most difficult part is the discipline and time to get these created… but you’ll be thankful once it’s all done.  And don’t forget to have fun while you build all of this!

Cause Machine Solutions

Cause Machine can be a critical part of your digital funnel - both in early introductions to new people and the place to hang out once they join your community.  Cause Machine has tools to help you build your website, create and host lead generators, customize sales landing pages, automate email sequences, welcome people well into a new community, and more.  Schedule a demo today!

I wanted to take a moment to highlight some of our ebooks here in a blog post to make sure you’re aware of some great resources we’ve created.  One thing we’ve learned over the years is that engaging a community well is equally about your strategy as it is about your technology platform.  Don’t believe the myth that it’s all about having the right technology.  Remember the movie Field of Dreams and the “build it and they will come” line.  Well… it doesn’t work like that.  That’s why we work diligently to create resources to better equip you to build an excellent strategy.  Here are just a few of these resources.  

How to Take Your Community Digital

This ebook walks you through a step-by-step process to think out and transform your community into a digital community and leverage key resources to make that happen.  This is a great resource for initially considering how to move and expand a purely physical community into the physical + digital space.  Explore Cause Machine eBooks

How to Monetize Your Community

This ebook helps map out many ways that you can monetize your community - through means like memberships, events, products, courses, donations, and more.  This resource is helpful to dig into your revenue and business model for sustainable growth.  You’ll find many creative ideas and actionable strategies.  Explore Cause Machine eBooks

Running a Great Virtual Event

COVID brought on an acceleration of virtual events that in many ways are here to stay.  And while we believe all digital should be driving to in-person connections, there’s a strategic place for virtual events.  But virtual events do take a lot of planning and management.  This resource dives deep into how to build your virtual event strategy and how to bring that to life with detailed processes, checklists, and more.  Explore Cause Machine eBooks

Transforming Events into Movements

Many times events are the epicenter for a community to connect - and those events are such a great opportunity to keep people engaged long after the event.  That also takes a strategy and intentionality.  This resource helps you build a map to leverage your events and turn them into catalysts for your community.  Explore Cause Machine eBooks

All of these resources are FREE and can help you no matter where you decide to build your online community.  Our desire is to see you do that well and engage your community well.  

Explore Cause Machine eBooks

Want a Coach?  Explore Cause Machine Community Coaching

Cause Machine Solutions

One of the most significant pieces of what sets Cause Machine apart from other technology platforms is where we start… with a community engagement strategy.  We begin all of our work on the foundation of engaging a community well and then begin mapping out the technology to help support that strategy.  We’re certain that you’ll find some great resources and powerful tools in Cause Machine to better engage your community as well.   Schedule a demo today!

Ah, the great question of when, where, and how… or even why to use technology.  So obviously, we’re a technology company but I hope you can hear us loud and clear… the greatest desire in our technology is that it moves people AWAY from the community and INTO relationships with other people.  We really do believe that technology is a means to strengthen your community, it’s not the end goal.  So let’s tackle these one at a time.

Why should we leverage technology in our community?  For Scalability

The most significant reason is to allow technology to allow you to scale and grow your reach, impact, community, and engagement.  It’s a tool and when used properly, it can help accelerate the work you’re doing.  You know on Mario Kart where your car drives over those arrows on the group and it propels your vehicles faster ahead?  Well, that’s the picture you should have for what technology does for you.  

How should you leverage technology?  For Better Member Experience

There are so many ways to leverage technology but where I want to focus our attention is to challenge you to leverage technology in the space where it betters the experience for your community member.  There are all kinds of backend systems you could leverage and those are the ones your business will lean to adopt.  But your leadership must guide the ship to find tools that better the overall experience for your members. 

When should you leverage technology?  When You Have a Plan

There’s no great answer to this question other than “when the time is right” but here are some thoughts.  If you go too early then might tackle more than you can chew.  If you go too late then it’s difficult to infuse.  So I recommend that you have some beta testing done already with your community via Facebook groups, Google docs, events, discussions, etc. and most often, one of two things are going to happen.  First, you’re going to feel the pain of needing to be on a platform or second, you’re going to crest a critical mass of people (usually around 200) where you want to better organize their experience.  

The most important thing though is to have a plan.  Technology is designed to serve your strategy so be sure to have your strategy is place so the technology can serve you.  If you jump too quickly into technology without a plan, you are most certainly going to get frustrated.  Technology solves nothing without your plan… then it can be amazing.  

Where should you leverage technology?  Holistic Member Experience

The best way to answer this question is everywhere… well, everywhere that creates a great member experience.  Consider how all a community wants to engage - they want to attend events, have discussions, view resources, be educated, and make connections.  Dream for a moment on what makes your community a success and then explore how technology can bring that all to life in a more dynamic or scalable manner.  

Cause Machine Solutions

Cause Machine is packed full of tools to help you scale your community - tools like event management, member directories, organization directories, job boards, groups, discussion boards, e-courses, and stories.  The entire system is designed to help you maximize your community engagement strategy.  Plus we have countless resources to better educate and equip you to lead your community well.  Schedule a demo today!