By John McGory
This blog loves history. It also loves the Internet and social media. Put them together and you realize that when old meets new, powerful friends can be created.
Today’s history lesson starts with The Impressions, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame soul band out of Chicago via Chattanooga, Tennessee. Curtis Mayfield and Jerry Butler led the group to a string of 1960s and 1970s hits.
The civil rights movement used many of their songs as anthems. The songs often encouraged community engagement. Community engagement promotes trust building and arm linking, while raising awareness and visibility.
The band’s 1969 hit, “A Choice of Colors,” http://youtu.be/Zr0SLv9WFr4 captured in a powerful way the importance of improving as a nation through community engagement. One of the inspiring stanzas in the song was:
People must prove to the people
A better day is coming for you and for me
With just a little more education
And love for our nation
Would make a better society
The Impressions call for community engagement was not a new one. In the late 1800s, English common law advanced the concept of community engagement. It was used as a way to actively implement change.
Fast-forward to today and it’s clear that social media and the Internet are the contemporary active agents of change. So, is not surprising that one of the mantras of social media is to build community through engaging others in conversation.
The emphasis in community engagement is to build honest relationships for the sake of community, not for the sole purpose of moneymaking. That is what is now termed “content marketing” in social media circles.
If your company or organization is active on the Internet, then you need a community engagement plan. Here is an eight-step program for such a strategy:
1. Determine the goals of the plan
2. Decide on whom to engage
3. Develop engagement strategies for those you already know
4. Develop engagement strategies for those you do not know
5. Prioritize those activities
6. Create an implementation system
7. Monitor your progress
8. Maintain those relationships
This simple plan for community engagement works whether you are selling lawn mowers or improved community relations. The purpose is to build trust and understanding through conversation. The Internet simply allows you to expand to a wider community outside of your neighborhood.
You build a community when “people prove to the people a better day is coming for you and for me.” If your fans don’t think a better day is coming, then why would they want to be in your community?
Social media and the Internet reach more people than Curtis Mayfield could have ever dreamed of when he wrote “A Choice of Colors.” But the words of the song are more appropriate than ever. Community engagement is a 120-year-old concept on how people change. Social media is its new powerful friend.
John McGory is a partner at Webface, a content marketing company www.web-face-solutions.com. Let Webface help you engage your community and give your fans the hope that a better day is coming.
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